Aged Berliner Weisse

[teamtuna06]

So I aged a handful of Berliner Weisse bottles (mainly because I forgot I had them left). Last summer it was light, straw and very clear. While it was a good beer, I didn’t leave it on the lactobacillus long enough to develop enough sourness. It was tart, but not sour.

I just opened one and it has a rose color to it. It has a faint fruit smell in addition to the tart nose. I’m not sure what has caused this, but I’m intrigued. It tastes good, a little more complex than last year, but still finishes clean. Any thoughts as to what’s going on? It was stored in a beer fridge between 35 and 40F.

[rebuiltcellars]

No idea what could have caused the rose color. The fruity nose may be due to microbes decaying; in very small quantities I could see that effect yielding a pleasant fruityness, as opposed to the gut-wrenching smell that would occur by microbes rotting in bulk.

Out of curiosity, what was your process for making the beer? Did you boil? At what point did you ferment with the lacto? From what I’ve read, BW was traditionally mashed but not boiled, which should result in a very short window for the beer to remain drinkable. I brewed a batch that way about a month and a half ago, and it is already past it’s prime.

[teamtuna06]

It was a 15 min boil. I added lacto and yeast together.