A typical summer here in Texas involves many weeks of hundred degree weather. We typically think of beers full of wheat and citrus flavors as the top choice for summer sippers, but the Berliner Weisse is a very under-represented style that would fit well in our state given our very hot summers.
The Berliner Weisse is typically a bottle conditioned wheat beer made with lactobacillus in addition to standard beer yeast. This combination results in a low alcoholic beer with wheat character as well as a prominent tart flavor from the souring bacteria. The effervescent and refreshing nature of this beer style is so appropriate for the extreme Texas heat. Apart from it’s unique flavor, the Berliner Weisse is also interesting in that it is a fairly obscure and unusual style of beer and a limited number of breweries produce them regularly. Outside of brewpubs like Freetail and NXNW, the only widely available Berliner Weisse in Texas (that I am aware of) is Dogfish Head’s Festina Peche, which is billed as a “neo” Berliner Weisse as it’s brewing process does not use any bacteria, and instead, relies on peach to give it flavor. My personal favorite is the crisp, bubbly and lightly acidic Hottenroth, from The Bruery in Southern California.
The Jester King brewery during the Drink’in The Sunbelt release party
All that said, it should be no surprise that beer purists in Texas have long pleaded with craft brewers to produce this style of beer, and the Austin-based Jester King Craft Brewery blogged that they have answered the call. They also announced the bottling of Drink’in The Sunbelt, a beer brewed in collaboration with gypsy brewer Mikkeller. I enjoy it as it’s citrus beer suited for a hop-lover, and the recipe’s recently been enhanced to smooth out some of the bitterness. I’ve been extremely pleased with Jester King’s lineup as a whole, so I’ve kept a watchful eye over their developments to see what they’ll be doing next as their plans to grow into a “true farmhouse style” brewery come into fruition. Those guys have plenty of ambition and brew marvelous beer down there. Keep up the great work, craft beer lovers will continue to support you and it’s wonderful knowing that craft brewers truly care about what their consumers want!