Berliner Weisse Take II - Tasting

I can't believe it's been over four months since I brewed up my second Berliner Weisse.  I am finally getting around to doing some tasting notes after drinking this beer for the last couple months.

This was a pretty complicated beer.  I tried the technique of culturing the microbes from grain for this batch which was interesting.  I wasn't feeling great after doing this due to some odd and kind of disgusting aromas being developed but it's turned out that no disgusting flavors made it to the final product.  Not sure I'll do it again but it's good to know how it works.

I also used about 6 lbs of lb cherries that I harvested from a local orchard on half of the beer which was a first for me.  This is something I've wanted to do for quite a while and I think this beer was a good one to try it with.

I was hoping to produce a beer with a good level of clean sourness that would be an easy drinker.  I think I have succeeded.

Plain Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Musty, slightly grainy and bready, and a little bit fruity.  Smells a little bit sour.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a pretty strong head that quickly dissipates down to nothing (a few bottles were strong gushers but my last couple haven't been.  Pours fairly clear.  I dumped a lot of the dregs in with it though so it's cloudy in the picture.  It's a nice golden color.
• Flavor:
• It has a relatively mild but still distinctive sourness that lingers on the finish.  It's a pretty nice level of sourness really - roughly on the same level as the Nodding Head Brewery's Berliner.  I'm not sure I'd really want it any more sour than this.  Also happy to note that it's a pretty clean sour flavor - no gross byproducts from grain harvested microbes that I can detect.  The beer has a bready flavor mixed in with the sourness that provides some balance.  There's also a bit of the mustiness and fruitiness mixed into the finish to make it a bit more than just sourness.  It isn't a complex beer but it has enough going on to keep it interesting
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied and very dry.  It has pretty strong carbonation that prickles the tongue.
• Overall:
• It's a pretty nice little sour beer.  It turned out a bit better than I thought it would after souring the gallon with grain.  I was really worried that I'd developed some off flavors - really happy that the final product doesn't really have any.  I really like the level of sourness.  It makes for a refreshing and really easy drinking beer.

Sour Cherry Tasting Notes:

• Aroma: 
• Really nice sour cherry aroma.  A little bit of mustiness and sourness mixed in but pretty far in the background.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a strong head that lasts a bit longer than the plain half.  It dissipates down to a very thin ring around the edge of the glass.  This beer is a really nice red color.  It also poured clear if not for the sediment going into the glass.
• Flavor:
• Cherry flavor dominates up front and through the finish.  There is no sweetness left from the cherries but it does have a certain juiciness up front.  The cherries then mingle pretty seamlessly with the sourness in the finish.  The sourness level in the beer is just about the same as the plain.  I don't get any of the more subtle secondary flavor from this beer that I was picking up in the plain half.
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied but slightly fuller than the plain half.  Very dry.
• Overall:
• The addition of the cherries also produced a nice beer.  The cherries get along with the base beer very well.  It does overshadow some of the nice subtleties of the base beer but the cherries provide enough of interest to compensate.  I'm really happy I decided to split the batch and try this.