I've commented on this topic in another thread, but thought maybe a new thread was warranted. I've read a lot about people recommending the cleanest possible fermentation with lactobacillus, before finishing with saccharomyces. That idea just doesn't sit well with my impression of the origins of the style. And commercial examples of the style I've tried, that I assume are the result of super clean lacto fermentations, strike me as being very one-dimensional and not very interesting.
Thanks to Qhrumphf for providing this link to somebody digging around and finding historical information about the style. The author of this blog comments that any current iterations of this style are not very authentic to the style's origin.
A link in that blog led me to this.
And then a google scholar search led me to this.
I've read Wild Brews. I'm most of the way through American Sour Beers. And I'm confused by what seems to me to be an obsession with keeping a Berliner Weisse as clean as possible. The same people that advocate for harvesting wild local yeast and letting other sour beers sit and age to be used for blending even if they are undrinkable on their own, or pitching unidentified dregs from any random sour beer... Those same exact people get inexplicably squeamish about the idea of a sour mash.
Maybe it is because they used to recommend a sour mash and too many newbies screwed it up and talked crap about the technique and the people that told them how to do it?
Maybe the majority of people interested in brewing a Berlinerweisse are those that see it as a safer way to brew a sour beer. Rather than risking the introduction of Brett, Pedio, or other hearty or tough to eradicate bugs seems scarier than doing a quick-sour in a controlled environment followed by a short boil to kill all those bad bugs. A lot of commercial breweries that I've seen start to brew Berliners recently don't do any other sour beers. I take that to mean, they want to brew a sour, because people keep asking for it, but they don't want to risk contaminating their equipment and ruining their sacch-only beers and they don't want to or can't afford to have separate equipment or facilities dedicated to sour brewing. So then because the style is brewed by many beer-souring-microbe-averse brewers, the techniques that become standard/recommended focus on keeping it as clean as possible. (sidebar: what would happen if the majority of people brewing stouts really didn't like dark malts at all? or were worried that dark malts would permanently discolor their equipment?)
Anyway, is anybody else interested in what I think of as a more rustic, or possibly more authentic way of brewing a Berlinerweisse that might also produce a beer that has more character than the Berliners I've tasted from commercial breweries?
Anyone?
Thanks to Qhrumphf for providing this link to somebody digging around and finding historical information about the style. The author of this blog comments that any current iterations of this style are not very authentic to the style's origin.
A link in that blog led me to this.
And then a google scholar search led me to this.
I've read Wild Brews. I'm most of the way through American Sour Beers. And I'm confused by what seems to me to be an obsession with keeping a Berliner Weisse as clean as possible. The same people that advocate for harvesting wild local yeast and letting other sour beers sit and age to be used for blending even if they are undrinkable on their own, or pitching unidentified dregs from any random sour beer... Those same exact people get inexplicably squeamish about the idea of a sour mash.
Maybe it is because they used to recommend a sour mash and too many newbies screwed it up and talked crap about the technique and the people that told them how to do it?
Maybe the majority of people interested in brewing a Berlinerweisse are those that see it as a safer way to brew a sour beer. Rather than risking the introduction of Brett, Pedio, or other hearty or tough to eradicate bugs seems scarier than doing a quick-sour in a controlled environment followed by a short boil to kill all those bad bugs. A lot of commercial breweries that I've seen start to brew Berliners recently don't do any other sour beers. I take that to mean, they want to brew a sour, because people keep asking for it, but they don't want to risk contaminating their equipment and ruining their sacch-only beers and they don't want to or can't afford to have separate equipment or facilities dedicated to sour brewing. So then because the style is brewed by many beer-souring-microbe-averse brewers, the techniques that become standard/recommended focus on keeping it as clean as possible. (sidebar: what would happen if the majority of people brewing stouts really didn't like dark malts at all? or were worried that dark malts would permanently discolor their equipment?)
Anyway, is anybody else interested in what I think of as a more rustic, or possibly more authentic way of brewing a Berlinerweisse that might also produce a beer that has more character than the Berliners I've tasted from commercial breweries?
Anyone?