November 2021

The year is slowly coming to an end, our tanks are full and we are gradually reducing our brewing activities in the current year. So on 20.11.2021 we only brewed one beer, this time a pilsner. The batch consisted of 44% Pilsner malt, 44% Pale Ale malt and 12% Carapils. Mashing took place at a constant 72 °C in 55 liters of water, which we slightly acidified naturally with 0.3 liters of Döhler Sauergut. Our Braumeister 50 from Speidel was used and mashing was completed after 30 minutes, followed by 60 minutes of lautering. Using 11.5 kg of malt grist, we obtained 58 liters of iodine-normal wort with around 12 °P after a total of 90 minutes.
Enigma (18 % alpha) was used for bittering, and 100 grams of the British Endeavour aroma hop, which is a cross between Cascade and Target, were added to the whirlpool at 90 °C. BarthHaas describes it on its website(https://www.barthhaas.com/hopfensorte/endeavour, accessed 22.11.2021) with aromas of gingerbread, blackberry and bergamot. These aromas are rather unusual for a commercial Pilsner, but when bottom-fermented with the ImperialYeast "Urkel" (a Czech Pilsner yeast), these aromas should remain discreetly in the background.
In the end, we ended up with 55 liters at 12.5 °P in the fermentation vessel, which will now be fermented at 13 °C for about 2 weeks. The beer is then lautered and carbonated in mid-December. According to the manufacturer, this yeast sediments rather slowly, so the beer cannot be drunk until around mid-February. Nevertheless, we currently have around 2 x 40 liters of finished Pilsner beer in stock from the experimental batches from 28.8.2021. The isothermally brewed beer has an alcohol content of 3.1% by volume at 11.7 °P, while the classically brewed beer has an alcohol content of 5.3% by volume at 12.2 °P. In a professional tasting at our colleagues in Munich, the classically brewed beer performed slightly better. It should be mentioned that both beers were still differently cloudy during the tasting and suspended matter can influence the taste. In our experience, the W34/70 needs a little more time for sedimentation, especially in the first run.
In the meantime, both beers have been well clarified, and if you would like to taste them comparatively, of course "strictly scientifically", please contact Ms. Marg by e-mail. We will then fill 2 bottles of 0.33 l each, which will be labeled "Pils A" and "Pils B" with no indication of alcohol content or original gravity. We will swap A and B for several interested parties, i.e. it cannot be deduced from the letter alone which beer it is. We also use an individual abbreviation on the bottles so that we can clearly identify the beer on our premises. The brewery will be open to collect (free) beer until 17.12.2021 inclusive, after which we will take a break until 09.01.2022 inclusive after an eventful year.
 

We brewed experimentally on November 13 and 14. On the quite rocky road to alcohol-reduced IPAs with only 3-4% alcohol by volume (instead of the usual 6-8% by volume), we carried out a series of tests with Wethop. These are fresh hops that are processed, packaged and gently pasteurized by the producer directly after harvesting. Depending on the variety, hops can contain glucoamylase, alpha-amylase and beta-amylase. If classic cold hopping is carried out during fermentation ("hop plugging"), the non-fermentable higher sugars are broken down into fermentable sugars and the beers ferment through, so to speak, and also achieve (apparent) final fermentation levels of 90 % and above.
 

The chromatogram shows an example of this accompanying phenomenon. A wort was produced from Pale Ale malt by constant temperature mashing at 72 °C, which is highly enriched in the higher sugars compared to a classic infusion or (industrial) high-short mashing process. The yeast used (Lallemand Verdant IPA) ferments fructose, sucrose as well as glucose, maltose and maltotriose, but not maltotetraose and above. If the hops used are briefly sterilized in boiling wort, the higher sugars remain untouched. In the presence of unmodified Hallertau Mandarina Bavaria (Pellets 90), however, the higher sugars are broken down and fermented, resulting in considerably higher alcohol contents. At first glance, this behavior is indistinguishable from fermentation with a so-called Diastaticus yeast, which contains higher sugar-degrading amylases (such as Fermentis WB06).

Past trials have shown that Wethop exhibits ambivalent behavior. In some varieties we did not observe any degradation of the higher sugars, but in at least one variety we observed a complete fermentation with almost complete degradation of the higher sugars. In the current experiment, 50 liters of wort were produced in the Braumeister from Pale Ale malt and Carahell exactly as on October 23. This was cold hopped with untreated Blanc and Ariana Wethop directly at the start of fermentation with the Lallemand Voss Kveik. The main fermentation at 20 °C was already completed on November 14, and the next few days will show whether the hops break down higher sugars.

We repeated mashing trials with Pilsner malt in order to answer the reviewers' comments from a submitted publication, which essentially concerned the confidence intervals of the data presented in the manuscript. In total, we mashed 2 kg of crushed Pilsner malt in the Speidel Braumeister 10 4 times and mashed it for 120 minutes at a constant 72 °C. Samples were taken for analysis after 5, 30, 60 and 120 minutes. These were analyzed for the following parameters: Saccharification in °P, sugar distribution (HPLC and enzymatic), free amino nitrogen (FAN) and viscosity. The wort (around 40 L in total) was combined in a 50 L system and boiled together for 60 minutes with 25 g Nelson Sauvin; 25 g Nelson Sauvin was used for whirlpool hopping. The wort is fermented with IMPERIALYEAST "Stefon", which according to the description is probably Weihenstephan W68. This yeast produces the clove and banana aroma typical of wheat beer. As a wheat beer must contain at least 50% wheat malt according to the provisional beer law of 1993, this is an experimental "false wheat". Earlier blind tastings at our brewery resulted in the tasters all betting "house and home" that these were wheat beers, even though only barley malt was used. Here, too, the old brewer's adage is confirmed, slightly modified: "The brewer makes the wort, the (wheat) yeast makes the (wheat) beer!"

On 6.11.2021, we brewed a total of 200 liters of Pilsner beer. The batch of just over 47 kg consisted of 52% Pilsner malt, 29% Pale Ale malt, 10% Carapils and 9% Carahell. Pale ale malt and Carahell intensify the color and, like Carapils, increase the fullness. Pilsner malt itself is perhaps the most important base malt in brewing, especially as it is very strong in enzymes, and is used singularly by many breweries for brewing very pale Pilsner beers. However, every brewer has their own philosophy and so other malts are added to the malt bill in different proportions for Pilsner beers. In the past, we have brewed soft and full-bodied Pilsner beers with the above-mentioned malt bill, and that's how it should be this time too - don't change a running system.
We added a total of 1.3 liters of sour malt to moderately lower the pH value, which improves the enzyme work and helps to precipitate out the bitter hop compounds during fermentation and maturation. Mashing was carried out isothermally at 72 °C. As only 150 liters can be brewed with the Brewtools 150 Pro, we produced a further 50 liters in our 60 L system with agitator. Classic agitators have the advantage over malt pipe technology in brewing systems that the mashing of the malt grist is completed in just a few minutes and very good mixing, including homogeneous temperature distribution, is achieved right from the start. Specifically, we mashed at 77 °C (contrary to standard procedures) and after adding the malt grist, the temperature quickly dropped to 73 °C. After a further 5 minutes or so, 72 °C was reached, which was kept constant at ± 0.1 °C for 30 minutes under PID control.
After just 25 minutes, the mash was iodine-normal, and after a total of around 30 minutes, manual lautering started in the Braumeister 50. This was completed after a further 45 minutes, resulting in iodine-normal wort, as saccharification continues to take place during lautering. Mashing and lautering require less than 90 minutes with the isothermal mashing process at 72 °C, and in principle the wort could already be boiling after 90 minutes. With the Brewtools system, lautering took a little longer because the malt grist in the malt pipe tends to compact, which we regard as a fundamental but by no means critical disadvantage of the malt pipe technique. Regular manual chopping of the spent grains cake during lautering is therefore absolutely essential to ensure reasonably rapid lautering. For smaller systems, you can use a powerful cordless screwdriver with a food-safe whisk, for example.
In both systems, we boiled the wort(s) for 60 minutes, the bittering was done with Australian Enigma, which is also well suited as an aroma hop. In the whirlpool, we used the old, newly cultivated Rottenburger variety, which lends the beer spicy aromas, rounded off with Hüll Melon, which was intended to add subtle fruity aromas. The Hobbybrauerversand writes about Rottenburger (retrieved there on 07.11.2021): "Originally a hop variety native to the former hop-growing region of Rottenburg-Herrenberg-Weil der Stadt. Was also partly grown in Tettnang. Disappeared from cultivation in the late 1960s/early 1970s with the decline of hop growing in Rottenburg and the switch to newer varieties with a higher alpha content. A single plant survived, lovingly tended, for 40 years on the Locher farm in Tettnang-Missenhardt."
The brew is fermented in "Tank Siegfried" at 13 °C with the TUM W 34/70 in the second fermentation. With an original gravity of 13.5 °P, we expect approx. 4% alcohol by volume. This yeast sediments faster in the second fermentation than in the first, so the beer should be ready in time for the New Year's Eve celebrations, or maybe it will be ready for Christmas