1809
Professor Fritz Briem

Pours a clear pale straw color, massive foamy white head with great retention. Somewhat soapy aroma. Flavor is tangy citrus, lemon, very nice sweetness on the finish. Crisp and clean with mild acidity. Overall a really cool beer, I love the idea of brewing historical beers. Really neat.

4/24/23
16 oz can, no date
4 rating

An absolute frenzy of white lively foam on an opaque light gold pineapple juice colored body.
Aroma of hay, barn, brett, cheese, and a general funk on top of green apple, lychee, citrus, lactic notes,
Feel is aggressively carbonated, it's almost like drinking bubbles and every time it's moved just a little bit turns more of the beer into foam. This one is definitely special, though most likely an acquired taste. It's very different from most beers. Not quite a gueze, different from most beers marketed as Berliner Weisse (Everything else seems diet in comparison). A unique and special treat for those with an open mind.

My first Berliner Weiss and it did not disappoint! I sought out this style and was able to find it at Beer Witch in Brooklyn, NY. Dated 2/26/20, poured on 12/5/22, slight effervescence bubbling over upon opening

L: Poured into a Willi from a 0.5 L bottle; massive, white head, light straw-straw color; a very attractive beer

S: Slight tartness with some fruit and an aroma suggesting acidity

T: Wow, there is a tart, crisp sourness that rounds out a dry, yet fruity sweetness in every sip; unique

F: Very light and effervescent, the slight bite of carbonation finishes the sour and acidic finish nicely

O: If this is representative of the style, and it's certainly my impression that it is, then I'd love to see this style make a massive comeback. Lovely, 5/5 on taste

 

 

Bottled 2/26/20

This is a beer I heard about very early on when I joined BA. I’ve had it marked as a want for so long that I didn’t pay attention to the bottling date when I saw it on the shelf, I just grabbed it. I’m sure it’ll still be okay though. Time to finally try a non-fruited Berliner

Pours a cloudy yellow gold with 3 fingers of rocky white head that slowly fades to a thin cap and leaves minimal lacing

This still smells relatively vibrant at 2.5 years, just a bit of a must which could be inherent to the beer anyways. I’m picking up on aromas of lemon zest, tart apple skin, wheat bread, honey, white pepper, light stone, and peach pit

Interesting, it’s not nearly as tart in taste as the nose suggests. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting lemon zest, bready malt, white pepper, grass, and light green tea. The swallow brings notes of wheat bread, apple skin, lemon zest, wildflower honey, light clove, and a touch of lemon yogurt

A light medium body pairs aggressive carbonation, resulting in a bright and zesty beer. Finishes mostly dry with a nice tartness to cut through

Well, it wasn’t the best Berliner Weisse I’ve ever had, but it is nice to see a traditional take on the style that I’ve wanted to try for quite some time

 

 

 

 

1 pint .9 bottle into a tall glass. Bottled 2/26/20, so 18 months old.

Very lively beer. On cracking it open, foam began to flow out. Settled quite quickly. First pour produced 1 inch of beer and 11 inches of foam. Subsequent careful pours produced the reverse. After settling, bright white head doesnt last long, no lacing. Body was bright and yellow until the last pour which produced a haziness and some large chunks. These settled quickly.

Aroma is a little musty, and manages to smell tart.

On tasting, delightfully tart and sour. The ingredients produce a light fruit taste. Quite drying, but extremely refreshing.

Mouth medium, finish tart and dry.

Overall, a clean, simple, no fruit added Berliner Weiss. Lovely compliment to this evening's pizza. Wish more brewers would put out the basic style instead of adding every known fruit on the planet.

 

It's quite literally an educational beer. It's made by a professor. A beer professor specifically, in Munich (München). Beer drinkers enjoy learning about beer. München is generally a good region to learn about beer. That said, reading the label will probably be more historically informative than my post. Let's pour it.

L: Hisses like a soda pop when opening the lid. She's a fiesty brew. Exuberant carbonation like champagne, overflowing the bottle even when ice cold. If you attempt to open it remotely warm, it will look like a volcano briefly, and your carpet will never be the same--It's extremely fizzy. There is a residual at the bottom if you manage to get that far, and should age gracefully due to the yeast, lactobacillus, and carbonation barrier.

S: Sour wheat with a little bit of barley and just the faintest indication of hops.

T/F: Mildy sour, more tart, and very dry on the finish. It's light and refreshing. I am electing to pour it. A 500mL glass is 16.9oz. It takes two 18oz cups and some patience to pour the bottle. Transferring a whole bottle to one glass could take you 5 minutes. I guess you could choose not to pour it, but if you drink it straight from the bottle, you're going to get just as much foam anyway, so you may as well pour it and let the excess off. The nucleation is insane so don't worry about it going flat.

O: One thing I do know for sure, don't try to open it warm.

 

Bright gold appearance with a tiny, off white head and sparse lacing. Aroma of wheat and tart fruit, thinking lemons and green apples. Wheaty, astringent taste; sour, but not extremely so. This one is unique, as if a spritzy white wine had started to turn. Dry, medium bodied, well carbonated mouthfeel. Lingering, fruity, finish

Sweet and sour

 

Very nice Berliner Weisse, taste nice as is, also very nice with some raspberry sirup, while woodruf sirup may be an acquired taste. Not as sour as some of the Berliner Weisse from the actual city of Berlin, it‘s more a tartness as if you were thinking of sour cherries. A bit higher in ABV. While the Weisse from the actual city if Berlin is in the 3 to 3.8% range, this one comes in at 5%.

Dirty gold pour, foamy head with lacing. This brew is fruity--mellow citrus--and mildly sour, champagne-like. It is a little sip of history, and beautifully re-created from the 1809 recipe. Billed as a sour, but as Berliner Weisse beers go, only slightly tart. No need to add syrup.

My last beer first time I went to Stammtisch with beşa. Good choice.

This one pours a slightly hazy golden yellow color, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells like light citrus, grassiness, lemon, and some very light wine-like funk.

This is definitely much less sour than I expected, but I guess historically for the style that may be accurate. There's some creamy and citrusy wheat-like character, a bit of dry wine-like character, and just a touch of lemon.

This is light bodied, and crazy drinkable, with a crisp and clean feel to it.

Most Berliners these days, while some of them are delicious, are absolutely laden down with fruit puree. It's really cool to try a traditional and subtle take on the style.

Pours a light hazy amber golden color with a slight head and lacing
Aroma has fruity hints
The taste follows the nose with a fruity flavor
A light bodied decently carbonated crisp and dry beer
A great Berliner Weisse

Cloudy with a small short lived head.
Think of a fresh baked roll with a little citrus marmalade.
The smooth feel, fizzy carbonation, and dash of lemon at the end makes this a very refreshing beer for a warm sunny day.
I don't care for raspberry or the other standard Berliner Weiße flavorings and 1809 doesn't need them. This beer is delicious just the way it is (although I will admit to dropping a few blackberries into the glass)

Poured into a snifter. Large frothy head that settled in just under a minute. The color appears a rather hazy straw. Smells of banana and slight sour apple. Tastes delicious! Just a tiny hint of sour that quickly fades. I can't stand when sours overwhelm and linger, this is just perfect. Like candy in a bottle. The wheat lingers just behind the fruit. This truly may be thee champagne of beers.

 

This is truly one of those beers to drink before you die. It's that good. Probably my favorite beer of all time.

Most Berliner style beers made in the US add fruit. No fruit here, but it still tastes fruity somehow. The flavors are so complex it's more like a fine wine than a beer. And yet it's so easy drinking you could pound them all day if you could afford it. At $8/each at the bottle shop, this is a special occasion brew for me. If I could I'd buy it by the case.

 

Poured from fridge temp. Pours a nice golden yellow with substantial white head. The head really sticks around. Nose is awesome - lemon, wheat, grass. Taste is super smooth. Grass, wheat, lemon, leather, spice, and a bit of metal. Yeast and green grapes are evident. Maybe some apple. Stone as well, although this might be the metallic notes I am picking up. There is a slight sourness, but it's subtle. Mouthfeel is dry and light. Overall, this is a fantastic version of the style. Will definitely seek more of these out.

Sweet hell, BA’s, this thang is as ripe as rain. And I’m talking Dublin or Glasgow - not some San Bernardino acid rain. The damn thing glows like the Titanic when she left on her maiden voyage. But does it hit an iceberg in the end? Not even! This beautiful concoction is more like an iceberg destroyer! Wapow on that ass! It’s smooth. It’s clean. It’s like Raul on the weekend...

Yes please!

Big thanks to Tim for this bottle. Cheers man!

1809 pours exactly how I remember them in Berlin, mit nein "green or red" of course. The raspberry and woodruff shots are just fine of course, just not my jam. Anyway, the soft orange body glows in the historic and original "hazy" way. Capped by a thin and snappy white foam that can't wait to disappear.

The smell is classic and simple, just as it should be. Wheat juice with a touch of lemon like acidity.

Flavor on the other hand is deeply layered. Starts off with a bite of fresh apricot. Peach and green grapes continue the fruit salad and transition perfectly into the acidic lemon and lime. Surprisingly, the subtle wheat sweetness comes in later followed by that signature German yeast flavor found in classic weisse biers. Kind of clove and white pepper with restrained banana.

One things for sure, this is too easy to drink. The glass is disappearing in record time. Light and soft before a spritzy tartness comes through. It ends exceptionally dry, demanding for another sip immediately.

Truly a magnificent brew. Simple and elegant, delicious and refreshing. I can see why the soldiers celebrated with it. If it's good enough for Napoleon, it's good enough for me!

Prost!

 

I taste some faint bready malts, some sour but the barnyard funk is just too much for me to handle, this is not my style of beer. Cheers! C

Bottle to chalice, split into 2 pours - the first without sediment, the second with. I highly recommend doing this or pouring all with sediment. The character changed significantly. Bottling date 16/6/2016.

Appearance without sediment is a clear pale yellow with high effervescence and a white, fluffy, thick 2 finger head that disappeared moderately fast with no lacing. Hazy with sediment (not nearly as gorgeous).

Aroma is dominated by green apple without sediment. With lees, there’s that lactic sourness I’m expecting! Also more lemony with apple along with it. Light biscuit.

Taste dominated by the fruit (tart green apple) and not very sour without sediment. This is great but ... with the sediment it became a Berliner. Now dominated by lactic sourness as it should be with support from green apple and lemon. Light dough at the end. Very restrained Brett character. Dry finish. Alcohol not detectable.

Mouthfeel is light, highly carbonated, crisp and refreshing.

Overall, an outstanding example of the style. I would like to try a fresh bottle as I expect the malt character would be more apparent. I tried to take this into account for rating. I am surprised by the 5% alcohol, seems high for what I consider the style to be, but it didn’t detract from this beer at all.

(500 ml bottle, Bottled on 16 06 16; purchased cold... split-poured between a teku first then a fluted goblet)

L: crystal-clear, brassy yellow colored liquid; near snow-white foam, keeping a tall, thick, rocky pad for a few moments before collapsing into med-thick, spongy collar... the pour into the goblet is a shade paler... lace slips, doesn't stick... kinda looks like champagne... good amount of sediment left in bottom of bottle, hard to wash out - wonder if I was missing out on any flavors having not swirled it out into the beer, hmm...

S: familiar wheat malt base with tones of lemon cookie and dried grapefruit peel, as well as light floral and grassy notes... pleasant enough aromas, with good intensity, but I wonder if some of its vibrancy has been lost

T: very clean, lightly malty core; dry, creamy finish with a mellow trail of the lacto closing out the sip; aftertaste leaves a delicate doughy yeast note and some lingering, lightly-bitter tartness; later a mild lemon-bubblegum note... in further sips, the malt and tartness homogenize, front to back, but overall flavors remain relatively potent

F: tiny tart bite up front, bit of a foamy texture going through, but the body is rather light and flat, with the finish dropping off before the back of the palate... tiny bit of effervescence, bit of latent belch

O: not bad, doesn't have off-flavors, just clean and marginally dulled (by age?) - I had this maybe twice a few years back and don't remember it then being all that explosive in taste... may be tempted to grab another bottle later and drink it with the lees