Summer sippers, lawnmower beers and patio drinks all have something in common — besides being quintessential summer beverages. They’re refreshing, go-to choices for cooling down on hot days.
The Berliner Weisse fits this flavor profile to a T. This German-originating wheat beer style is sour, effervescent and crisp — perfect for summer sipping.
“Myself and our customers definitely agree these beers are the perfect summer sippers,” says David Vohden, the brewmaster at Oregon City Brewing Company, south of Portland. “We have a line of beers inspired by Berliner Weisse that are lacto-bacillus kettle-soured ales fermented with house ale yeasts.” This lineup includes Cactus Makes Perfect, a two-time World Beer Cup medalist. This spring, the popular beer took home a bronze medal in the Berliner-Style Weisse category of the very prestigious international beer competition.
The gold medal winner was another Pacific Northwest-brewed expression of this style, the aptly named Champagne Toast Berliner Weisse from Wander Brewing in Bellingham, Washington.
Berliner Weisse is a lot like Champagne — light-bodied, bubbly and great for pairing with any number of foods. Contemporary brewers like Wander Brewing and Oregon City Brewing are putting a modern twist on the traditional sweet woodruff syrup by experimenting with fresh fruit additions instead.
Berliner Weisse variations at Wander Brewing have included pomegranate, cherry and raspberry. At Oregon City Brewing, their Berliner Weisse-inspired line of beers rotates with more than a dozen fruits, with three to five on tap at any given time. In addition to the award-winning Cactus Makes Perfect made with prickly pear fruit, adventurous drinkers can also try options like Lilikoi passion fruit, a dragonfruit and pineapple blend, and pink lemonade — a Sicilian lemon and raspberry blend.
“Ultimately, I have not found any additives that don’t work or enhance the Berliner base,” says Vohden. “The lightness and tartness of the base beer make a perfect canvas for the expression of the fruit, spice or barrel like the Berliner Weisse we aged in gin barrels. It makes a perfect platform for experimentation.”
That experimentation is evident in another of Oregon City’s beer lines, what Vohden calls “quasi-traditional-berlinerweisse beers.” These beers are co-fermented with a house Brettanomyces yeast strain in a local winery’s spent Pinot Noir barrels and one of the brewery’s foeders. This base then receives huge quantities of fresh local fruit during harvest season. “These are each called ‘Coming to Fruition: (Fruit)’. Our CTF: Cherry with local Montmorency cherries is our most award-winning beer. Fourteen total medals, including two Great American Beer Festival and one World Beer Cup.”
Vohden’s enthusiasm for sour beer making and unique fruit flavors is contagious. “I was greatly inspired by the sour beers of Cascade Brewing during my early brewing education in Portland, and we hope to carry on their tradition of making both historical and new-age versions of sours for the Pacific Northwest market,” he says.
“I think it’s clear in the quality and quantity of our sour selection that we are really passionate about these beers,” Vohden adds.
