May 2023

As our stocks of dark Munich malt are slowly approaching the "best before" date, we will prefer to brew dark beers over the next few weeks. And we're already starting to think about the dark Christmas bock again, because before you know it, it'll be Christmas again.
 

We therefore brewed 200 liters of top-fermented dark beer on 23.05.2023, the bulk of which consisted of a good 70% Munich malt, 20% Carahell and 10% Caramünch. We mashed isothermally at 74 °C with the addition of Saaz green hops and mashed off at this temperature after around 40 minutes. We obtained 200 liters of wort with an original gravity of around 12 °P. Bitter hopping was carried out with a non-isomerized hop extract, and further aroma hopping at the end of the 60-minute boiling phase was carried out - on a trial basis - with Hallertau Mittelfrüh hop extract.
The wort is fermented in pressureless fermentation with LalBrew BRY-97, which ferments neutrally and sediments very well as a break yeast. The beer should be mature and easy to drink in approx. 4 weeks, and we expect approx. 3.5 - 4 % alcohol by volume at this original gravity. We like to use BRY-97 because its neutral fermentation and very good sedimentation capacity enable us to produce an almost clear pseudo lager beer within around 4 weeks.

In the week from May 15 - 20 , 2023, we brewed daily, using our Braumeister 50 and our 50 L system with agitator, which, compared to the systems with malt pipe technology, enables fast and homogeneous mashing and ideal mixing during mashing.
In a series of tests with pale ale malt, we compared the isothermal high-temperature mashing process with the classic high-short process and a further simplified high-short process and, to confirm previous results, kept the duration of mashing identical for all 3 mashing processes this time. A non-isomerized hop extract was used for bittering in all 3 brews, while Spalter Select and Aramis (both P90 pellets) were used for the aroma.
Based on several trials in different systems, it has now been confirmed that boiling the wort with hop extract leaves significantly less residue on the walls and heating coils of the systems, which considerably reduces the effort required for cleaning and also eliminates the need for chemical cleaning agents.
We have obtained comparable original wort around 12 °P, and the 3 brews are each fermented in a cylindrically-conical fermentation vessel with the LalBrew Diamond at 13 °C without pressure. We have very good experience with this bottom-fermenting Pilsner yeast. It sediments very well and leads to a pleasant and pure Pilsner taste, it produces rather little diacetyl, which manifests itself in a buttery taste, which is expressly desired in the Czech Republic.
Due to the different mashing processes, the alcohol contents of the finished beers will differ significantly in some cases, and these beers will then be subjected to a professional sensory evaluation (so-called tasting) at the end of these investigations together with the beers previously produced by top fermentation. It is interesting to see what differences well-trained and professional tasters can deduce from the beers.
 

Although we always have beer in stock, experience has shown that it can quickly become scarce in the summer months. That's why we brewed a dark wheat beer, a mild smoked beer and a black beer with the Braumeister 50, in all 3 cases mashed isothermally at 74 °C. All 3 beers achieved original gravities of around 12 °P.
The wheat beer was brewed with 50% Munich malt and 50% pale wheat malt. The isothermally mashed wort was bitter-hopped with non-isomerized hop extract; we did not use aroma hopping. Munich malt leads to malty aromas, and the wheat beer yeast WYeast 3068, which corresponds to the well-known W68, produces complex wheat beer aromas with a perceptible banana aroma. Therefore, an aroma hop is not necessarily required in this combination.
The smoked beer was poured with around 30% smoked barley malt and around 70% Munich malt. In contrast to Bamberg smoked beer, this produces a very subtle smoky aroma that does not completely dominate the character of the beer. Bitter hopping was carried out with non-isomerized hop extract; here, too, we did not use aroma hops, as the mild smoky character of the smoked beer should define the aroma. The brew is fermented at around 20 °C with the top-fermenting yeast BRY-97 from LalBrew, which ferments neutrally and causes very rapid sedimentation. The smoked beer should therefore mature in around 4 weeks and could well enrich a barbecue evening or two.
For the black beer, we used a brew made from Munich malt, Caramünch, Melanoidin malt and barley smoked malt; the color was deepened with Carafa, a colored malt that is very reminiscent of "malt coffee" in taste and brings in the aromas typical of black beer. As with the other beers, non-isomerized hop extract was used for bittering, and we used a hop extract made from "Hallertauer Mittelfrüh" for the aroma in the whirlpool on a trial basis. We bottom-fermented the black beer at 13 °C with a Bohemian Pilsner yeast, which emphasizes the malt character and sediments well. The beer should mature in around 6 weeks.

We used to view hop extracts very skeptically, but production technology is constantly evolving and today various companies produce high-quality, pure hop extracts by extraction with supercritical carbon dioxide. Ultimately, only those substances are extracted that would also be extracted during boiling. In addition, extraction with carbon dioxide does not require any chemicals, so that no undesirable substances are introduced into the hop extract. We will continue to test and evaluate the latest products, some of which we receive directly from the manufacturers as samples.