Beer Thoughts: Crabtree Berliner Weisse Ale

Beer info:
I was at Weber Street Liquor and saw some bottles of beer from Crabtree Brewing. It turns out they've got a pretty limited quantity of beer from Crabtree, and they trucked it down from Castle Rock because the brewery isn't distributing in Colorado Springs yet. So, they've got a limited quantity of the Berliner Weisse (GABF gold medal, 2011), Ginger Bee, Oatmeal Stout (GABF silver medal, 2011), and the Serenity Amber. The Berliner Weisse is what we're looking at today. It's historically a low alcohol German style wheat beer that's been soured with a lactobacillus, this one has 60% wheat malt. The style was nearly lost by the 20th century but has made a recent resurgence in US markets.

Beer Thoughts:
I'm a big fan of the Berliner Weisse style and this one is perhaps my favorite, even though it's a bit higher in alcohol content than I would expect/want. The beer pours golden yellow, cloudy like a wheat beer with a white head that dissipates a bit too quickly. The aroma is grassy and lemon citrusy. Flavor-wise this beer is a lot of fun while reasonably simple. Reminds me a bit of Boulevard's Wheat mixed with their Solstice, it's bready but also grassy and definitely there's a clean lemon citrus. The flavor matches the aroma. There's a slight clove flavor from the yeast and then most noticeably is the slight tartness (or sourness as some would say) from the lactobacillus. The beer is nice and crisp, incredibly easy to drink. This is the perfect beer for this sunny spring weather we've been getting lately. I wish we saw more of this in town, and that it came in six packs.

Our Recommendation:
Highest Recommendations for this beer for anyone...even people who don't like sours, this will be a good beer to experiment with. It will disappear quickly at Weber. You can also get it up north, starting in Castle Rock.

How To Drink It:
Pour it in a tulip glass. The QR Code on the bottle takes you to a video that talks about how historically you would make a sweet berry syrup to pour into the beer. You could split the beer with another person but to be honest I would just drink the whole thing. In fact, I'd drink a couple of them, even though the bottles are 22oz.

Where It's From:
Crabtree Brewing, Greeley, CO

Full Disclosure:
I paid full price ($6.89) for this beer. Worth every penny.

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