In his ground-breaking book, “The World Guide to Beer,” Michael Jackson wrote that Berliner Weisse was undoubtedly more famous than the Weizen beers from the south. That was in 1977. Today only one Berliner Weisse is still brewed in Berlin, but brewers elsewhere are making similar beers. Or there’s Gose, once wildly popular in the city of Leipzig, then not brewed at all. Today a few German breweries make Gose on a regular basis, while some American brewers are giving it a go. Then there’s Grätzer, a beer brewed with smoked wheat malt. Could it undergo a similar revival?
What would you like to know about Berliner Weisse, about Gose, about Grätzer or even some other historic style you are aware of?
“Wild Brews” briefly notes that Frank Boon ascribes to wheat (especially raw wheat) some ability to protect or enhance a beer as it ages. I’d love to know more details about this opinion.
Are you planning on addressing traditional lambic or geuze? They typically use a significant portion of unmalted wheat.
A quick clarification. The book won’t going into specifics on Belgian wild beers for the simple reason that Jeff Sparrow just did that quite nicely in “Wild Brews.”
I have a Gratzer in my carboy fermenting happily at 62F using German ale. I had to smoke my own wheat, #10 pounds of it using oak chips. I don’t think regular rauchmalt would do. Going to find out if all that work was worth it soon enough. Trying to capture what the spirit of the beer was pretty hard. Had some help using the radical brewing book and translated online pages (sparse) talking about polish/german beers.
It contains 100% wheat, with a portion toasted. The base portion is smoked with oak. I choose a polish hop that was a little spicy, but earthy with hints of cedar. I figured the grainyness of wheat, the toast adding a complex undertone, enhancing the maltiness and wood smoke and the hops should complement the balance of the smoke and malt flavors. Plan to have fairly high carbonation. Seems like a beer to be drank on a side of a mountain timber durring a hot summer day.
Probably end up tasting like a burnt tree stump…
I wonder why it was wheat. Maybe wheat adds a texture and flavor unique to beer? How does one really get an idea of what a good beer should taste and smell like without having an example? Guidelines to help sleuth these hints out would be great.
Looking forward to this book!
I would welcome information on every historic wheat style, living or extinct, even if it is just a thumbnail. Quite a few times, it’s the first reference I’ve heard of for a style.
Often these books have a little reference to extinct or very rare styles, and it inspires many (like me) to make one. Brewery consolidation has killed many local gems. Just because they are no longer produced doesn’t mean they couldn’t be, again.
Kev Pratt
I am planning on brewing a Gose and in my research on creating a recipe for it I found very little information on the style, either on the internet or in text. I saw in many references to the style that the recipes call for a Bavarian/German Wheat yeast yet, when I had the only Gose I have ever tasted (Leipziger gose) I did not taste any traditional German yeast flavors or aromas. What yeast do they use traditionally? When is the salt added? More information on this style would be much appreciated, especially in the home brewing realm.
I also would like to see more written about Berliner Weisse production methods on a home brew scale. What method is best/traditional/easiest: Sour Mash, Split Batch and Blend, or Pitching the lacto at the start?
These are two great refreshing session beers and I would love to brew more of these beers and learn how to brew them better at home. Can;t wait for the book.
I had the same experience as Jeff when researching a Gose. I too didn’t find a lot of Weizen-like flavors in the Goses I’ve tried (Döllnitzer, Bayerischer Bahnhof and Goslar) but the brewmaster at Bayerischer Bahnhof recommended s Weizen yeast. To compromise I went with WLP320 American Hefe yeast, as the banana and clove notes are very subdued, and I was very happy with the results. At the time I was still doing extract brews, so I just added lactic acid to the secondary. Now that I brew all-grain, I’m trying to decide how I want to sour the mash the next time I brew this. I’ve heard somewhere (from Ron Pattinson, I think) that they don’t actually use bacteria–only acid malt–but the B. United website says that Bayerischer Bahnhof does use lactobacillus. I’d love any further info that can be shed on the style, as well as others’ experiences in brewing Gose…
Russ, lactic acid bacteria is used in the production of Gose. A German wheat beer is definitely wrong for the style.
Based on old descriptions I’ve read, the Dollnitzer Ritterguts Gose is the most authentic. Bayerischer Bahnhof’s just doesn’t have enough sourness.
Has anyone else tried brewing a Gose with the salt proportions specified in Brewing with Wheat? Mine is about 10 days old and I just took a sample. It’s extremely salty, almost undrinkably so. It’s not very sour yet, but I just pitched a large lacto starter into it last night so that should help. Will the sourness help make the salt palatable?
Gose has been one of my projects for a few years now and I thought I’d share a few of my ideas . My latest thought is the use of pilsner is wrong . It was brewed from approximate 975 AD till the 1500s. Pilsner wasn’t discovered till the mid 1800s. So Vienna , Munich or perhaps a pale malt would have been used. Another possible key is that during the boil they would add goslar crystals ( zinc sulfite) and not straight salt. Goselar was a mining community . So minerals would have leached into their water system. The goslar crystal would have had a metallic salty almost sour water flavor. I could be wrong but that’s my guess. There is also mention of fermentation in 3 days and moved to barrels to be bottled . Plus it became undrinkable after a few weeks . High ferment temps ? Lots of lacto? I think without temp control the lacto would have been out of control.