Dr. Fritz Briem 1809 Berliner Weisse currently is pouring at Common Haus Hall.
In late May of 1989, I flew into West Berlin for three days of sightseeing prior to transiting the German Democratic Republic into Czechoslovakia, and two months exploring in the East Bloc.
While in West Berlin I can remember buying a bottle of Berliner Kindl Weisse and taking it back to my room, where I poured it into my camp cup and was utterly shocked by the sourness. It seemed excessive, but then again I had no idea what a sour beer was supposed to be.
In the case of Berliner Weisse, it was (and remains) a pale, cloudy and effervescent variation on a theme of Northern German wheat ale, brewed from variable combinations of malted wheat and barley, and with a very low hopping rate.
Yeast mixtures might include regular ale yeast as well as a pinch of Brettanomyces (but this is not a lambic by any stretch). The brewing process encourages the creation of lactobacillus, or naturally occurring bacteria, hence the tart acidity.
Berliner Weisse dates to the 1600s and perhaps earlier, and was famously consumed by Napoleon’s troops, who occupied Berlin from 1806 through 1809, and supposedly referred to the beer “as the Champagne of the North.”
Two months after the shock to my youthful palate, I returned. This time my lodgings were in East Berlin, where a few dozen Western work brigade volunteers resided for three weeks in 8-bunk army tents. I’ve written about it here: Staycation Stories: A Working Lunch in East Berlin, 1989.
As the title attests, East Berlin afforded a second opportunity to taste Berliner Weisse. As it happened, several pre-war breweries were located in what became the Soviet occupation zone and later the GDR, including Bürgerbräu, Bärenquell, Schultheiss and Kindl. The Berliner Kindl I’d consumed earlier in the trip came from a West Berlin brewery launched when the owners saw their properties confiscated by the “new world order” in East Berlin.
Schultheiss seems to have been the most famous of the Berliner Weisse producers in East Berlin, and fortunately, my workplace was located in a public park with an Imbiss (meaning a food and drink kiosk) that served sausages and Schultheiss Berliner Weisse “mit schuss,” or with a shot of non-alcoholic, sweet raspberry syrup...Read more