Berliner Weisse (part five)

Berliner Weisse entered the century in robust health. New-fangled Lager beers had dented its popularity a little, but it remained one of the city’s favourite styles. That was to change as the century progressed, as its popularity slowly declined.

Situation around 1900:

•    Weissbier had been brewed in Berlin for centuries.
•    Between 1892 and 1897 the number of top-fermenting breweries in Berlin increased from 47 to 71. In the same period, production of top-fermenting beer increased from 1,000,000 hl to 1,300,000 hl.
•    In Berlin, 33% of beer brewed was top-fermenting.
•    The two largest top-fermenting breweries each produced about 150,000 hl a year.
•    In the early decades of the 19th century Berlin Weissbier brewers regularly refreshed their yeast with fresh Bitterbier yeast brought in from Cottbus. If they kept repitching harvested yeast, their beer was too sour.
•    Many of the breweries were very small – if we take out the two largest, they averaged only around 15,000 hl a year.

Schönfeld, who worked at the VLB (Berlin’s brewing school), specialised in top-fermenting beers and described the method of brewing Berliner Weisse around 1900 in great detail. He had first-hand experience, having visited many of the Weisse breweries.

The proportion of wheat had risen. The grist now consisted of three or four parts wheat malt to one part barley malt. In some breweries an infusion mash was employed, in others a decoction.