Today we are brewing yet another new beer! This is another one that I am really excited about brewing. The beer is an Adambier, also known as Dortmunder Adambier and Dortmunder Altbier. This is not a well-known style of beer and the only commercially brewed example of an Adambier that I know of is from a great brewery, Hair of the Dog's Adam. It is a style the originated in Germany, but is no longer brewed there because the popularity of the style decreased dramatically as German consumers began to shift more towards lighter lagers as their beer of choice.
Adambiers are very unique in that they were brewed with dark malts and traditionally would have been smoky due to the malting technology that was available hundreds of years ago. At the time that Adambiers were popular, yeast was not a known ingredient in beer, and so Adambiers were spontaneously fermented. After fermentation, they were aged in oak barrels for about a year before being served. These were high gravity beers that could easily exceed 10% ABV.
So as we attempt to recreate this extinct style, we took a lot of factors into consideration. To replicate the dark base malt, we are using Munich base malt. For the smokiness, we are using beechwood smoked malt. To replicate the fermentation that would have been common to Adambiers, we had to consider what the closest type of yeast would be to what would have spontaneously fermented in Dortmund, Germany. So we settled on a German Ale yeast for our main strain of yeast, but it was obvious that a spontaneous fermented beer would contain some Brettanomyces as well (a different type of yeast than what Brewers typically use).
So now we have a split fermentation with a German Ale yeast and Brett Lambicus in primary fermentation. It will be at least 6 months before the Brett flavors fully develop, so it will take at least that long for us to release this beer, but I can not wait to do so!
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Rauchbier
This was not the first new beer that I brewed at Blue Pants, but this is possibly the one that I was the most excited for so far. Rauchbiers as a whole are largely misunderstood by beer drinkers in America. It is hard to describe the smoky flavors to somebody that has never experienced smokiness in beer, and inevitably, the rauchbiers wind up being described as having a taste similar to bacon. Unfortunately, this really shouldn't be the case and as a result, rauchbiers have kind of taken on a bad rep in America.
When I went to Bamberg, I was under the impression that the beers were very smoky and, like many people, I thought they tasted like liquid bacon. I think this has a lot to do with American brewers trying to brew a style of beer that they have not experienced firsthand, but rather have read descriptions of the beer and try to brew to a beer that fits a poorly written description (I'm looking at you BJCP style guidelines). In Bamberg, I was surprised by the subtleties of the smoky flavor. While I was at the Weyermann malting facility, I decided that I wanted to introduce Alabama to the rauchbier style and that I would attempt to recreate the flavor that you might find in a classic example of the style.
So while our class was eating a great Franconian buffet dinner, I had the opportunity to talk to one of Weyermann's maltsters, who just happened to be a master beer sommelier (If this is not a title you are familiar with, I highly suggest checking out the documentary Somm, which can be viewed on Netflix). I jotted down a recipe and asked him for a critique. What he told me took me by surprise... In his thick German accent he said "This is stupid." I looked at him blankly for a second and he explained to me that I had too much smoked malt in my recipe (I think my original recipe called for about 60% of the grist to be beechwood smoked malt). He told me I needed to cut the amount of smoked malt down to 27% for a good smoky flavor. We had a brief discussion about using less than 27% and he was adamant that anything less than 27% wouldn't be detectable and anything more would be overpowering... No grey area with him.
So I came back to Blue Pants with this recipe and I am very pleased with the results. The beer has a rich, sweet malt character which compliments the subtle beech smoke flavors very well. A very clean, smooth bitterness backs up the maltiness and melds very well with our house lager yeast strain, which has a very clean flavor, slightly estery in comparison to many lager strains, and a very distinctive crisp finish. At 5.2% ABV, it is very easily drinkable and nothing about it is too overpowering. If you have been under the impression that smoky flavors don't belong in beer, I urge you to give our Rauchbier a shot, I think what you find just might surprise you. Prost!
When I went to Bamberg, I was under the impression that the beers were very smoky and, like many people, I thought they tasted like liquid bacon. I think this has a lot to do with American brewers trying to brew a style of beer that they have not experienced firsthand, but rather have read descriptions of the beer and try to brew to a beer that fits a poorly written description (I'm looking at you BJCP style guidelines). In Bamberg, I was surprised by the subtleties of the smoky flavor. While I was at the Weyermann malting facility, I decided that I wanted to introduce Alabama to the rauchbier style and that I would attempt to recreate the flavor that you might find in a classic example of the style.
So while our class was eating a great Franconian buffet dinner, I had the opportunity to talk to one of Weyermann's maltsters, who just happened to be a master beer sommelier (If this is not a title you are familiar with, I highly suggest checking out the documentary Somm, which can be viewed on Netflix). I jotted down a recipe and asked him for a critique. What he told me took me by surprise... In his thick German accent he said "This is stupid." I looked at him blankly for a second and he explained to me that I had too much smoked malt in my recipe (I think my original recipe called for about 60% of the grist to be beechwood smoked malt). He told me I needed to cut the amount of smoked malt down to 27% for a good smoky flavor. We had a brief discussion about using less than 27% and he was adamant that anything less than 27% wouldn't be detectable and anything more would be overpowering... No grey area with him.
So I came back to Blue Pants with this recipe and I am very pleased with the results. The beer has a rich, sweet malt character which compliments the subtle beech smoke flavors very well. A very clean, smooth bitterness backs up the maltiness and melds very well with our house lager yeast strain, which has a very clean flavor, slightly estery in comparison to many lager strains, and a very distinctive crisp finish. At 5.2% ABV, it is very easily drinkable and nothing about it is too overpowering. If you have been under the impression that smoky flavors don't belong in beer, I urge you to give our Rauchbier a shot, I think what you find just might surprise you. Prost!
5 Months Later
I can't believe it has been 5 months since I graduated from the World Brewing Academy. It still feels like I just got back from Germany. I suppose time flies when you stay busy! During this time, I think we have produced 4 new beers (Belgian Dark Strong, Black Saison, Irish Red, Rauchbier, and yesterday I brewed a Berliner Weisse, but wasn't counting it in the total), altered recipes to almost every beer that we brew, and changed many procedures on brew days. It has been great being back at work and we've been getting a lot of positive feedback on the changes that we have made in the last five months. I think during the time I was blogging during brewing school, I didn't realize how many people were actually reading my posts. However, in the last few months, I have run into a lot of strangers that told me that they read every post I made during that time. I looked at my previous blog yesterday and noticed that I had over 5,000 total views and I thought that maybe more people would be interested in hearing about the changes we have made at the brewery. So I am going to leave my previous blog untouched and this one will just be for talking about new beers and discussions of the challenges that we face on an everyday basis. I look forward to any discussions that arise with my followers. Prost!
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