When it comes to traveling, the Nomads definitely had the right idea: travel to an unknown place, stay for awhile, learn about where they were and add a bit of their own influence to the land, and get out; it was that simple. It’s now probably what every twenty-something backpacker has in his or her free-spirited mind when taking the year off to travel around Europe and drink a lot of beer. With Evil Twin’s Nomader Weisse, it seems that just like the backpacker, the gypsy brewery probably found some inspiration in the nomadic routine, especially when it puts its standard mischievous spin on the time-tested Berliner Weisse recipes.
Pouring the Nomader Weisse from its can, a bright and fizzy golden body just a few shades darker than the aluminum container itself emerges, converging into a medium-sized, bristling white head that dissipates in mere moments. A cloudy, sediment-speckled murkiness lingers in the center—a characteristic feature of any Berliner Weisse. With just a slight tilt of the glass towards the face, the beer’s pungent, sour aromas of lemon and Granny Smith apple come forth, but a tinge of sweet, malty wheat curtails the dominant sour smell so as not to prematurely overwhelm the drinker.
The nose doesn’t seem to stray too far for your standard Berliner Weisse, but just after taking the first sip of the Nomader Weisse, one begins to see how Evil Twin’s Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø left his nomadic mark on the landscape, or in this case, the Berliner Weisse style. The tangy notes of lemon and apple, just as in the nose, playfully bite at the drinker’s teeth on contact in typical Berliner fashion. However, the Nomader soon reveals Jeppe’s modern day tinkerings with slight hints of white grape, an effect akin to transporting a German Oktoberfest in its entirety right to America: somewhat bizarre, but still delicious.
When my friend ordered this at a nearby craft beer bar Proletariat, her jaw dropped a few inches when the barkeep wryly mentioned that “other sour beers and Berliner Weisses can tear your enamel off in comparison to the Nomader Weisse.” In the case that you’d like to eat soup and drink coffee comfortably after your sour beer, or simply want to try the gypsy brewer-take on Berliner Weisse territory, take a mouth-puckering, flavor-loaded trip with the Nomader Weisse.
Brewery: Evil Twin in partnership with Westbrook Brewing Co.
City: Mount Pleasant, S.C.
Style: Berliner Weisse
Availability: Limited, 12 oz. cans
ABV: 4%