Poll: Berliner Weisse. With or without syrup?

I tried it with syrup once, a very long time ago, and don't see myself going that route again. It really covered up the aroma and flavor too much for me.

 

I never mentioned it to you personally but this may be a good time. The NG Berliner Weisse with a bit of one of their fruit beers added in place of flavored syrups is outstanding! Serendipity and Belgian Red work the best (probably because they are the sweetest of the four).

 

I think that they are not needed and a good Berliner Weisse is better without, but from time to time its fun to add a little something extra to the beer. I wouldnt do it if i had one bottle of something but if one was ontap at a bar or something I might order one with syrup.

 

I have one bottle of Star of the North left, plus a bottle of woodruff syrup I got from a local German importer. If any Minnesota BAs want to get together to taste it both ways, message me.

 

I don't syrup my Berliners.

 

I don't think I'd ever had woodruff before, so that was reason enough, but after trying it with syrup and without I enjoy it more without. Between 10 Barrel's Crushes and DeGarde's variations, I get plenty of flavor variety.

 

No syrup, and it would be ashame to share just one bottle. Maybe share a case, but, share only one bottle of Hottenroth? Never.

 

Horst must have written that because it's bullshit. Proper Berliner Weisse is as sour as the sourest Lambic. Light fruity character? What crap. It's bone dry and has a very distinctive flavour that comes from a secondary conditioning with Brettanomyces?

 

Oh sorry, I see Fritz Briem wrote it. So someone who works at a Bavarian institution. His 1809 Berliner Weisse is proof that he knows fuck all about the style and its history. Why on earth didn't they get someone from the VLB to write the article?

 

I've never had it in Germany and nobody here seems to offer syrup with it so I can't really comment on my preference

 

OEC provides syrup at the tasting room bar...so very Europey...they did not seem to understand that Americans ruin their beer with lime.

 

That sounds quite good

 

Ron, you are quite the 'consistent' chap except that you forgot to use the word "bollocks" in your post.

Cheers!

 

There's an option missing from the poll selections:

Whatever I'm feeling like at the time; one syrup or another, or nothing at all. Nothing is right or wrong (no matter what someone else wants to tell you).

 

Or evilcatfish's response:

Perhaps the poll would look a *lot* different as a result?

 

...or if there was something specifying that the fruit juice/syrup would be added to the fermenter instead of your glass. That seems to be a HUGE game-changer somehow. Just look at J Wakefield.

 

I've seen the syrups available at a few different German groceries in and around Chicago, but the beer is offered up in the 3 ways in Berlin. Jackson compared the options to a traffic light: Red, Yellow, Green. Raspberry, Plain, Woodruff. Never heard of blueberry as an option -- maybe that's the Maine-Berliner Weiß?

 

Both with and without can be quite nice. When I was a young sprout a few decades ago, the only Berliners I ever came across were those offered at a place in my hometown called the Hofbrau, a small cafe and specialty market owned by a German gentleman who wasn't overly particular about requiring proof of age, bless him. Heinz, the proprietor, offered Berliners with choice of syrups, and I never got the sense that they were ever served straight. I've since come to prefer them without syrup but I'm a bit surprised to see that, if opinion here is any indication, drinking them straight has become the American norm.

And wow, here it is, still morning, and I'm all but salivating at the thought of enjoying one.

 

Yep. I don't see many people here complaining that a "perfectly good beer" was violated when a brewer adds vanilla to a batch.

 

I prefer sizzurp in my beer.