Tag Archives: Berliner Weisse

Sour Beer & Wine Dinner Featuring Schell’s Noble Star Beers

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What: A Sour Beer/Boutique Wine/Small Plates Dinner with special guest, Jace Marti, of Schell’s Brewery
When: Thursday, October 1, 2015
Where: Salt Cellar Restaurant, 173 Western Ave N, St Paul, Minnesota
Arrive by: 6:15pm – Seated Small Plate Pairings start at 6:30pm
Cost: $80 (includes tax and gratuity). Price includes 11 libations, 5 small plates, 1 passed hors-d’oeuvre, and a panel of entertaining hosts

For the last few years, one of Minnesota’s most traditional breweries has also been one of its most innovative. And they are doing it by reviving a traditional, historic style – Berliner Weisse – using cypress-wood tanks that were purchased by that brewery in 1936.

The Noble Star Series of wood-aged Berliner weisse beers from August Schell Brewing Company have been some of the most interesting beers to come out of the Minnesota beer scene. Sixth-generation brewer Jace Marti has served up seven, Berliner-inspired, tart treats in the series, with more on the way.

It is said that Napoleon’s invading armies called Berliner weisse the “champagne of the north.” Many have compared wild-fermented and sour beers to fine wine. Believe me, wine drinkers love them. So what could be more natural than bringing wine and sour beer together in one extravagant meal?

Salt Cellar in St. Paul is thrilled to announce its first Beer/Wine dinner featuring five of the Noble Star beers (maybe one that hasn’t yet been released). Jace Marti will be on hand to talk about his beers and the new Star Keller, wood-aging facility that recently went into production.

We’re talking five courses, people! Salt Cellar Executive Chef Alan Bergo has paired each beer to a hand-crafted, small-plate dish. I’ll be on hand to help talk to those parings. And it’s not just beer. My favorite sommelier Leslee Miller is bringing wine to the table as well. That’s two beverages for each course! What? That’s crazy talk.

It might be crazy, but doesn’t it sound delicious? You know you want to be there.

Seating is limited and reservations are required by September 25th. You can make them by calling Salt Cellar’s General Manager, Blake Watson at 651-219-4012.

Schell’s Cypress Blanc

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The bottle of Cypress Blanc arrived at my house at the end of April. With great anticipation I placed it on the top shelf of my refrigerator – the shelf with all the beer. The Noble Star series beers from August Schell Brewing Company have all been so good. I couldn’t wait to pop the cork on this, the sixth in the series.

Fast forward to June 1st. I look at that top shelf of my refrigerator and there the bottle still sits. It’s been there taunting me for over a month; its plaintive cries of “Pick me! Pick me!” ringing in my ears with every bottle removed. I wanted to drink it, but I’m so seldom home in the evening. Most of my at-home beers are consumed late at night when I’m not really in the mood to pay close attention. I wanted to give this one its due. And so there it sat.

There is sat until last night. Finding myself with a rare evening off, I finally indulged.

I like the idea of Cypress Blanc. My background is in theater. I like to think about aesthetic nuances. This beer offers layers and layers of conceptual satisfaction. There is old-world meets new-world as the essential born-in-the-USA style, American Lager, meets the very-old, pre-lager traditions of Germany. There is tradition married to innovation as Jace Marti takes the brewery’s historic flagship Deer Brand Lager to places that the historic brewery has only recently ventured. And yet that avenue to innovation is itself a tradition that is hundreds of years older than the 150-year-old brewery. And of course there is the fact that Deer Brand is being tweaked in tanks that were once used to condition it straight.

Conceptual follies aside, what about the actual beer in the bottle? The Noble Star beers seem to be getting better with each release. But American lager weisse? How would this one hold up?

Here’s my notes:

Cypress BlancCypress Blanc
August Schell Brewing Company, New Ulm, Minnesota
Style: American Lager/Berliner Weisse
Serving Style: 750 ml bottle
7.4% ABV
4 IBU

Aroma: Faint corn. Tart acidity. Low barnyard. Very fruity – apples, Lemons. Low sulfur. Fresh-cut grass.

Appearance: Pale yellow and hazy. Moderate, mousse-like, white foam with moderate to low retention.

Flavor: Balance of corny, malt sweetness and tart, lemony acid. The acidity is not overly puckering. So much apple – I picture a green and red striped fruit. Other fruits also appear – pineapple. It’s hard to tell where the fruitiness of Hallertau Blanc hops stops and that from fermentation begins. Low barnyard. Low sulfur. Grassy notes. Finish is very dry with lingering acid and some low malt flavor. Residual apple.

Mouthfeel: Light body. Spritzy. A bit of pucker.

Overall Impression: So refreshing. Does it get more summery than this? If only the weather would get as summery as this beer. I like that hints of sulfur and corn from Deer Brand survive the lacto-brett fermentation. The 7.4% ABV is surprising. It sneaks up on you. I feel like Cypress Blanc is a little less complex than the earlier Noble Star beers, but then it is built on an American lager base. Less complex perhaps, but nonetheless satisfying.

Schell’s Noble Star Collection: Dawn of Aurora

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Light, bright, and effervescent, with a touch of refreshing, acidic tartness, Berliner Weisse is one of the styles du jour of American brewers. In its place of origin however, the style is nearly dead. It was once the most popular alcoholic drink in Berlin. 700-plus breweries are said to have been making it at the height of its popularity in the 19th-century. Now there is only one – Berliner Kindl. Though tasty, it is a shadow of the complex brew that Berliner Weisse once was.

The history of Berliner Weisse is dim. Multiple stories give conflicting accounts of its origin. Some say French Huguenots brought the style to Berlin in the 1700s after picking up brewing techniques from the makers of red and brown ales in the Flanders region of what is now Belgium. Another story says that it is an offshoot of an even older style, Boryhan, which was popular in Berlin in the 1600s.

Early Berliner Weisse was made with a mix of approximately 50% wheat and 50% barley malt. The wort was not boiled. Hops were boiled separately in water. The boiling hop infusion was then added to the mash along with unboiled hops. The overall hopping rate was very low.

Malted grain is rife with lactic acid producing bacteria and other microflora. Because it was not boiled, the wort remained unsantitized, meaning that these organisms could work alongside brewer’s yeast to complete fermentation. The resulting beer would have been light and dry with little residual sugar. Fruity and sour flavors would have dominated.

Today we think of Berliner Weisse as a low-alcohol, nearly white, wheat beer. But there were once many types of Berliner sour beers. Some were brewed with darker malts. Others were brewed to a higher alcohol content. It is this high-gravity style Berliner Weisse that Jace Marti of August Schell Brewing Company is exploring with Dawn of Aurora, the latest release in the Noble Star Collection.

Like the other beers in this series, Dawn of Aurora is aged for an extended period in the 1936, cypress-wood tanks that were once the brewery’s main fermenters. It utilizes a Brettanomyces yeast “obtained” from a long-defunct weisse brewery in Berlin. This one is a different strain than was used in the other Noble Star beers. Dawn of Aurora clocks in at 8% alcohol, but has only 5 IBU.

Here’s my notes:

Dawn of AuroraDawn of Aurora
August Schell Brewing Company, New Ulm, Minnesota
Style: “Starkbier”-style Berliner Weisse
Serving Style: 750 ml bottle
8% ABV
5 IBU

Aroma: Bright acidity – both lactic and acetic. Fruity – yellow grapefruit, lemons, and apricots. Especially apricots. Low, bready malt with some toasty overtones.

Appearance: Dark gold/orange. Cloudy. Clears a bit as it warms, but maintains a haze. Full head of fluffy, white foam with excellent retention.

Flavor: High acidity balanced by low sweetness mid-palate. Fruit is in front. Lemons and grapefruit return from the aroma. Apricots take on a much larger role, becoming the absolute dominant player as the beer warms. Low biscuit and bready malt comes in mid-palate and stays into the finish, contrasting and accentuating the stone fruits. Finish is very dry, lingering on stone fruit, lemon and light biscuit malt.

Mouthfeel: Light body, but with a mouth-filling quality. High carbonation, effervescent. Champagne-like.

Overall Impression: Beautiful! Lovely stone fruit and baked crust impression, like apricot cobbler. Let it warm up slightly from refrigerator temperature to really let the stone fruit and biscuit develop. When it does, it sings.

Schell’s Noble Star North Country Brünette and Black Forest Cherry

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Last week the August Schell Brewing Co. announced that it was building a new facility and restoring eight more cypress-wood fermenting tanks to expand its Noble Star Collection of Berliner weisse style beers. That seemed like a good enough reason to me to grab a couple bottles out of the basement and give them a whirl.

I’d write more here, but I would run the risk of ripping off my column in next week’s Minneapolis Star Tribune. Check it out in the Taste section on Thursday, October 2nd if you want to learn more about the series. For now…

Here’s my notes:

North Country Brünette North Country Brünette
August Schell Brewing Company, New Ulm, Minnesota
Style: Märzen Berliner Weisse
Serving Style: 750 ml bottle
5.4% ABV

Aroma: Malt dominates – toasted grain and bread crust. Hints of chocolate. Dry toast. Balsamic vinegar and some light, cherry-like fruit. Background notes of brettanomyces barnyard.

Appearance: Light brown and cloudy. Full, creamy, head of off-white foam with moderate retention.

Flavor: Bright, lemony acidity leads off and stays throughout, subsiding somewhat in the middle and then biting the top of the throat on the way out. With a second sip the malt becomes more prominent, revealing similar toasted grain and bread crust notes from the aroma. Chocolate is there, but the flavor is fainter than the smell. The finish is like sucking on a lemon wedge, complete with the nutty, bitter taste of the seeds.

Overall Impression: A most unique take on the Berliner weisse. Not “weisse” at all. Addition of toasty malty tones offers an intriguing counter play to the tart acidity. More substantial than the typical Berliner weisse, but still lightweight and refreshing. Autumnal weisse?

Black Forest CherryBlack Forest Cherry
Style: Märzen Berliner Weisse aged on Cherries
Serving Style: 750 ml bottle
5.5% ABV

Aroma: Lambic-like. Earthy and barnyard brettanomyces character comes through strong. Toasted grain and bread crust malt. Deep-red, tart cherry notes meld into malt. Pie filling.

Appearance: Dark amber color with a reddish hue. Hazy. Moderate, off-white/pinkish head with moderate retention.

Flavor: Cherry pie with the crust. Acidity bites at the beginning, lessens in the middle and returns in the finish. Pie cherries come in clear from the top and stay throughout. Bread crust and toasty malt notes stay in the background, offering a crust-like counterpoint to the acid and cherries. Faint cinnamon. Some lemony high notes. Barnyard brettanomyces character is strong.  As it warms the malty bits come through more boldly, amplifying the cherry pie effect. Bit of old-cheese funk hangs around in the finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light body. High carbonation. Puckering acidity.

Overall Impression: This is the funkiest and I think most complex beer of the series so far. I just might also be my favorite. The strong brettanomyces notes make it decidedly lambic-like. I love the cherry pie profile. This beer feels more mature than the others in the series (whatever that means).

 

Pour Decisions Verity

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After high school I spent a year in Germany as an exchange student. Although I was nowhere near Berlin, I quickly learned about Berliner weisse. It was one of my greatest pleasures to spend afternoons sitting outside at a café sipping Berliner weisse with raspberry syrup. It was great with those incredible German “kuchen” and “torten” that I still crave to this day. Oh, to have someplace like Café Lutz in the Twin Cities!

Berliner weisse nearly died out in Berlin. I believe there may be only one brewery still making the stuff there. But it’s seeing a re-birth over here. Along with Gose and Grätzer it’s part of a trend to revive extinct or nearly extinct beer styles. Right now seem to be boom-times for Berliner weisse in Minnesota. Schell’s just released Star of the North a few weeks ago. In Roseville, Pour Decisions Brewing Company has been putting out their own version called Acerbity on an off-and-on basis since they opened. Pour Decisions brewer and co-owner Kristen England is well-known in homebrew circles for his Berliner weisse. It’s won a ton of awards, and rightfully so. I first tasted it years ago while judging some competition or other. It was great then. It’s still great now.

Tomorrow (Saturday, July 27th) they are releasing a chardonnay-barrel aged version of Acerbity called Verity. I got the chance to taste some. Here’s my notes:

Pour Decisions Brewing Co.Verity
Pour Decisions Brewing Company, Roseville, Minnesota
Style: Barrel-Aged Berliner Weisse
Serving Style: 750 ml bottle

Aroma: Loads of lactic acidity and barnyard funkiness. Vinous. Some bready wheat malt aromas still survive underneath. Deep smells of ripe fruits – ripe pears and pineapple. Creamy vanilla.

Appearance: Light golden with a slight haze. Full and fluffy, mousse-like, white head that is very persistent.

Flavor: Lactic acidity leads it in – freshly sliced lemons. Brettanomyces derived leather and dirt usher it out. The pear notes make their way from the smell to the taste, accompanied by newly-arrived, crisp, green apples. The finish hints at vanilla as well. Subtle wheat brings some sweet balance to the profile. There is no bitterness here, nor any hop flavor.

Mouthfeel: Light body and spritzy carbonation. Puckering.

Overall Impression: A beautiful blend of sunny acidity and earthy funk. I love the touch of vanilla complexity brought by the wine-barrel aging. It’s delightfully light and refreshing, but there is a lot to pay attention to as well. Another great Minnesota-made Berliner weisse. Another great beer from a brewery that, in my opinion, doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.

Schell’s Star of the North Berliner Weisse

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Hidden on the grounds of the Schell brewery are lagering cellars built in the 1890s by Otto Schell, son of the company’s founder August. Nestled in those cellars is a single cypress fermentation tank installed in 1936 by Otto’s grandson Alfred. There were of course more of these tanks at one time, but they were dismantled and removed sometime later in the brewery’s history. Only the one remains.

In 2008 current Brewmaster and 6th generation descendant of August Schell, Jace Marti, returned from brewing school and set about restoring that piece of Schell’s history. The plan was to use it for a special line of beers called the Noble Star Collection. The wooden vessel was to be inoculated with cultures of brettanomyces and lactic acid producing bacteria to craft the delicate sour beers were once an important part of German brewing tradition.

The first beer in the collection is Star of the North, brewed in the style of the nearly extinct Berliner Weisse. A mash of pilsner and wheat malt (mostly wheat) was given a double decoction and the wort was sent to the fermenter without boiling, as is traditional for the style. The driving force of Berliner Weisse is the character derived from fermentation by lactobacillus, an acid producing bacteria. It results in a tart, fruity beer that can be drunk as is, but is often enjoyed with a shot of sweet raspberry or woodruff syrup – “mit Schuß.” Hops play next to no role in the flavor of Berliner Weisse – Star of the North boasts only 4 IBU. Hops are added more for their preservative quality to keep the lactic fermentation in check.

It’s a trend now for American brewers to revive historic beer styles. Berliner Weisse is one of them. Many of these efforts aim high, but end up short of their mark. Schell’s is one of my top-5 breweries in Minnesota. They have a solid reputation for crafting traditional German ales and lagers. I was excited to see what they would do with Berliner Weisse.

Here’s my notes:

StarOfNorthStar of the North
August Schell Brewing Company, New Ulm, Minnesota
Style: Berliner Weisse
Serving Style: 750 ml bottle

Aroma: Delicate. Fronts with tart green apples and fresh lemons. Crackery wheat sits just underneath. A dash of floral makes an appearance. There is a hint of brettanomyces barnyard, but only if you look for it.

Appearance: Pale yellow. Very hazy, but not quite cloudy. Has a white cast like a Beligan witbier. The moderate stand of fluffy, white foam dissipated fairly quickly, falling to a gauze on the surface. Effervescent bubbles.

Flavor: Bright and tart with high acidity; cider-like. Green apples and lemons lead, like the aroma. Acidity is the primary flavor driver, but cracker-like wheat survives to provide a comfy cushion. A bit of brettanomyces leather and barnyard brings earthy tones to this beer that is otherwise all about sunshine. Hops never make an appearance. The finish is quick and dry with some lingering tartness.

Mouthfeel: Light body. Effervescent carbonation.

Overall Impression: Delightful and refreshing. Despite its lightness there are layers of flavor, particularly as the brettanomyces yeast adds earthy depth. At 3.5% alcohol, Star of the North is a light and satisfying, summer patio sipper. It’s beautiful as it is, but it would be great with a “Schuß” of raspberry syrup.