Essential Info
- Color: Very light yellow
- ABV: 3.5%-5%
- Commercial Examples: Berliner Kindl Weisse, Dogfish Head Festina Peche, New Glarus Thumbprint Berliner Weiss, Night Shift Brewing Ever Weisse
Berliner Weissbier, as the name kinda suggests, is a Berlin specialty—only two breweries still truly make the stuff. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a close approximation, especially since craft beer exploded and began pursuing all manner of global, ancient, and variously interesting beer styles. A 50% wheat beer (the rest is light Pilsner malt), Berliner Weiss is fermented with yeast and Lactobacillus delbruckii—basically microbes that like to make things real sour. The result is a lightly malty, sometimes delicately fruity, always puckeringly sour beer with vibrant carbonation. In Berlin it’s often served with either raspberry or woodruff syrups to counteract that pucker (the woodruff syrup, made from a sweet aromatic flower, turns the beer green). Stateside brewers make their own adjustments to play with the sourness. A beer with the best kind of zing.
