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Together with NEIPA, Pilsener beer is one of our most popular beers, especially as we take a different approach to commercial breweries with our isothermal high-temperature mashing process. We significantly reduce the alcohol content in the beer because the mashing process a priori produces fewer fermentable sugars, but enriches non-fermentable sugars. For example, our pilsner beers brewed from pale ale malt now have an alcohol content of less than 3 % vol. with an original gravity of around 12 °P; the lowest value to date was 2.7 % vol.
We also differ from commercial breweries in that we sometimes use less aromatic hops or brew a front wort beer, in which no additional wort is added after lautering. The fact that the lower alcohol content in no way has a negative impact on the taste was recently confirmed in a sensory evaluation according to DLG criteria, in which our Pilsner with the lowest alcohol content was rated best in a series of tests of three different Pilsner beers.
As our stocks of Pilsner beer are slowly coming to an end after supplying some events at Clausthal University of Technology and the usual weekly run-off, we brewed new Pilsner on 17.11.2023. The brew is quickly described. The batch consisted of 100% Pale Ale malt and was mashed in our latest system, the BrewTower 140+. In the mash kettle, 125 liters of water were introduced at a temperature of 78 °C, and after mashing in 20 kg of Pale Ale malt, the temperature dropped to the desired 74 °C. Mashing was then carried out for 60 minutes.
After lautering, the wort was boiled with bitter hop extract for 60 minutes in our BrewTools 150 Pro, and after boiling, the Alsatian aroma hop "Strisselspalter" was added in the whirlpool. Up to now, we have mainly produced our pilsner beers with the Alsatian aroma hop "Aramis", but this is currently not available anywhere. As Aramis is a cross between Strisselspalt and Whitebread Golding, we opted for Strisselspalt, which should provide a similar aroma to Aramis.
We brewed twice and produced a total of over 200 liters of wort, which is fermented in our Siegfried tank at 12 °C with Whitelabs WLP-830. This bottom-fermenting yeast is very similar to the TUM 34/70 or W 34/70 in its behavior and has a good sedimentation capacity. As pilsner beers need a little time to mature, the beer will be filled into pressurized barrels in mid-December, where it will then mature at 2 °C in our cooling chamber.
The beer should be ready to drink at the beginning of January. As we are still in the test phase of the BrewTower system and have not yet optimized all the parameters, the original gravity is slightly below 11 °P. On the other hand, the alcohol content should then only be around 2.5 % vol. and we will see at the beginning of January whether the slightly lower original gravity leads to a loss of flavor.
Wheat and wheat beers are among the rarer beers we brew, and we actually only brew them in summer or on special request. We therefore brewed a dark wheat beer on 19.11.2023 for a milestone birthday to be celebrated at the beginning of January. The malt bill consisted of 100% Munich malt, so we did not add any wheat malt, which is why the finished beer will not be a wheat beer, even if it tastes like one.
The main pour consisted of 70 liters of water at a temperature of 78 °C, 11 kg of malt were mashed in the BrewTools 150 Pro at 74 °C for 60 minutes. After lautering, the wort was boiled for 60 minutes with Hallertau Tradition, without any secondary pouring (-> front wort beer). We did not use whirlpool or cold hopping because the wort is fermented with the aromatic WYeast 3068 (analogous to TUM 68 or W 68) at approx. 20 °C. Among other things, this yeast produces a banana-like aroma. For the first time, we used a cylindrically-conical vessel made of food-safe polyethylene as a fermentation vessel, in which we can easily see the amount of sedimented trub and can also drain it off at the cone before the beer is transferred to a pressure keg and force-carbonated. With an original gravity of 11.7 °P, we expect an alcohol content of around 3 % vol.
Unfortunately, mashing is less reproducible in systems with malt pipe technology than in those with agitators, which is why the alcohol content of the final beer can unfortunately only be estimated from experience. We will be bottling a few bottles around mid-December and making them available to our beer lovers.
We are currently working on several bachelor theses at the brewery, in which we are exploring new ways of producing beer. The focus of this work is our isothermal high-temperature mashing process. We are also working on non-alcoholic beers with a maximum alcohol content of 0.5% vol. and on so-called light beers, which are reduced in original gravity and have a maximum alcohol content of 2% vol. using our mashing process. We are also starting work on filtration and pasteurization.
We are also working on gluten-free beers per se in the quinoa project, which could later be marketed as "special beers" by our partner in Lower Saxony. We are not reporting on these results in detail here, as they are, after all, results for final theses and even a doctorate, which we do not want to anticipate. We will be releasing all of these beers at a later date, and anyone who would like to try a quinoa wheat beer or a quinoa pale ale, which of course comply with food law, is cordially invited to do so, simply contact us by email.
On November 4 and 5, we brewed around 200 liters of NEIPA (New England IPA). These beers are not very bitter, fruity and aromatic, and the NEIPA brewed last September 27/28 had a pleasantly low alcohol content of only 2.2% vol. at around 11 °P. It has already been served at events at Clausthal University of Technology and nobody noticed the comparatively low alcohol content. It should be noted that commercial pale ale beers can easily contain 6 - 8 % alcohol by volume and, depending on weight and gender, a small glass of this beer is enough to make the alcohol more or less noticeable. Our aim is to produce fruity, aromatic Pale Ale full beers with low alcohol content, whereby we produce less alcohol from the outset than in the normal brewing process. We actually wanted to vary the hops this time and use Galaxy hops instead of Citra, which bring passion fruit and peach aromas into the beer.
However, this didn't happen due to delivery problems, which is why we only slightly varied the recipe from 27/28 September. Pale ale malt and Carahell were mashed isothermally in the Brewtools 150 Pro for 30 minutes at 74 °C, followed by an approx. 30-minute lautering process. After boiling, the target original gravity of just over 11 °P was achieved in both brews. The bitterness of approx. 20 IBU units was adjusted with a non-isomerized hop extract, the whirlpool hopping was carried out with a hop extract from Yakimachief (Citra) and with Citra CryoHop from Yakimachief. For dry hopping, we again used Barth Haas Spectrum in the Citra variant, and fermentation took place in Tank Volker at 20 °C with Ebbegarden Kveik, which in turn produces fruity aromas.
It is now our standard yeast for NEIPA beers and can be reused several times if cared for properly. This is also important because it is sometimes simply not available due to high demand. The beers also clarify very well and a NEIPA is ready to drink after 6 weeks at the latest. Incidentally, this is an international beer: the malt comes from German cultivation, the hops from Germany and the USA, and the yeast is originally from Norway and is sourced from a Canadian producer, so our beers fit in with the international character of Clausthal University of Technology.
Speaking of which, it came as it had to: the Galaxy hop extract from Barth Haas was delivered on November 6th. The next NEIPA is expected to be brewed in mid-December, and then we will combine this hop extract from Barth Haas with a new one from Yakimachief. A future bachelor thesis starting in December will be dedicated to different hop products for the production of low-alcohol pale ale beers.