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On October 11, 2023, we used our latest brewing system, Danis BrewTower 140 Plus, to brew a dark beer that was supposed to be the bock beer for the pre-Christmas season. By law, a bock beer must have an original gravity of at least 16 °P, whereby the legislator allows a tolerance of ± 0.3 °P when determining the original gravity. So at 15.7 °P, there would be no major complaints because the devices used to analyze beer have their error tolerance, and even results from different certified laboratories can differ slightly. The recipe, based on Munich malt, melanoid malt, Carahell and Caramünch, was calculated in such a way that we should have achieved an original gravity of 16.5 °P. So much for the theory. In the end, we only achieved around 13 °P, and the bock just turned into a little goat, with several parameters influencing this result. However, we have also derived suggestions for improvement from these initial trials, which we will pass on to the manufacturer of the system.
We mildly hopped the brew, which consisted of two 100-liter partial brews, with hop extract during the 60-minute boil in the BrewTools 150 Pro and set approx. 25 bittering units. For the aroma, we used Hüll Melon (Wethop) and a special hop extract from Yakimachief in the Citra variant intended for the whirlpool, so that the dark beer should contain subtle fruity aromas.
The beer is fermented in Tank Siegfried with Whitelabs WLP-800, which we use as a cultured yeast. Assuming that the isothermal mashing in the new system has worked as we expect, the finished beer should have an alcohol content of no more than 3.5 % vol, at 16.5 °P it would have been just over 4 % vol. Of course, we will only know exactly after measuring the matured beer with our alcohol and extract measuring device, the "Alex-500" from Anton-Paar. We will of course still brew the bock beer, and in week 43 we will produce two brews of 50 liters each, which according to current plans will be bottom-fermented in Tank Mathias and in Tank Alex with the LalBrew Diamond.
A pre-Christmas season without dark bock beer? That's not possible .....
On October 2 & 3, we used the bridge and public holiday to produce four different beers. We always have beer in different varieties, so that we can easily supply events at the TUC with kegs and taps, but we have big problems with the return of bottles, and of the 400 bottles of 1 liter each that we once bought, maybe 50 have come back. But that doesn't stop us from continuing to brew beer, because what could be worse than a brewery with no beer?
On one of the brewing days, we produced a total of 110 liters of wort from Pale Ale malt, Carapils and Munich malt in the Brew Tools 150 Pro using the isothermal high-temperature mashing process, which reached an original gravity of 12.2 °P after a one-hour mashing time. The wort was boiled for one hour and we adjusted the bitterness to approx. 20 bittering units using a non-isomerized bitter hop extract. Whirlpool hopping was carried out with a special hop extract from Yakimachief in the Citra variant, and Cryhop, also in the Citra variant, as well as with Huell Melon Wethop. This produces a wort that contains aromas of citrus, mango and tropical fruits, as well as melon.
50 liters of this wort are fermented at 13 °C in a cylindrically conical fermentation vessel with LalBrew Diamond, our standard yeast for bottom-fermented beers. We expect a light beer with a subtle fruity aroma.
We have added another 50 liters of this wort at approx. 20 °C with the aroma hop extract Spectrum from Barth-Haas in the Citra variant, and this wort is fermented with the special yeast "Philly Sour". This yeast from the Lachancea group has the interesting property that it converts the glucose in the wort into lactic acid and only then gradually begins alcoholic fermentation. Our experience with this yeast so far has been excellent, as it produces aromas of stone fruit in addition to the thoroughly refreshing acidity, and the resulting beers are very pleasant to drink.
The aroma hopping we chose in Whirlpool and during fermentation should produce a highly drinkable "sour pale ale", a type of beer that is very popular in the USA. We expect the pale ale to have an alcohol content of no more than 3% vol. and the sour pale ale to be around 0.2% vol. lower because the glucose is converted to lactic acid.
On the other brewing day, we produced our mild smoked beer and our black beer. For our smoked beer, we only use around 30% smoked barley malt and around 70% Munich malt. This gives us a subtle smoky aroma that is by no means overpowering. In Bamberg, the city with probably the highest density of smoked beer breweries, it is said that smoked beer, which is probably made from 100% smoked malt there, tastes good from the fourth glass onwards. From our point of view, however, it takes a lot of hard work to get that far, which is why we use smoked malt rather sparingly in the mash. We used our mash tun with agitator, mashed using the isothermal high-temperature mashing process at 74 °C for 60 minutes and - as before without exception - we also obtained an iodine-normal mash and wort with this malt mixture. The wort was boiled with a non-isomerized bittering hop extract, without the addition of aroma hops, because a subtle smoky aroma should determine the character of the beer, but by no means hop aromas. We achieved a good 12 °P, and the wort is fermented in a cylindrically-conical fermentation vessel at 13 °C with the LalBrew Diamond.
For our black beer, we used a rather complex malt mixture consisting of Munich malt, Caramünch, melanoidin malt, smoked malt, Carafa and chocolate malt, which was mashed in our system with an agitator for 60 minutes at a constant 74 °C. After lautering, we mashed the beer with a mash tun. After lautering, we obtained 65 liters of wort at 12 °P, which was then boiled for 60 minutes with non-isomerized hop extract (Hallertau tradition). Another small amount of this hop extract was added 5 minutes before the end of the boil in order to achieve a subtle hop aroma. In total, we were able to pour 60 liters of wort into the cylindrical-conical fermentation vessel, which is fermented in it with the LalBrew Diamond at 13 °C.
We also expect alcohol contents of no more than 3 % vol. for smoked and dark beer.