Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Jamey kindly gave me some of his cherry berliner weisse when I dropped by his house to pick up a drill-bit stirring device to use on a mead I was making.  I know that he split part of his berliner weisse batch and added cherries to that part of the split.  I will start off by saying I have never had berliner weisse before, but I have heard of it.  I know that the original brewery is no longer in existence, but that White Labs or Wyeast has a strain of their yeast that is released periodically.  I think I heard that it has some bret or other funky characteristics to it, but that is about all I know.

The beer poured very clear and was the color of wild flower or clover honey.  It had a off-white head that quickly disappeared.  The beer appears effervescent, with lots of little bubbles climbing up the center of the column of liquid.  This would have been very pretty in a pilsner glass, but, alas, I only poured it in a standard pint glass.  The beer has a definite sour note in the odor and a smell that reminds me of mulled spiced cider.

The beer is a very pleasant taste, with an upfront cherry, almost apple flavor (this could have been the apple smell association still lingering in my mind).  That flavor quickly fades to the sour flavor on the back of the tongue.  It seemed that those are the two primary flavors in the beer, with one quickly smoothing over into the other.  The flavor finishes with a little prickle of carbonation as it flows off the tongue.

Not knowing much about the style, I cannot offer any real advice on tweaking this beer.  I can say I like it and that I could drink a couple of pints of it.  It is definitely different and maybe something I would like to try making some day.