Berliner Weisse

I've never had the chance to drink a commercial Berliner Weisse. It's an old German style: low alcohol, sour wheat beer. To be honest, I'd never heard of it until sometime last year. However, thanks to the internet I have not only heard of it but also managed to brew one. It was a fun brew, my first all grain effort and first go at doing a sour wort.

I mashed it at about 68'C in the hopes of giving this low alcohol beer some body. The grist was 50-50 pils and wheat malt. Then the wort went into a spare eski at around 40'C. I chucked in a handful of grain and placed gladwrap onto the surface of the liquid to keep air out and closed the eski. It sat and festered for 2 days as the bacteria on the grain went to work on the wort. Then I boiled it, hopped it very lightly (~8 IBUs) and fermented it with US-05, aiming for a clean yeast profile and sourness as the star.

'JFK'
Berliner Weisse, 3.2% alc.
Brewed 12/11/11.

Aroma: Wheat, citrus and a pretty obvious lactic aroma.

Appearance: Pale straw, very pale and very clear. It pours with a large fluffy head that dissipates over 5 minutes leaving only a thin ring around the edge of the glass.

Flavour: Sharp sourness is the first impression along with prickly carbonation. There's a hint of citrus and wheat, lots of wheat. The finish is all about the malt, particularly the wheat.

Mouthfeel: Moderately high carbonation. Relatively thin body but still has some body. Doesn't finish too dry.

Overall: Not a complex beer but then that's not the point of this one. It's refreshing and easy to drink. It's worked well on hot days while watching the cricket. I tried it with some plum syrup which cut the sour and left the malt and sweetness of the fruit to do their thing. Worth a try. I'm happy with how it turned out although I'd really like to have something to compare it with. I'd like to try it again using Wyeast 3068 or using their Berliner Weisse blend and see how that goes.