Another way of brewing Berliner Weisse

Idly flicking through "Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 14", I stumbled across this little nugget about Berliner Weisse.

It's a radically different way of brewing Berliner Weisse.

"Important Question for Breweries which produce Acid Beers of the Type of Berlin " Weiss" Beer. 0. Francke (Wochensch. Brau., 1907, 24, 621—624).—" Weiss" beer is prepared by fermenting wort with yeast and lactic acid bacteria. It is a very difficult matter, however, to acclimatise a mixture of lactic acid bacteria and pure yeast in constant proportions. The author recommends a process (which has been employed for two years with very satisfactory results) in which the lactic acid and yeast fermentations are carried out separately. The wort, as it runs off from the spent grains, is subjected to the action of pure culture lactic acid bacteria until the required degree of acidity is attained. The wort is then boiled, cooled, and fermented with pure culture yeast. The beer thus prepared has a pleasant acid taste, and does not require the aid of certain non-slime forming pediococci (see this Journal, 1907, 13, 626—630) to impart a pleasant flavour to it. If a mature, vinous " Weiss " beer is required, it is only necessary to treat the lactic acid-containing wort with ordinary bacteria-containing " Weiss " beer yeast. The presence of the lactic acid protects the fermenting wort against the attack of dangerous pediococci, and the beer acquires a sound, vinous taste. The beer prepared by the first method (i.e., that in which the lactic acid fermentation is followed by a pure yeast fermentation) only requires a short period of storage before it is ready for consumption. For the lactic acidification, the author employs distillery culture lactic acid bacillus Delbrucki, and for the alcoholic fermentation, top-fermentation pure yeast, Race B (high attenuating)."
"Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 14", 1908, pages 196 - 197.

So, rather than going to the trouble of keeping the mixed yeast/lactic acid bacteria culture in balance, you ferment first with the bacteria, then with the yeast. It's the first mention I've seen of this method. I wonder if it was ever used much?

Lactic acid and acetic acid bacteria infections

Now here's something unusual. This isn't at all what I'd been looking for. I was hunting through a wartime Brewers' Journal, looking for good WW II stories - rationing, bomb damage, that sort of thing - and tripped over a piece on bacterial infections instead.

I would normally transcribe the text, but, you know what? I don't really feel like doing it. I'll soon be adjourning to the settee with DVDs of American Dad for the rest of the day. So here are scans instead.





Fascinating, isn't it, how the change in the nature of British beer changed the type of infection it was most vulnerable to. The source is the "Brewers' Jornal 1940" page 893.

Acid

Acid. In particular, acid in beer. It's another area where there's been a great deal of speculation and precious few facts. I'd like to add a few of the latter.

Many contemporary sources tell us of the tartness of Porter and other aged beers in the 19th century. But was this sourness caused by lactic or acetic acid? You may remember my posts last week based on "Food and its adulterations" (by Arthur Hill Hassall, published 1855). The author remarked upon the sourness of Porter and said that it came from lactic acid, the quantity of acetic acid present being negligible.

Here's confirmation of that from a slightly later date, around 1900. My source this time is "A hand-book of industrial organic chemistry adapted for the use of manufacturers, chemists, and all interested in the utilization of organic materials in the industrial arts" by Samuel Philip Sadtler, 1908, page 197. They don't give books snappy titles like that any more. Just as well.

In every case but one (Scotch export, bitter) the acetic acid content is far lower than the lactic acid content. As might have been expected, Dublin XXX Stout has the greatest lactic acid content.



To be fair, when these analyses were perfromed long ageing was out of fashion. I suspect that, had they been done half a century earlier, the level of acidity in the British beers would have been higher.