Berliner Weisse (part two)

We're now looking at Berliner Weisse in the 18th century.

The first detailed description of brewing Berliner Weisse I’ve found is in the Oekonomische Encyklopädie of J. G. Krünitz, published in 1773. It’s fascinating because of how some of the distinctive features of the style’s brewing methods had already appeared.

He describes the grist as being two-thirds wheat malt and one-third barley malt, mashed by a decoction method. This was an important technique, as Berlin brewers didn’t want to boil the whole wort. Instead they added hops to the decoction.

Lactic acid bacteria is very sensitive to hops and could easily be killed by over-hopping. Not a problem – in fact a blessing – when brewing most styles. But Berliner Weisse relies on lactobacillus to acquire its trademark sour note. Over the years brewers have used several techniques to get around this problem. We’ll learn about some others later.

Some of the wort was drawn off before cooling and pitched with yeast. By the time the rest of the wort had cooled, this would already be fermenting and could be pitched into the main body of wort. What’s slightly bizarre is that the wort was pumped back into the mash tun to ferment. The yeast was only repitched once then replaced by fresh yeast from Kottwitzerbier, brewed in Kottbus in Silesia.

Berliner Weisse wasn’t usually sold on draught. Barrels were dispatched to publicans, who then bottled it.

The grist sometimes contained oats.