I haven't been spending enough time reading German technical books. No, really. I haven't. I watched 10 minutes of Arsenal - Liverpool yesterday. Too much free time. That's why I bought another book.Books I lust for, but don't think I can justify before the family court, I put into my Abebooks "Save for later" basket. When no-one's looking, I occasionally slip one out. Into my real buying basket. (What else did you think I meant? Go wash your brain out with soap.)
"Jahrbuch der Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin, Zehnter Band 1907". What snappy titles they used to have. 700-odd pages of easy-to-read gothic German. Perfect for the beach.
Here's a tip from an experienced reader: indexes. They're dead useful. How else, 15 minutes after ripping open the package, could I have found the one mention of Porter. German Porter. My books no longer lie in piles on the floor. Now it's my obsessions that are piled as high as my waist. German Porter. It's there in the pile. Under Grodziskie, but above Geithayner (another wacky, wacky style).
Usually, I pull out the numbers and make a nice little table for you. But I'm knacked. You'll have to make do with a scan of the original. It's more fun this way, though, isn't it? The feeling of doing the research yourself. Hang on. Isn't my USP supposed to be doing this very interpretation. I'm talking myself out of a job here.
I won't leave all the work to you. Here's the necessary vocabulary:
Saccharometeranzeige Balling: FG Balling
Saccharometeranzeige nach endvergärung: not sure about this one
Extract: real FG Balling
Alkohol: ABW
Stickstoff: nitrogen
Protein: protein
Asche: ash
Säure (als Milchsäure berechnet): lactic acid content
Kohlhydrate: carbohydrate
Stammwurze: OG Balling
Scheinbare Vergärung: apparent attenuation
Wirkliche Vergärung: real attenuation
Farbe: colour
schwarz-braun: black-brown
The first table is for four German Porters. The second table is for a South American Porter and the third for Barkley's Porter (I think they mean Barclay Perkins - whahay). I'm happy to see that BP's Porter (judging by the OG of about 1084, it's must really be Brown Stout) has the highest OG and the most alcohol.
The German Porters look a funny bunch. Poorly-attenuated and quite low in alcohol. What do you think?
That's enough work. Now for some fun. When our teachers said that, it meant some sort of weird beating was about to occur. I'm sure my kids don't believe me when I tell them of our music teacher who "flogged" several boys with a slipper every lesson. I'm glad I didn't understand his behaviour fully as a child. It could have scarred me for life.
One of the attractions of second-hand books is, like Red Dwarf DVD's, the extras they contain. Stuff that was added after the book left the printer. This book has a couple of great ones:
Can you see what I mean? See?
OK, I'll tell you. The Schulthess-Patzenhofer brewery Dessau ex-libris sticker on the left-hand page. And the stamp "Institut für Gärings- und Getränkeindustrie, 1017 Berlin, Alt-Stralau 54-55, - Bibliothek - " There's a story behind that. But I can't give everything away, can I?
Ende = final/end
ReplyDeletevergärung = fermentation
Im thinking this is the final gravity after carbonation. e.g. in the cup.
Could be ... But it seems odd to me to give four gravity readings: OG, FG, real FG, and final gravity. Unless it's the difference between the beer when it arrives at the pub and when it's sold. But surely theyt wouldn't measure those two?
ReplyDeleteAny more suggestions?
any info on grists accompanying these porters? Interesting that the colour is described as only schwarz-braun rather than being completely black.
ReplyDeleteand the scan says that these are wild fermentations with bacteria or something? so perhaps had a good deal of sourish character, and kept fermenting in the bottle? might explain the endvergaerung thing....?
Ed
Just analyses of the finished beer, so no grist details.
ReplyDeleteThe text does mention cloudiness caused by wild yeast, Stäbchenbakterien (my guess - lactobacllus) and sarcin bacteria.
Personally, I find the final paragraph the most striking. It says that they didn't detect any artificial preservatives or sweeteners. How modern.
Schwarz-braun is exactly the colour my Whitbread recreations. Why does Porter have to be pitch black?
re black v brown/black: i supposed i noted it because so often these days you find modern porters which are more or less black, though i suspect it is a bit of a 'new world' trend - US porters and the local ones here in NZ. Hoepfner Porter from Karlsruhe isn't nearly so dark (and is obviously a different species of beer from english porter), and neither (from memory) was Fullers London Porter, to take two beers i drank last time in the nthn hemisphere with the tag "porter" on them. i suppose i made the observation because it interested me that german porters never seem to have been black (to the degree that they still really exist) whereas clearly some other brewers as the 20C went on increasingly tended to add more and more roasted malts. hmm. bit nonsensical that.
ReplyDeleteEd