Berliner Weisse is a cloudy, sour beer of around 3-5% alcohol by volume. The word “weisse” means wheat in german so if you guessed this is a German beer, gold star for you! It is a wheat beer style from Northern Germany, dating back to at least the 16th century. The fermentation takes place with a mixture of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Brettanomyces) and lactic acid bacteria. This combined with the wheat gives the beer it’s classic haziness and tartness. Fun fact, Lactobacillus that typically gives tang to yogurt.

By the late 19th century, Berliner Weisse was the most popular alcoholic drink in Berlin, with up to fifty breweries producing it and a popular story is that Napoleon’s troops dubbed it “The Champagne of the North” in 1809.

Berliner Weisse is often served with flavoured syrups, such as raspberry (Himbeersirup), or artificial woodruff flavouring (Waldmeistersirup).

Stay tuned this week for Hans Gruber to return and each day we debut a different syrup to pair it with. You may recognize some of the combinations as past favorites like “Blood of our enemies” and “Green lizard people”, cheers!