Berliner Weisse mit Schuss

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Fine sieve
• •Small saucepan
• •Wide Berliner Weisse goblets or large stemmed beer glasses
• •Jigger or small measuring cup

Instructions

1. 1

   Chill the beer

   Put the Berliner Weisse and the glasses in the refrigerator until properly cold. This drink lives from cold acidity and fine foam; if the beer is warm, it throws coarse bubbles and tastes dull before the syrup even arrives.

2. 2

   Make raspberry syrup

   For the red Schuss, bring the raspberries, sugar, and water just to a low bubble, then cook 5 minutes until the berries collapse and the liquid turns deep red. Keep the heat gentle because hard boiling muddies the fruit and cooks away the clean tartness. Strain through a fine sieve without pressing hard, stir in the lemon juice, and chill the syrup.

3. 3

   Make woodruff syrup

   For the green Schuss, wilt the woodruff sprigs in a cool place for 8 to 12 hours until the scent comes up. Bring the sugar and water to a boil, take it off the heat, let it cool 10 minutes, then add the wilted woodruff and lemon peel for 20 minutes only. The wilt wakes the aroma; the short steep keeps bitterness and too much coumarin out of the glass. Strain and chill.

   Use only correctly identified, food-grade Waldmeister, woodruff. Do not use a large bunch, and do not serve woodruff syrup to children or pregnant guests; this is an alcoholic drink anyway, so keep the table sensible.
4. 4

   Add the Schuss

   Pour 30ml chilled syrup into each chilled Berliner Weisse goblet. Syrup first gives you the red or green base and lets the beer lift it slowly through the glass; syrup dumped on top sinks in streaks and leaves the first mouthful wrong.

5. 5

   Pour the beer

   Tilt the glass and pour 330ml cold Berliner Weisse gently down the inside, then let the foam settle into a pale cap. Do not stir hard. The carbonation does the mixing, and if you beat it with a spoon you've spent the beer before you drink it.

6. 6

   Serve at once

   Serve immediately, red or green, with a straw if you want the old Berlin habit. The drink waits for nobody; once the foam falls and the chill goes, it's just sweet sour beer in a pretty glass.

Chef Tips

• •Buy real Berliner Weisse if you can, lightly alcoholic, tart, and pale. A Bavarian Hefeweizen is a different beer, softer and fuller, and it will fight the syrup instead of carrying it.
• •Keep the syrup sharp. Raspberry syrup needs lemon juice because the beer is sour and the syrup must meet it cleanly, not turn the glass into candy.
• •Waldmeister has to wilt before steeping. Fresh-cut sprigs smell quiet; after half a day they release the hay-and-vanilla scent Berlin expects in the green glass.
• •Use 30ml syrup per 330ml beer as the starting point. More than that buries the sour beer, and then you could have poured lemonade and saved yourself the trouble.

Advance Preparation

• •Make either syrup up to 1 week ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator. Chill it hard before serving because warm syrup steals the cold from the beer.
• •Wilt the woodruff the night before you make the syrup. Das braucht seine Zeit, and rushing it gives you green sugar water with no scent.
• •Open the beer only when the glasses are ready. Berliner Weisse is light and lively, and an open bottle goes flat fast.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 365g)