Whilst in Berlin the first German beer I tried was Berliner Weiss a beer that has long been on my list of beer styles to try. Coming from Australia where my only experience with the style was an effort by and AHB member called Seth in a xmas case. That example smelt and tasted like cheese, so i was a little unsure of what to expect. I went to the bar and ordered 'ein berliner weiss bitter', I was responded with 'rot or grun' to which I replied 'grun'. then the beer was delivered. My wife laughed as basically berliner weiss would be called a 'girly drink' anywhere else in the world. Basically its soured wheat beer with woodruff syrup, it bright green and comes in a milkshake tumbler with a straw!
"To be more technical Berliner Weisse is a top-fermented, bottle conditioned wheat beer made with both traditional warm-fermenting yeasts and lactobacillus culture. They have a rapidly vanishing head and a clear, pale golden straw-coloured appearance. The taste is refreshing, tart, sour and acidic, with a lemony-citric fruit sharpness and almost no hop bitterness. With food, they would make a good aperitif and might go well with cheeses and salads. Michael Jackson
[1] reckons they can be used in chilled fruit soups.
Berliner Weisse can be difficult to find in the UK, but both Berliner Kindl and Schultheiss Berliner Weisse are available from
Beers of Europe. Schultheiss Berliner Weisse is also available at the
Bhurtpore Inn, Cheshire.
Schultheiss originally had breweries in East and West Berlin (before the city was divided). The East Berlin brewery was taken under state ownership when a Stalinist regime was imposed after the Second World War. Michael Jackson compares the East and West versions of Schultheiss Berliner Weiss in his "Beer Companion"
[2]. When Germany reunified the East Berlin brewery at Pankow was re-acquired by Schultheiss and eventually closed, with production continuing only in the West of the city. The old Schultheiss brewery on Knaackstrasse, Prenzlauer Berg, is now an arts and culture centre (
http://www.kulturbrauerei.de/). Schultheiss also brew a range of other beers including a pilsner but they don't seem to push it hard on the export market. Schultheiss is now part of the Brau und Brunnen group [
http://www.brauundbrunnen.de/], so maybe they prefer to export mainly their more well known pilsners like Jever or Dortmunder Union. I haven't found the other Schultheiss beers on sale in the UK yet, and if the pils is anything to go by, that's no great loss. Schultheiss Berliner Weisse is easier to find as specialist off licences will seek it out as it's an example of a rare type but Schultheiss Pilsners are so ubiquitous that only the well known make a big impact on the export market."
I stole that last part and i can't find the URL for attribution, but as its a girls drink nobody will notice!
I have blogged for a while today so I will keep it short and sweet! Svyturys Wheat (5.2% abv) is a Lithuanian beer which won some kind of award from Tesco for its drinkablity? (Random). The beer style is similar to a Witbier and the brewery is owned by the Carlsberg group. I guess its another one worth checking out. It certainly would make an awesome beer for thirst quenching on a hot day! Website
