13 replies to this topic

[passlaku]

Just wondering what you guys think I should do with a BW that I have in primary now? Should I keg this or bottle it? I only have Grolsch style and regular bottles so I really can't get too high pressure in the bottles, right? What do you guys think?

[realbeerguy]

Keg

[siouxbrewer]

Here's an idea: keg it, but bottle a sixer so you can taste the sour progression over the next couple years.

[Jimmy James]

keg

[BrewerGeorge]

Keg for sure.

[strangebrewer]

I'm going to break rank and say bottle. Though I bottle all my sours.

[davelew]

Sour beers should ALWAYS be bottled, never kegged.You don't want the lacto contaminating the seals in your keg, and you want to let a sour beer age and to be able to observe how it ages. Unless you're going to dedicate a keg to this batch of Berliner Weisse for the next year or two, it should be bottled.

[Stuster]

Another vote to keg. Although I'd say it depends on how many kegs you have. If you only have a couple of taps, I wouldn't want to as I find that having a few glasses can be a bit harsh on the stomach. But I've kept a keg of BW on tap recently and found it a great first beer of the evening.

[passlaku]

I went ahead and bottled this one and primed with 5 oz of cane sugar. That was a big mistake. After hearing what I thought was a drive-by in my garage I went and checked the boxes of BW and found that I had bottle bombs. I carefully moved the rest of the bottles and put them in the fridge. While some of the Grolsch bottles did vent themselves, 3 of 12 didn't and popped their bottom's off. Adding that much cane sugar was a bad idea. I should have added 2 or 3 oz. I didn't realize that the lacto would eat up the dextrins that the yeast usually leave behind. It is a fun beer to drink after the gushers subsist I am currently enjoying several with Srirachi sauce and tortilla chips and the BW provides refreshing relief to my burning palate.Next time I brew this style, I will keg.

[jayb151]

That's funny because I made a sour beer about a year ago. It's been sitting in secondary since I added the lacto. I was also afraid of the funk creating bottle bombs.The beer I actually made was a stout, and now I don't know what to do with it! I'll most likely just throw it in some bottles and let it chill while I slowly consume it.

[DR0NE]

I've thought about brewing one of these but was worried about infections in my autosiphon, bottling bucket, etc. Is there a high probability of that happening? I've never had any issues and don't want to start having them just because I brewed this style once...

[ncbeerbrewer]

Attended my homebrew club meeting last night and there were a couple of Berlinner's brought to share. The question raised was keg of bottle. Bottle was the concensus as well. I have never brewed one personally but thats what the group conclusion came to as well.

[passlaku]

From what I understand, lacto is a pretty weak, easily sanitized bug. Nonetheless, I was chicken enough to label my bottling bucket as the new sour bucket as well as designate that fermentor (ale pale) as the sour primary. I use a stainless racking cane and ran star san through it, hopefully that'll take care of it. In the future, I'll bottle again but I definitely won't use more than 2 oz of priming sugar. I added way too much and probably bottled too soon (fg 1.017). I am thinking the lacto ate through the sugar and through the dextrins in the wort causing the bottle bombs.

[MolBasser]

If you have the choice, why even ask the question?Keg.MolBasser