Berliner Weisse (, ; "Berlin White") is a cloudy,

sour ale Sour beer is beer which has an intentionally acidic, tart, or sour taste. Sour beer styles include Belgian lambics and Flanders red ale and German Gose and Berliner Weisse. Brewing Unlike modern brewing, which is done in a sanitary environment to ...

of around 3.5%

alcohol by volume Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as alc/vol or ABV) is a common measure of the amount of Alcohol (drug), alcohol contained in a given alcoholic beverage. It is defined as the volume the ethanol in the liquid would take if separated from the rest ...

. It is a regional variation of the

wheat beer Wheat beer is a top-fermented beer which is brewed with a large proportion of wheat relative to the amount of malted barley. The two main varieties are German and Belgian ; other types include Lambic (made with wild yeast), Berliner Weisse (a c ...

style from Northern Germany, dating back to at least the 16th century. It can be made from combinations of

malt Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...

ed barley and wheat, with the stipulation that the malts are kilned at very low temperatures or even air-dried to minimise colour formation. The

fermentation Fermentation is a type of anaerobic metabolism which harnesses the redox potential of the reactants to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and organic end products. Organic molecules, such as glucose or other sugars, are catabolized and reduce ...

takes place with a mixture of yeast (''

Saccharomyces cerevisiae ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' () (brewer's yeast or baker's yeast) is a species of yeast (single-celled fungal microorganisms). The species has been instrumental in winemaking, baking, and brewing since ancient times. It is believed to have be ...

'' and ''

Brettanomyces ''Brettanomyces'' is a non-spore forming genus of yeast in the family Saccharomycetaceae, and is often colloquially referred to as "Brett". The genus name ''Dekkera'' is used interchangeably with ''Brettanomyces'', as it describes the teleomor ...

'') and

lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillales are an order of gram-positive, low-GC, acid-tolerant, generally nonsporulating, nonrespiring, either rod-shaped (bacilli) or spherical ( cocci) bacteria that share common metabolic and physiological characteristics. These bact ...

, a prerequisite that creates the lactic acid taste, a distinguishing feature of Berliner Weisse.Annemüller, Gerolf. ''Die Berliner Weisse: ein Stück Berliner Geschichte''. VLB Berlin, 2008. By the late 19th century, Berliner Weisse was the most popular alcoholic drink in Berlin, with up to fifty breweries producing it. By the late 20th century, there were only two breweries left in Berlin producing the beer.

History

Most beer authorities trace the origins of Berliner Weisse to an unknown beer being produced in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

which was copied and developed by the 16th century brewer .''The world guide to beer'',

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

, Mitchell Beazley, 1977, page 56 - "Berliner Weisse", Broihan's beer, ''Halberstädter Broihan'', became very popular, and a version was being brewed in Berlin by the Berlin doctor J. S. Elsholz in the 1640s. An alternative possibility, given by Protz among others, is that migrating

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

developed the beer from the local red and brown ales as they moved through

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

into Northern Germany.Classic Bottled beers of the World'',

Roger Protz Roger Protz (born 5 February 1939) is a British writer, journalist and campaigner. He joined the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in 1976 and has written several books on beer and pubs. Between 1978 and 1983 and from 2000 to 2018 he was the editor ...

, Prion Books, 1997, "Berlin Wheat beer" - pages 81 and 82, Some sources, such as Dornbusch, give the date 1572 as being the earliest record of the beer being brewed in Berlin. Frederick Wilhelm encouraged the spread of the beer through

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

, declaring it as "best for our climate", and having his son,

Frederick the Great Frederick II (; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled ''King in Prussia'', declaring himself ''King of Prussia'' after annexing Royal Prussia ...

, trained to brew it. A popular story is that

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

's troops dubbed it "The Champagne of the North" in 1809. A typical modern strength for Berliner Weisse is around 3%

abv Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as alc/vol or ABV) is a common measure of the amount of alcohol contained in a given alcoholic beverage. It is defined as the volume the ethanol in the liquid would take if separated from the rest of the solution, ...

, though strength may have varied at times. Traditionally, beers brewed in March (

Märzen ''Märzen'' () or ''Märzenbier'' () is a lager that originated in Bavaria, Germany. It has a medium to full body and may vary in colour from pale through amber to dark brown. It was the beer traditionally served at the Munich Oktoberfest. The g ...

beers) were brewed stronger and allowed to mature over the summer months, and there is a report that this may have also happened with Berliner Weisse — the bottles being buried in sand or warm earth.

Brewing

Modern brewing methods use a low proportion of wheat, generally ranging from 25% to 50%, and deliberately create a sourness either by a secondary fermentation in the bottle (Jackson suggests that traditionally bottles were buried in warm earth for several months), or by adding ''

Lactobacillus ''Lactobacillus'' is a genus of gram-positive, aerotolerant anaerobes or microaerophilic, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacteria. Until 2020, the genus ''Lactobacillus'' comprised over 260 phylogenetically, ecologically, and metabolically div ...

''. Records from the early 19th century indicate that the beer was brewed from five parts wheat to one part barley, and drunk young, with little indication of creating sourness with either a secondary fermentation or by adding ''Lactobacillus''.

Brands

At the height of Berliner Weisse production in the 19th century, it was the most popular alcoholic drink in Berlin, and 700 breweries produced it. By the end of the 20th century there were only two breweries left in Berlin, and a handful in the rest of Germany. The two Berlin breweries, Berliner Kindl and Schultheiss, are both now owned by the Oetker Group and one of the few brands still produced in Berlin is ''Berliner Kindl Weisse''.

Serving

Berliner Weisse is often served in a bowl-shaped glass with flavoured syrups,''The World Guide to Beer'',

, Mitchell Beazley, such as

raspberry The raspberry is the edible fruit of several plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the Rosaceae, rose family, most of which are in the subgenus ''Rubus#Modern classification, Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Ras ...

(''Himbeersirup''), or artificial woodruff flavouring (''Waldmeistersirup''). Sour ales are often flavored with fruit juice (e.g. sour cherry, strawberry, raspberry, apricot, mango, pineapple, passion fruit, sea buckthorn, cantaloupe or kiwi). The beer may also be mixed with other drinks, such as

pale lager Pale lager is a pale-to- golden lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. In the mid-19th century, Gabriel Sedlmayr took British pale ale brewing and malt making techniques back to the Spaten Bre ...

, in order to balance the sourness.

References

Bibliography

*''The World Guide to Beer'', Michael Jackson, Mitchell Beazley, 1977, page 56 - "Berlner Weisse", * ''Die Biere Deutschlands'', 1988, by Dietrich Höllhuber and Wolfgang Kaul, page 340,

External links

Berliner Weisse
germanbeerinstitute.com {{Authority control 16th-century establishments in the Holy Roman Empire German beer styles Beer brands of Germany North German cuisine Cuisine of Berlin Frederick William I of Prussia