"Berliner Weissbier is brewed from soft Spree [the river that runs through the centre of Berlin] water and mostly wheat, in contrast to Berlin Braunbier , which is brewed from spring water and barley. When using fresh wheat malt, the Weissbier brewer normally mixes in some oat malt. As fresh wheat malt collapses, oat malt is added to lighten it. But, when the Weissbier brewer uses old malt, he uses pure wheat with just a little barley malt. Before malting, wheat, like barley, is wetted in a Begiesbottich [not sure if there's an English equivalent for this; it's some sort of tub where the grains were sprinkled with water] and remains in the tub in warm weather for at most 36 hours, and in cold weather for at most 64 hours. During malting on the malting floor, the wheat germinates or sprouts after 12 hours and after this time the malt is turned every 12 hours. During drying, only a very small fire is maintained. Since the way the Weissbier brewer brews, both the barley and wheat should only be very lightly dried. Finally the malt must lie for a certain time, before use be sprinkled with a little water and then roughly crushed in a mill."
Oekonomische Encyklopädie (1773) von J. G. Krünitz, p 5, 163-165.
This is a fairly detailed description of malting for the period. They were presumably aiming for a very pale malt.
"We will assume a brew from 1 Winspel [an old unit of dry measure also called a Wispel; it's the equivalent of 24 bushels]. The Weissbier brewer always brews from 2/3 wheat and 1/3 barley malt. He pours into his mash tun (which has a specific size and, for a so-called half-brew of 32 bushels [1 Prussian bushel = 54.961 litres or approx. 55 kilos; in total 1,760 kilos], must hold at least 32 Tonne each of 100 Berlin quarts [1 Prussian Quart = 1.14503 litres; 1 Tonne = 114.503 litres; 32 Tonne = 3,664.096 litres]) 8 Tonne of lukewarm water, adds most of the water and has one person stir it with a mashing stick for half an hour. After this the rest of the malt is added to the mash, which must cover the mash and keep it warm until the water is boiling in the kettle. This is filled into the mash tun with a large filling bucket (called the Schuppen) of copper or iron plate which holds 4 Quarts and is attached to a long pole, and the brewer stirs the mash well with the mashing stick for another half hour . The mash must then rest fort another half hour, so that the thick or solid mash falls to the bottom and the thin or liquid mash floats on top. Then the thin mash tun is tapped using a piece of equipment, called Schoßfässer [something barrel] by Braunbier brewers and Füllfässer [filling barrels] by Weissbier brewers, and a kettle. filled and the mash is boiled for about an hour. Hops are now added to the boiling wort. For one Winspel, the Weissbier brewer reckons on in winter half a bushel of hops, in summer a whole bushel. These he infuses in warm water and then pours into the kettle and lets them boil with the mash. While the thin mash is boiling, the brewer empties the thick mash with the Schupen into the Zapfbottich [tapping tub], after first fitting a crown of straw around the tap and laying Meeschhölzer [mashing sticks], boards with holes, and a layer of straw at the bottom of the Zapfbottich. When the thin mash has been properly boiled in the kettle, it is added to the thick mash. The boiled mash is poured through a hop basket of giant braids, fixed to two poles, which lies resting on its poles on the Zapfbottich and is lined with straw which retains all the hops in the basket. The thick and thin mashes now stand mixed together for three hours in the Zapfbottich and during this time all the strength is extracted from the malt."
There you go. There's the description of the mashing process, too. Ok, there are loads of strangely-named bits of equipment and some rambling sentences, but I think it's pretty clear. The liquid part of the wort was boiled with hops in the kettle for an hour then added back to the rest. Contrast this with the method in the later text, where the hops are boiled with the water that will be used in the mash. A different solution to the same problem - how to add the hops without boiling the whole wort.
I haven't quite finished yet. There's another half page to translate. But it's time to eat.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment