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To round off the year, we brewed once again and refilled our tanks. As our low-alcohol pale ale beers, especially our NEIPAs, are very well received, we produced a good 100 liters of wort with pale ale malt, Carapils and melanoidin malt using isothermal mashing at 72 - 74 °C. This was bitter-hopped with Enigma. This was bitter-hopped with Enigma and whirlpool-hopped at 85 °C with Simcoe and Citra (pellets type 90).
The total of 100 liters of wort was divided between two ZKGs and fermented once with Imperial Yeast A38 (Juice Ale) and once with WYeast 1318 (London Ale III). Both yeasts support the fruity hop aroma, which we rounded off with Barth Haas Spectrum (Citra) in the dry hopping. Fermentation was completed after just a few days and in both cases produced an original gravity of 11.3 °P with an alcohol content of 3.4% by volume. These beers need a little time to mature, which is why they will not be released until the end of January.
For an event at Clausthal Technical University, we were asked to brew a "Munich Helles". The bottom-fermented brewing method is typical of this type of beer, which should be golden yellow and drinkable, with terms such as "biscuit-like" sometimes being used. The beer is clear and has an alcohol content of around 5% by volume, with an original gravity of around 12 °P. The bitterness is said to be lower than that of pilsner, and there is little information on the aroma, with only bitter hopping being used in most cases and aroma hops being used more in craft brewing. In addition, the water in the Upper Harz is very soft compared to the water in Munich and therefore there are differences in the brewing process per se.
In order to at least come close to mastering this "brewing impossible" task and still add our own touch, we have developed 2 different recipes. Firstly, we used the isothermal mashing process with the Brewtools 150 Pro and the Braumeister 50 to produce around 200 liters of wort from Pilsner malt, Pale Ale malt and Melanoidin malt. This was bitter-hopped with Enigma and whirlpool-hopped with Saazer green hops, which contain the full aroma of the hops. The approximately 200 liters of wort are bottom-fermented with LalBrew Diamond Lager. We have achieved an original gravity of 12 °P and expect an alcohol content of around 4% by volume.
The second recipe consisted of Pale Ale malt and Carapils, which were mashed isothermally in the Braumeister 50. The bitter hopping was done with Enigma, the whirlpool hopping with the New Zealand aroma hop "Nelson Sauvin", which is supposed to bring aromas of grape, gooseberry and grapefruit into the beer. The wort reached an original gravity of around 12 °P and is also fermented with the Diamond Lager. The alcohol content should be slightly lower than the other brew due to the use of pale ale malt. As bottom-fermented beers always need a little time to clarify through sedimentation, we expect both beers to be ready in mid-February - in time for the event.