Berliner Weisse - the modern version

As a prologue to my epic series of Berliner Weisse posts, I'm going to cheat. Well, not exactly cheat, but use material provided by someone else. Stuff documenting modern (post -1960) Berliner Weisse.

It's been provided by Lachlan (thanks, man). My head is so firmly stuck up the past's arse , that I barely notice what's happening today.

From German Wheat Beer, by Eric Warner, 1992:

"At the Schultheiss brewery in Berlin, the wort is pitched and blended with three- to six-month-old beer. Once the fermentation is underway, the lactic acid bacteria rise to the surface and are harvested in traditional fashion along with the top-fermenting yeast. The yeast is repitched as quickly as possible, because the amount of lactic acid will rise within a few days to concentrations that will inhibit not only the the yeast, but the lactic acid bacteria themselves. Although the wort is relatively weak and normal fermentations temperatures are used, it takes about four days for the wort to attenuate to the desired degree because of the inhibiting effect the lactic acid has on the yeast. Unlike Hefe Weissbier, Berliner Weisse is not completely attenuated in the fermentatiton cellar; rather, it is attenuated to about 80 percent of its limit.

There is no set manner in which the conditioning of Berliner Weisse takes place, but all methods use a form of kraeusening to aid the maturation of the beer. The faster of these methods involves adding about 10 percent kraeusen to the young beer in a mixing tank just prior to bottling. After bottling, the beer is subjected to warm secondary fermentation at approximately 15 deg C before it is cooled to 8 to 10 deg C for the cold conditioning. Again, as is the case with other styles of Weissbier, the warm conditioning phase serves to jump-start the secondary fermentation and develop the CO2 in the beer. Berliner Weisse produced in this manner is ready for distribution after a total of about five weeks.

According to Michael Jackson in his World Guide to Beer, the Schultheiss brewery believes that this time frame is much too limiting to allow the beer to develop its full character. After the primary fermentation the beer spends three to 12 months in the conditioning cellar at the very warm temperatures of 15 to 25 deg C. These temperatures promote lactic acid fermentation, which results in an extremely low pH of 3.0 and an incredibly high apparent degree of attenuation of 98.4 percent. The beer is then kraeusened prior to bottling and, as if the lactic quality weren't enhanced enough, another dose of Lacto. delbrueckii is added to the primed Weisse. The Schultheiss Weisse is then stored in the bottle at temperatures of 18 to 25 deg C for four weeks before it is released for sale."

From "Inside Berlin's Own Beer by Dennis Davison, Zymurgy Vol. 19 No. 5 Winter 1996:

"Schultheiss has modified their process to expedite the process. Today (1996) the beer is boiled just enough to settle unwanted solids and a mixture of multistrain ale yeast and Lactobacillus Delbrueckii are used. Schultheiss adds a percentage of three- to six-month-old Berliner to the fermenter. The beer is fermented at 20 to 25 deg C for four days then aged in secondary from threee to six days at 15 to 25 deg C. The beer is then kraeusened and bottle condidtion for up to four weeks before release, but never pasteurised.

Berliner Kindl uses a nontraditional method. The initial wort is divided in half and each yeast is fermented separately, one with a standard ale yeast, Sacch. cerevisiae, the other with a homofermentative strain of Lacto. delbrueckii. These worts are fermented at 15 to 25 deg C for at least one week. The two batches are then blended in the secondary and aged for only a few months at 5 to 10 deg C. The beer is bottled with fresh kraeusen and allowed to carbonate. This method produces fewer esters compared to the traditional method, and less lactic intensity."

A comparison with early 20th century methods of Berliner Weisse production will be very revealing, I'm sure. I can't wait. Can you?