Monday 8 August 2022

Brewing Doppelkaramelmalzbier (part 2)

Exactly how did they get all that sugar into Doppelkaramel? remember, it was effectively doubling the OG of the beer. Which entails an awful lot of sugar.

"In the case of Doppelkaramelmalzbier, the finished drink must contain 6 kg (Fig. 259) of sugar per 1 hl of sales beer, based on an 11.7 to 12.2 percent pitching wort. This sugar is added in a concentrated aqueous solution as a sugar syrup before bottling. Since the syrup water means a dilution, Doppelkaramelmalzbier is blended to a higher gravity beforehand (7-8%). The mixing of the 7-8% beer with the syrup is done by repeated pressing between pressure tanks. At the same time, a few litres of thick mushy yeast are usually added to initiate fermentation again, which is intended to generate a higher carbon dioxide pressure in Doppelkaramelmalzbier.

Doppelkaramelmalzbier is not filtered but pasteurized.

Due to the addition of sugar, a lot of fermentable extract gets into Doppelkaramelmalzbier. If the remaining yeast and the added yeast could ferment this extract, all the bottles would burst due to the ever-increasing carbon dioxide pressure.

However, a slightly higher pressure produces a better foam (see p. 434). To generate this increased pressure, the temperature at the beginning of the pasteurisation is increased to 30-35°C for about 2-4 hours. Then it is heated to around 65°C, which stops further fermentation and carbon dioxide formation by killing off the yeast cells."
"Technologie Brauer und Mälzer" by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, pages 451 452.

6 kg per hectolitre is 60 gm per litre. That's a lot of sugar. I'll go out on a limb here and guess that the finished beer was pretty sweet.

I'm interested to see that fresh yeast was added along with the sugar. With all that sugar, fermentation must have started up pretty quickly. I was going to say that I wondered how long this fermentation was allowed to take place. But, from TGL 7764, I know the lagering time: 5 to 8 days. Is that before or after pasteurisation, though?

I'm left with one question? Who drank this stuff? And did they drink it straight or blend with another beer? Sorry, that's two questions. Where was it drunk? There, that's yet another question. My resident DDR expert couldn't answer them.

3 comments:

Rob Sterowski said...

It sounds to me as if the 2-4 hours holding the bottled beer at 30º was for the secondary fermentation to finish carbonating it. I can’t think of any other reason to do that.

Henrique Boaventura said...

Actually this is a pretty common style here in Brazil. "Common", you can buy it at the supermarket just any other mass market lager. It is called just Malzbier and it taste like carbonated dark syrup. It was used as a tonic for anemic people somewhere back in time.

InSearchOfKnowledge said...

This very much reminds of Piedboeuf Donker Tafelbier, which is 1,5%. It also used to have (still has? Can't find a detailed photo of the label) the designation (doesn't mean anything actually, just marketing) "Dubbel Gersten/Double Orge". We drank it at home after the midday meal, probably from my 6 yrs until I went out of my parents house.