Lemon Berliner Weisse Recipe

Berliner weisse is the only beer style that is rarely served without augmentation in the glass. In Germany it is considered strange to drink it without a dose of sugary neon-colored syrup. I love to drink it straight, but its mild wheaty flavor and bright lactic acidity make a wonderful backdrop for bold fruit (as so many breweries in Florida have discovered)! Without raspberry, woodruff, or passionfruit Berliner weisse is usually compared to lemonade, so why not add actual lemons?

The wort for this batch was second runnings from a saison flavored with wine and hops both from New Zealand. Despite that, the brewing process was pretty much my standard for a Berliner weisse, mashed with a hopped decoction, with wort subsequently heated nearly to a boil to sanitize, but not actually boiled.

I’ve been disappointed by the acidity imparted by commercial Lactobacillus in previous batches. Luckily both Wyeast and White Labs recently released more aggressive Lactobacillus brevis cultures. At a pH above 4.5 an enzyme produced by Lactobacillus denatures the proteins responsible for head retention. To combat this, I added refined lactic acid to lower the pH of the wort prior to fermentation. I’m looking for a finished pH below 3.5, so the refined lactic acid will represent less than 10% of the total acidity.

A big starter of Wyeast L. brevis ensured a quick start to fermentation. This is important because Lacto needs carbohydrates to produce lactic acid. I pitched US-05 without rehydration after I saw some good activity from the Lacto. I didn’t want to risk waiting too long because a low pH can disrupt the ale yeast's fermentation. That night I drank a bottle of Boulevard's Saison Brett (generously sent by James Spencer) and added the dregs from it to the fermentor as well.

After two months, with fermentation finished as indicated by a stable gravity of 1.002, I added strips of zest harvested from three lemons with a vegetable peeler. My goal was to impart a brightness to the aroma, without turning the beer into furniture polish (24 hours seemed to be plenty of time). For many previous citrus-peel infused batches I've turned to a Microplane grater. Last summer while I was working at Modern Times I was amazed by how much citrus aroma we achieved in a "Five-Alive" version of Fortunate Islands using a vegetable peeler (maybe because it gets a bit deeper into the skin?). I still try to leave most of the bitter white pith behind, but invariably a small amount is taken with the colorful zest.

For half of that batch that was all the lemon it received. Once I was left with two gallons in the bottling bucket I pulled a sample for a quick taste test. I decided to reinforce the remainder with 25 g of True Lemon (ingredients: citric acid, lemon oil, lemon juice, vitamin C, and maltodextrin). I've been experimenting with adding it to beers by the glass for a few months (along with the Lime and Grapefruit variants). They are very easy to overdo, but in the right combination they are actually pretty convincing.

Lemliner Weisse

Recipe Specifics
--------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 16.50
Anticipated OG: 1.030
Anticipated SRM: 2.4
Anticipated IBU: 2.3
Brewhouse Efficiency: 77% (with parti-gyle)
Wort Boil Time: 0 Minutes

Grain
-------
66.7% - 11.00 lbs. Rahr Pilsener
33.3% - 5.50 lbs. Wheat Malt

Hops
------
1.38 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 2.70% AA) Mash Hop

Extras
--------
Zest from 3 Lemons in Fermentor

Yeast
-------
Wyeast L5223-PC Lactobacillus brevis
Safale US-05 American Ale Yeast
Boulevard Saison Brett Dregs

Water Profile
-----------------
Profile: Washington, DC

Mash Schedule
-----------------
Sacch Rest - 90 min @ 148F
Sacch Rest #2 - 15 min @ 155F (Decoction)

Notes
-------
7/26/14 Made a 1L starter (50 g DME, nutrient, chilled to 112F, put on stirplate on low) with Wyeast L. brevis (two weeks from manufacture). Strong activity by the next morning, already a bit tart.

Brewed 7/27/14

Added 3 g of CaCl and 1 tsp of 10% phosphoric acid to the mash (along with a couple handfuls of rice hulls. Decoction didn't raise the temperature as much as I expected. Same treatment for the 170 F sparge water.

Partigyle batch sparge.

Swapped wort back and forth to achieve 7.25 gallons @ 1.052, and 5.5 gallons at 1.034.

Lemon Berliner - Brought just to a boil, added yeast nutrient, chilled to 85F, added 7.5 g of 88% lactic acid (aiming for 4.5 pH), pitched Lacto, left at 65F to ferment. OG 1.030. L. brevis and Saison Brett dregs for the first 24 hours - activity by 12 hours, then US-05 (11 g, not rehydrated) (down to 1.024 already).

Sitting at ~75F ambient after two-three days to ensure complete fermentation.

9/27/14 Down to 1.002, added strips of zest from three lemons (still in primary fermentor).

9/28/14 Bottled 4.75 gallons with 5 5/8 oz of tablet sugar. After more than half was in bottles, added 25 g of True Lemon to the remaining 2.1 gallons

9/17/15 Tasting notes for both versions. The zest alone was far and away my preference. The True Lemon gave a Country Time Lemonade flavor that dominated.

Membrillo (Quince Paste) Saison

Quince is a close relative of apples and pears. All three are in the Rosaceae family, but unlike the other two quince are almost never eaten raw. If you cook quince down with sugar the result is membrillo, a thick, floral, jelly. Dulce de membrillo is actually the correct term (membrillo is just the Spanish word for quince). This paste is traditionally served with cheese (often Manchego), and as a result can be purchased from many well-stocked cheese counters.

The only quince beer I can recall drinking is Jackie O's Quincedence (a tart, wine-barrel-aged, smoky wee heavy served as the base). In that beer the quince was a bit lost in all of the other flavors. Apples, pears, and quince all have relatively subtle flavors, so concentrating them or using a condensed form can be a good option.

I originally planned to add rhubarb to the fifth annual incarnation of the dark-ish sour-ish saison that Alex and I brew each fall, but when a sample revealed that batch was sour enough already, I audibled to 20 oz of membrillo. The rhubarb found a better partner in an under-soured Berliner weisse.

Saison de Membrillo

Appearance – Orange-red (cinnamon?). Not quite clear, a bit of that countryside. Pectinase likely would be needed if a clear beer was the goal. The buff head leaves sticky crescents of lacing behind as it gradually recedes.

Smell – Subdued aromatics. Hints of apple, well quince, but I’d forgive you if you didn’t know what one smelled like. Pear-like and floral, but with some distinct apple-sauce notes as well. Light clove-spice, and a hint of caramel malt as it warms. Certainly seems seasonally appropriate. Minimal Brett funk.

Taste – Pleasant, almost refreshing tartness. The acidity melds beautifully with the general pomme fruitiness. Less distinctly membrillo compared to when it was freshly bottled. Marginal saison character remains after the microbes and fruit, but the finish is long, dry, and spicy. Beautiful!

Mouthfeel – Crisp, but it could be crisper. Medium carbonation, and it could be punchier. I didn't want this beer to be Saison-Dupont-dry/sparkling, but the goal was saison!

Drinkability & Notes – I really enjoy this weird beer. It doesn’t exhibit the layers of complex Brett aromatics I hoped for from the ECY Bugfarm and bottle dregs, but it is nicely balanced with plenty of appealing flavors. For my first time tasting a beer brewed with membrillo, I think 20 oz in five gallons provided enough to taste, but not enough to dominate. Drinking this is getting me in the mood to brew dark/funky saison #7 sometime in the next couple months and add cranberries to dark/funky saison #6!

Flemish Red with Red Wine Yeast: Tasting Notes

Yet another advantage of being a homebrewer, no worries if a batch of sour beer necessitates a year (or two) more aging than expected! When I brewed this red-wine-yeast-fermented Flemish Red (in June, 2011) I made the mistake of pitching BM45, a “killer” red wine strain, alongside East Coast Yeast’s Flemish Ale blend. The brewer’s yeast in the blend is susceptible to the wine yeast’s toxin, and the resulting autolysis was the most likely source of a lingering yeasty-rubbery flavor. Luckily the Brett eventually cleaned up the flavor and saved the batch!

Flemish, Red Wine Yeast

Appearance – Remarkably good head formation and retention for an aged-out sour beer. Deep Burgundy when held to the light. It is darker than many traditional Flemish Reds, more in line with Oud Bruins if not for the crimson hue. Time cleared it beautifully, which helps it appear darker as well.

Smell – Red-berry fruitiness, and some darker notes more reminiscent of dried cherries and plums. Possesses a stronger vinous character than a standard Flemish Red, i.e., one not aged in a fresh red wine barrel. Ephemeral perfume from the elevated alcohol and age, especially during the first few minutes. Otherwise no negative signs of oxidation.

Taste – The cherries from the nose are back in the flavor, pleasantly jammy. Leathery, almond, sherry, and mild milk chocolate. The sourness permeates the flavor, but isn’t heavy handed; it is lactic throughout not showing any acetic "burn." The autolytic flavors this beer battled for a couple years are thankfully gone. There is some warming alcohol, but the microbes mostly conceal it as they often do.

Mouthfeel – Medium-thin body considering the 7.4% ABV and 1.012 FG, but the acidity helps to boost the mouthfeel. Moderate carbonation, which is about right for a strong/malty sour beer. Considerably more and it would become spritzy.

Drinkability & Notes – One of those beers that I might have drank too young... before I had a thousand bottles of homebrewed sour beer piled up in the basement. There are few feelings worse than having the last bottle of a batch be the best one and that could have been the case here. Next time I try a wine yeast primary fermentation, I’ll pitch a blend of souring microbes that doesn’t include Saccharomyces!

Phenols and Brett - The Fruity and The Funky

The science underpinning brewing can be a fascinating subject. However, rather than focusing on practical applications, academic brewing experiments are often stripped down (e.g., an isolated enzyme applied to a specific substrate molecule). This can yield interesting results and demonstrate specific cause and effect relationships, but may not provide a definitive answer on what occurs in real-brewery conditions. While lacking the process control and analytic tools of a laboratory, homebrewers have managed to produce some very interesting experiments (e.g., Brulosophy, BBR&BYO).

One of the topics covered during my NHC presentation, and the accompanying Zymurgy article, was the effect of phenols in the wort on funky-phenolics produced by Brett. I haven't seen or read evidence that "stress" or additional sugars cause Brett to produce more of its signature funky character. Additional fermentation of wort sugars results in more esters, which explains why 100% Brett beers tend to be fruitier compared to funkier mixed-fermentations. When I was asked to give a presentation at the Mid-Atlantic MBAA meeting November 7th, I decided to brew an experiment to serve to confirm(?) that phenols in the base beer are one difference (along with strain selection and pressure).

I brewed two nearly-identical worts with the same malts, and saccharification rest temperatures. The two deviations I made were starting one of the mashes with a ferulic acid rest (15 minutes at 113F) and changing from phosphoric to lactic acid for pH adjustment. The addition of lactic acid will allow the production of fruity ethyl lactate. There has been debate over the effectiveness of the ferulic acid rest, a traditional start to a hefeweizen mash, but in Brewing with Wheat Stan cites a study that found adding a rest for 10-15 minutes doubles the perception of clove (4 vinyl-guaiacol) in the finished hefeweizen. This would only be the case when fermentation is carried out by a brewer's yeast that is capable of this conversion (aka POF+). So I pitched the high-ferulic-acid wort with Belgian Ale (WLP550). To really highlight the difference, I fermented the single-infusion wort with English Ale (WLP002) to minimize phenol production.

Tasting both batches after primary fermentation revealed the pre-conditions of the test had been met; the batch fermented with Belgian yeast smelled distinctly of cloves, while the English ale lacked any spice. Surprisingly the two batches hit the same pre-Brett final gravity as well. Into each batch I pitched half of a starter of Brettanomyces bruxellensis (WLP650). Now I'm waiting for the science to happen, the conversion of 4VG to funky 4 ethyl-guiacol by the Brett!

Tasting notes for both batches at 4 months. 

Post-script (4/13/2015): I sat down to do an updated tasting, only to find that the beers hadn't changed much. The Funky beer still was more Belgian-y than funky, and the fruity beer was still more clove-y than anything else. They'd rounded out, but the changes were subtle enough that they didn't warrant writing up full tasting notes again.

Influence of the Mash (Fruity)

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.00
Anticipated OG: 1.055
Anticipated SRM: 3.7
Anticipated IBU: 37.4
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain
-------
 90.9% - 10.00 lbs. American Pale Malt
 9.1% - 1.00 lbs. Flaked Soft White Wheat     

Hops
------
1.00 oz. Horizon (Pellet, 10.50% AA) @ 45 min.

Extras
-------
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.

Yeast
------
White Labs WLP002 English Ale

Water Profile
----------------
Profile: Washington, DC

Mash Schedule
-----------------
Sacch Rest - 75 min @ 148F  

Notes
-------
Brewed 7/6/14 by myself

Add 1/4 tsp of 88% lactic acid to mash along with 2 g of CaCl.

Acidified batch sparge with 1/4 tsp of lactic acid.

Chilled to 85F, racked leave most of the break behind. Left at 65F to chill before pitching. Slow, smooth fermentation.

7/20/14 Down to 1.012. Racked to secondary with 200 ml of Brett brux (WLP650). Left at 65 F to ferment.

9/28/14 Kegged with 3.25 oz of table sugar. Purged head space, left at ambient temp to carbonate for about a month. 

Influence of the Mash (Funky)

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.00
Anticipated OG: 1.055
Anticipated SRM: 3.7
Anticipated IBU: 37.4
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain
-------
 90.9% - 10.00 lbs. American Pale Malt
 9.1% - 1.00 lbs. Flaked Soft White Wheat     

Hops
------
1.00 oz. Horizon (Pellet, 10.50% AA) @ 45 min.

Extras
-------
0.50 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.

Yeast
------
White Labs WLP550 Belgian Ale

Water Profile
----------------
Profile: Washington, DC

Mash Schedule
-----------------
Ferulic Acid - 15 min @ 113F   
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ 148F

Notes
-------
Brewed 7/6/14 by myself

No water adjustments for ferulic acid rest (works better at slightly elevated pH).

Added 3/4 tsp of 10% phosphoric acid and 2 g of CaCl to the mash at start of saccharification.

Added 3/4 tsp of 10% phosphoric acid to batch sparge water.

Collected 6.75 gallons of 1.042 runnings.

Chilled to 80 F. Racked to a carboy, leave much of the trub behind. Left at 65F to chill before pitching yeast. Explosive fermentation within a day.

7/20/14 racked to secondary with 200 ml of active Brett B (White Labs) starter. Down to 1.012. Left at 65F to ferment.

9/28/14 Kegged with 3.25 oz of table sugar. Purged head space, left at ambient temp to carbonate for about a month.