One of the goals of Beer Sapiens is to create a community of beer consumers who enjoy learning about the world of craft beers. For them we want to give you the maximum information about them, but in an accessible, direct and fun way.
This month we wanted to give prominence to lsour beers because they are very summery: refreshing, slightly alcoholic and with a lot of flavor! It is not one of the most popular styles, but as we already told you here, they have a wild and funky touch that you will surely love.
Today we are going to continue talking about a subcategory of these beers, the Berliner Weisse, also known as the “white from Berlin” or “the champagne of the North”.
Wheat beer…. but not only
This style, as its name suggests, pcomes from the German capital, and is one of the most popular sour styles there. They are clear beers with an alcohol content of between 2.5% and 3.8%
It is a wheat beer, with a contribution of this cereal between 25% and 30%. The rest is usually pils malt. It is fermented with ale yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. This results in a very clean and marked acidity. Due to this marked acidity it is customary to drink them with a little raspberry or currant syrup (which is quite "abominable" from the purist beer perception) .
A bit of history
Beriner Weisse have completely different characteristics than traditional Bavarian beers. This is due to the type of fermentation, top and wild yeast, typical of the northern fringe and central Europe.
It seems that its origin dates back to the 16th century, reaching its maximum splendor at the end of the 19th century, where it was produced in more than 700 breweries in the Bavarian capital. But it is not entirely clear what its origins were, since there are two theories about them. On the one hand, its birth is attributed to the Huguenots, the name by which the Calvinist French Protestants were known during the wars of religion. It is thought that this population, which emigrated from France and Switzerland to the area of Berlin and Brandenburg, incorporated knowledge about the production of beer with lactobacillus and wheat malt on his way through Flanders, the cradle of Belgian lambics with which they are closely related.
The second hypothesis about its birth focuses on the brewmaster Cord Broihan, from the German city of Hannover. It is said that the Berliner Weisse was the result of trying to copy a very popular beer in Hamburg at the beginning from the 16th century, but changing to wheat as the main ingredient. Some sources suggest that the evolution of this drink, which became very popular, gave rise to the style we know today.
Curiosities about the Berliner Weisse
- The term “Weisse” actually means white and not wheat as many believe. It appears that this term was used in the past to distinguish pale wheat beer from its darker ("Dunkel") contemporaries.
- The first specific mention of the style was in 1592 by the Protestant pastor Johannes Coler. Half a century later, in 1642, the Berlin doctor J. S. Elsholz recorded the recipe for "Berlinische Weizenbier" (Berlin wheat beer) in a cookbook.
- In its time of greatest splendor, at the end of the s.XVI, it was produced in more than 700 breweries in the Bavarian capital and even Napoleon and his troops gave it the nickname "the champagne of the North" during the assault on Berlin in 1809
- Because of its acidity, at the beginning of the century it was very popular to drink it with strippe, a shot of caraway liqueur. Nowadays it is very common to take it with a sip of raspberry syrup (himbier), which gives it a characteristic red color, or woodruff (walmeister), an herb with a sweet vanilla flavor and aroma and a striking green hue.
- If you go to a German bar and ask for a “bowl of wheat beer” you will be served a Berliner Weisse with cherries, sugar and brandy
Here's a few facts that will make your friends gasp when you're trying out this style. Of course, you do not need to go to Germany to do it. In our store you can find Berliner Weisse, made by Spanish craft brewers, which you are going to love. Cheers!
Source: loopulo.com, delgranoalacopa.com
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