Berliner Kindl Weisse

330ml bottle at The Red Baron restaurant, Berlin Tegel airport, 22nd August 2008. Pours a hazy golden amber with a diminishing white head. I found the aroma pretty unpleasant - herbs and earth/clay/plaster dust. However the taste is rather interesting, being exceedingly sour. The waitress recommended I had it in the local style, which is mixed with a fruit juice. I’ll have to try that next time, but this time I wanted to try it plain. The wheat character lacks the spiciness of a traditional hefe-weisse. Here you just have sourness and a delicate wheat flavour with just a hint of peach perhaps. The palate is light too and with the low alcohol content, this is very refreshing to drink. Overall, very interesting and worth trying if you see it.

No 382
Rated: 23.04.2008
Bottle brown, 330 ml
Appearance: Pours hazy, very bright orangy to dark metalic yellow body with initial lively carbonation, slowly decarbonates also due to the bowl shaped original Berliner Kindl Weisse Glass.
Aroma: Very, very sour aroma, like sauerkraut in its intensity but positive, interesting, vinegar, some notes of grains, wheat and mineral nose but grainy - bready aroma is almost totally covered by pronounced sharp accidity and sourness cask wood. Much more sharp&heavier than Belgian Whites.
Flavour: Extremely sour, like sauerkraut, great load of ’C’ vitamine, chewy, without a trace of bitterness or sweetness, very one dimentional, later on when the sour taste decreases in intensity in the aftertaste are some notes of grains and citrusy (especially lemon) hints, finish duration is medium to long, sharp sourness, vinegar and practically nothing more.
Palate: Body is light, texture is very sour (extremely), carbonation on palate is medium, finish feel is sour, clean, accidic, fresh.

Ahia. Non l’ho capita; e dire che sono uno che contro l’acido non ha proprio nulla... l’aroma è flebile flebile ma molto fresco e fragrante, soprattutto grano. Il sapore è... strano: si concentra in un attimo tutta l’acinidità che non riesce a celare (anzi secondo me accentua) l’acquosità dell’insieme e poi improvvisamente ecco ritornare il frumento così come se fosse passato a salutare. Non trovo alcuna complessità in una birra del genere, potrebbe essere buona per dissetarsi perché effettivamente - strano a dirsi - non stufa anche nella sua particolarità. Però non mi ci vedo proprio a berne dei litri... Mi aspettavo qualcosa di diverso forse, di più sfaccettato, di meno succo di limone.

330 ml bottle. Hazy white and golden colour. Tall white fine-laced head. Weak acidic wheat aroma. Delicate aromas, with notes of oxidization. Gentle acidic flavours, not as much as I had expected. Light-bodied. Little flavour overall, only a light wheat flavour mixed with the lactic acidity. Quite nice, but rather boring on it own. I remember the Schultheiss as much better than this.

Appearance: Pale yellow, golden. Not that cloudy. Very fizzy, no head. Aroma: Pretty fruity, lemony, not wheaty at all. Taste: Lemony, acidic, a bit like white wine. Fizzy. Info: 330ml bottle, 21/11-2005, 57/300, 37/500