Weisse Weisse Baby

Review of Westbrook's Weisse Weisse Baby podcast
  [link to podcast page]

Westbrook Brewing released their Weisse Weisse Baby Berliner Weisse style beer last month, and it has finally made its way to New York. We picked up a 750ml bottle of WWB at Good Beer ($9.99 retail) this week and gave it a try.

Berliner Weisse is not a very common style, but we've had the opportunity to enjoy a number of them, both in Germany and in the U.S., both commercial beers and homebrews. Two of our all time favorites were a Strawberry Berliner Weisse at Dieu Du Ciel brewpub many years ago, and one we helped brew in the the Brooklyn backyard of our beer pal Bill "Salty Dog" Coleman ages ago. I think that's when he coined the name Brooklyner Weisse well in advance of another better known brewery from that borough!

Westbrook's 4% a.b.v. version of the style was assertively tart, refreshingly sour, and brightly effervescent, with ticklish, prickly carbonation. It poured out with a rich white foamy head that dissolved quickly into the beer, leaving only a meager residual head. Its color was a medium straw hue, expectedly hazy.

Weisse Weisse had a slight lactic note in the nose, with a hint of fruitiness and a slight cider quality, with some wheat malt notes as well. The flavor achieved a level of sourness that was deliciously balanced, melding with the somewhat cereal-like wheat malt flavor, and only a hint of hop flavor and bitterness, if that. This will definitely be found in our fridge on a regular basis once we enter that long stretch of 80+ degree weather known as summer in the city!

A difficult style to master, Berliner Weisse is at once both mild in all beer characteristics and tart/sour. Berliner Weisse is made with wheat malt (about 50% of the mash), and the wort is never brought to a boil. Since the bittering agents in hops aren't fully activated in sub-boiling temperatures, there are other ways one can get some bitterness out of the hops: one is to add hops to the mash -- useful when doing a decoction mash; another is to add the hops in a separate boil kettle, used when doing an infusion mash.

The sourness in the beer comes from lactic acid. Lactic bacteria is generally among the wild organisms naturally existing on the grain husks. Since the wort isn't boiled, many of those organisms (bacteria and wild yeast) can survive the brewing process, and, thus, figure into the fermentation, and can radically influence the characteristics of the beer. Berliner Weisse is not entirely spontaneously fermented, like lambic -- ale yeast is pitched into the cooled wort to ferment the beer, though it may be competing with some wild cousins.

Evil Twin At Beer Street

  [link to Evil Twin podcast page]


Back in July, Beer Street in Williamsburg hosted a few Danish craft brewers for a tasting event, including Jeppe of Evil Twin, the identical twin brother of Mikkel of Mikkeller. Mikkel and Tør from To Øl were there, too. (Or tøø, if you prefer.)

Both brothers have a similar type of brewing company -- they're gypsy brewers. That means that they don't have their own brewing facility. Instead, they brew their beers, or have them brewed, at different breweries, all over the world. Though, Jeppe does most of his brewing in Europe.

Jeppe is 2nd from the left.

This method has a lot of advantages over a "brick and mortar" operation. First off, there is nowhere near the incredible financial obstacles of buying or even leasing a commercial brewery, and all the complications, government licenses, taxes, etc. that an owner of a brewery has to deal with. No worrying about equipment maintenance. There is no rent. There are no labor costs.


Basically, you have your recipe, you book a brew date with a brewery that has extra capacity (as most do -- few breweries are brewing 24/7), you order your materials to be delivered, then you go and brew! Or you can direct the brewing to the trusted master brewer of that particular brewery.

The brewery takes care of bringing the beer from raw ingredients to bottles or kegs shrinkwrapped on pallets. You don't have to fill a hot liquor tank, couple a hose, shovel spent grain or do any of the other inglorious work involved in brewing. They take care of the dirty work, and you pay them the wholesale cost of the beer, just as if you were buying the brewery's own product. And then you distribute, promote, sell and enjoy!
 

Aside from the obvious advantages of not having all the hassles of owning, paying for, and managing a complex business like a brewery, it also frees up a gypsy brewer to be very creative and flexible. The brewer can use different facilities that are best suited to which ever particular style of beer which he wants to brew. Brewing systems, though technically much the same, can have significant subtle differences that can affect everything from mash efficiency to yeast flocculation, depending on the type of beer and its particular ingredients.

Gypsy brewing is growing -- even The Atlantic wrote about the subject! Jeppe and his brother have been gypsy brewing leaders, joined by other high quality, accomplished brewers, such as the boys at To Øl, Brian of Stillwater, Dan and Martha of Pretty Things, among others -- often times collaborating with one another,  This innovative generation of hyper-creative, quality-minded, imaginative young brewers are blazing the way and making the craft beer world all the more interesting, exciting and delicious!

Mikkeller At The Gutter

WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 9/7/2011

The GUTTER, on the border of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, is a bowling alley. No -- it's a craft BEER BAR! Bowling Alley! Beer bar! Bowling! Beer! OK Jack -- it's both.

Beer. Cheers.

The Gutter could be considered a relative of BARCADE of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and their first ever beer event featured Danish brewing rockstar Mikkel of MIKKELLER BREWING.

We've never seen the Gutter so jam packed on a Thursday night. On tap: Beer Geek Breakfast, Drink'in the Sun and American Dream, as well as large bottles of Mikkeller Black Hole (coffee imperial stout aged in Cognac barrels) and Mikkeller Black Hole (aged in Tequila barrels), Mikkeller Black (17.5% imperial stout), and Mikkeller Draft Bear imperial pilsner. INsane. Just insane.

One of these people has jetlag... any guess which one?

Mikkel seemed a bit jet lagged and visibly fatigued from jumping in both feet first into a three-day visit to the USA to conduct some business, have some fun, and brew a batch of beer in Vermont at HILL FARMSTEAD BREWERY. Seriously? In three days?!? Great Dane, indeed.

And what do you think Mikkel sampled while rolling some strikes and spares? Hill Farmstead 
Simcoe, HF Double Galaxy, Green Flash West Coast IPA, and Cigar City Marshal Zhukov

Despite the fatigue of the breakneck speed of his trip, he was a generous, entertaining and informational interview subject, willing to share some great insight into a Danish gypsy brewery. To entice you to check it out, here are a few nuggets from the interview.

Beer Geek Breakfast and Drink'in the Sun - the sun and the dark side of the moon.

Mikkel: "In 1998 we had nine breweries in Denmark, and five years later we had 110."

Mikkel: "The Mikkeller brand is brewed in four different countries right now."

BH: "Do you think you'd ever want to have your own [physical] brewery?"

Mikkel: "No. Hell no... Never."

BH: "Why?"

Mikkel: "[because as a gypsy brewer] I don't have to do all the boring stuff...."

What's on tap at the bowling alley?

Mikkel: "Last year I think we released 76 new beers." [ !!! ]

Mikkel: "If I could, I would brew every beer once, and then do a new one."

Bob: "Am I famous in Denmark?"

Mikkel: "You're very famous, actually!"

Everyone: [incredulous laughter]

Mikkel: "I probably knew you many years before you knew me!"

[you think this is joke, but... well, more clues in the podcast.]

BH: "You actually have a twin brother who is also a brewer?" [with his own brewing company.]

Mikkel: "Yep. An identical twin brother."

Mikkel: "My recipes are mostly done in the shower, in the morning." [beer geek breakfast?]

Paul, beer bar baron, and Mikkel, bachelor brewer.

BH: "List your favorite three Mikkeller beers."

Mikkel: "We have one on tonight, the Drink'in The Sun. This year it's 2.4%. We make it less alcohol each year. I like it because it has a lot of flavor, but you can drink it like it's water."

BH: "How many breweries do you think you've brewed at in your career so far?"

Mikkel: "About 20."

[The man has brewed beer in 20 different breweries around the globe!!!]

BH: "Do you have a fantasy brew situation? Someplace where you'd love to brew that is unlikely, or a type of beer that you'd love to brew that wouldn't be easy to do?

Milkkel: [he does -- check the BONUS podcast to find out what it is!]

Thanks to Mikkel and to the Gutter for a wonderful experience!

Though Mikkel doesn't follow hockey, he knows who LARS ELLER is!!!