Berliner Weisse (part six)

Only a small quantity of hops were used: 375 to 500 g of hops per 100 kg of malt. These weren’t boiled in the copper in the usual way. They were boiled in the water than was used for mashing and were present through the whole mashing process. The hops helped filter the mash, important with a grist containing so much wheat.

There were two reasons for not boiling. The first was to preserve the lactobacillus on the malt, though Schönfeld’s own investigation found none in the spent grains. He concluded that the mash temperature was enough to kill it and the souring organism must come from another source. The second was flavour. A wort that had been boiled for a long time tasted differently from an unboiled one and Berliners were used to the latter.

The cooled wort was pitched with a symbiotic yeast and lactobacillus mixed culture. The proportion of yeast to lactobacillus was 4:1, 5:1 or 6:1. Acidity developed during primary fermentation through the action of the lactobacillus. A high degree of attenuation for the time -  66% to 75% - was achieved during primary  fermentation. Attenuation was helped by diastase remaining in the wort which, in conjunction with CO2 and lactic acid, broke down the maltodextrins into more easily fermentable sugars.

When primary fermentation was complete, the beer was kräusened with young beer in a proportion 2:1, 3:1 or 4:1. It was then either delivered to pubs in barrels for later bottling by the publican or bottled at the brewery. The gravity was higher than today, 9-12º Plato, but 10-35% water was often added at bottling time.

Adding a Schuss – a flavoured syrup – to Berliner Weisse was already an established practice:

“A great favourite with the ladies is the frothy Berlin white beer, drunk out of large bowl-shaped glass, and with a liqueur-glass of raspberry syrup added to it.“
Dundee Evening Telegraph - Wednesday 01 November 1905, page 6.