"The Art of Brewing" by David Booth (published 1834) is an unusual book. British technical brewing books of the period rarely make any much of foreign beer. Partly, no doubt, because of the lack of contact with continental brewers. The superiority of British brewing technology meant there was little to learn, too.But Booth dedicated a whole section of his book to continental brewing methods. He describes how they brewed in a variety of European cities: Brussels, Munich, Vienna, Augsburg and, of course, Berlin.
You'll notice that there's no mention of lactic acid bacteria, nor even sourness. The system of delivering the beer in casks to pubs where the fermentation was completed and the beer bottled, is very similar to that employed by Gose breweries in the Leipzig area.
[The following passage is taken from "The Art of Brewing", by David Booth, 1834, chapter IV pages 41-43.]
METHOD OP BREWING WHITE BEER AT BERLIN.
This White Beer, so called on account of its pale colour, is made from a mixture of five parts of malted wheat with one part of malted barley. There is no false bottom in the mash- tun, and the copper is very small in proportion.
Nearly nine barrels of liquor (8.8), heated in the copper to 95 degrees of Fahrenheit, are turned into the mash-tun, and mashed, during half an hour, with 3.83 quarters of malted wheat and 0.76 quarters of malted barley, both ground fine. While the mashing is going on, 5.6 barrels of liquor are brought to the boiling-point in the copper, and immediately added to the goods, the mashing of which is continued a quarter of an hour longer. The heat of the mash is now 126 degrees.
After an hour allowed for infusion, two barrels of the worts are taken from the top of the mash and put into the copper, where they are mixed with fifteen pounds of fine hops, and boiled a quarter of an hour. This boiling is interrupted by the introduction of four barrels more of worts, taken also from the top of the mash. There have been now six barrels of worts altogether put into the copper; and these, along with the hops, as soon as they are raised to 75 degrees of Reaumur (201 of Fahrenheit), are, with the exception of a barrel left to keep the bottom of the copper from burning, turned back into the mash-tun, where, after being mashed a few minutes, they are left to stand half an hour for infusion. Heat of the tun, after mashing, 153 degrees.
Other six barrels of the worts, taken from the top of the mash, are carried to the copper, and heated to 205 degrees, when the whole of what is in the copper as well as in the mash-tun, grains included, is turned into another vessel called the tap-tun. This tun has a false bottom, which is covered with a layer of straw, over which the goods are deposited, the heat being 167 degrees; but no mashing takes place in the tap-tun.In about a quarter of an hour the cock of the tap-tun is opened, but in so small a degree that the worts can scarcely be said to run, it occupying commonly seven hours before the whole are drained off. The motive for this slow progress is, to have the worts as clear as possible, and, indeed, they are almost quite bright A sparge of six barrels of boiling liquor is added to the beer, and the whole is pumped directly from the under-back into the coolers, from whence, at 72 degrees, it is let down into a fermenting-tun. There it is mixed up with a gallon of good solid yeast, and in two hours the fermentation becomes apparent. From eight to ten hours after, when the head has risen about four inches, this fermenting wort is cleansed into small casks, and immediately carried out to the publicans, in whose custody it passes through the other stages of its fermentation. The consequence is, that the Brewer has never any yeast of his own, but is obliged to purchase it from the publicans; and it is his practice to buy from the customers of another Brewer, so as he may have a change of yeast, which is accounted more favourable to the production of a perfect fermentation.
From the quantities of malt before-mentioned, the Brewer has been able to send out eighteen and a half barrels of beer. The fermentation is finished in the publican's cellar in three days; the cask is bunged up on the fifth day; the beer is bottled on the ninth, and drunk on the fourteenth or fifteenth day. It may, however, be kept in bottles six months or more, without deterioration. It seldom requires finings, and has a very agreeable taste.The wheat-malt is necessary for the production of the requisite flavour, as much as for colour. Wheat is seldom, if ever, malted in this country ; and we have never seen the operation performed. The acrospire and the roots come out at the same time ; and it is the care of the maltster to keep the former as short as possible. It is said to be necessary to allow the wheat-malt to clot together on the floor, otherwise the separated grains would cease to grow. The completion of the process is judged of by crushing the malt.
That's a really interesting technique. As you say, no mention of lactic acid bacteria or sourness.
ReplyDeleteThis type of Weisse is certainly a running beer and, although there might well be bacteria or wild yeasts in the pitching barm, I wouldn't have thought there would have been much development of sourness in such a short maturation period. The bottles might have developed more sourness but you would have thought the author would have mentioned that.
I have always wondered about the assertion that Napoleon's troops embraced Weisse and dubbed it the "champagne of the north" because modern versions could never be confused with that wine nor thought of as being remotely similar. Maybe they were enjoying a beer like the one described in your post. It sounds like it would be light and spritzy: much more champagne-like.
Mind you I am always dubious about these "champgne of the north" type epithets. They always seem pretty dubious and third-hand. Like the "Venice of the North". There must be 20 cities in europe that the travel guides believe deserve this description.
Why would the brewer purchase yeast from publicans, rather than skimming it off the fermenting beer?
ReplyDeleteThis "communal" use of yeast is very interesting. As Booth suggests, no doubt this avoided the same strain becoming corrupted through repeated use (in the old days when a strain could not be isolated and maintained pure in laboratory conditions). Probably use of a brewer`s yeast in another brewer`s environment tended to refresh or reset it.
ReplyDeleteI think skimming did not occur at the brewery because this likely would have left insufficient yeast to complete fermentation.
It is interesting how in some cases, production techniques of former times were more similar internationally than may often be thought. The English still send unfiltered beer to the pub to complete the ferment. The Scots did it too (for some ales, not all) in the 1800's. I was told in the 1990's by a former brewer from Camrai (France) that the top-fermented beers of northern France also were sent to the pub or private homes unfiltered in kegs.
The cut-off I think was when methodical bottom fermentation came in and the old ale techniques started to vanish, their survival here and there suggesting an isolation which was not originally the case.
As to the apparent lack of a sour or lactic character, this too is something of a puzzle. Few beers in my experience have so pronounced a sourish character as Berlin white beer. Could it be such a character tended to characterize most beers of the day and therefore did not warrant comment by Booth... He refers to the wheat imparting a characteristic taste and we can follow that but this other aspect remains a puzzle I think.
Gary
Gary, the practice of borrowing yeast from other brewers happened in 19th-century Britain, too. I've seen a Reid's log where they used Meux yeast and a Truman's one where they used Mann's yeast.
ReplyDeleteHi Ron do you have ant idea when people begin to associate lactic taste or bacteria with this beer?
ReplyDeleteMentalDental, I agree with you on the "champagne of the north", a term which to me applies much more to the biscuity flavour of some "light and spritzy" Kristallweizen.
ReplyDeleteGary and Ron
ReplyDeleteGreg Noonan writes in his book Scotch Ale*, "Surprisingly, most breweries did not maintain a house strain, and believed that using yeast from another brewery improved the vigor of their ferments. ... Youngers records of the mid-1800s show yeast obtained from Dryborough, Atchinson, Blair, Campbell and others, apparently randomly chosen on the basis of which brewery had healthy yeast to spare on that brewing day."
He discusses this a bit more, and cites two 19th century sources.
*Pp. 81-82, Scotch Ale, Number Eight in Classic Beer Style Series, 1993, Brewers Publications, Boulder, Colorado.
Ron, thanks for that (and all that you do!). By the way I meant to say Cambrai (not Camrai).
ReplyDeleteGary
where did that stuff about Berliner Weiss being the champagne of northern Europe (or Germany) come from? Something to do with Napoleon wasn’t it?
ReplyDeleteI first read the statement about Berliner Weisse and the Champagne of the Spree (as I think he put it) in Michael Jackson's 1978 World Guide to Beer. I do not know what spree means, is it a river, or valley or area...?
ReplyDeleteGary
Gary,
ReplyDeleteThe Spree is the river flowing through Berlin.
I just had a quick look around the interweb. Lots of references to Napoleon's troops calling Weisse "the Champagne of the North" and even some suggesting big N himself gave it the name. Hmm....
ReplyDeleteNo one gives a reference though. I wonder where this idea comes from?
Of course, Wikipedia:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spree
Gary
Oblivious, that's a good question. If I remember correctly, the symbiotic yeast/lactic acid bacteria culture was developed in the second half of the 19th century.
ReplyDeleteNow if they were getting their yeast from publicans before that, it's quite possible that was an accidental mix of yeast with bacteria.
I'll have to look and see where the earliest mention of Berliner Weisse being sour is.
This is quite interesting. If Berliner Weisse was not sour before the 19th century, it disproves the theory that it, lambic, and Pinkus Müller from Münster are the surviving remnants of a whole family of lactic wheat beers in northern Europe.
ReplyDeleteBarm, I can't remember seeing any evidence that says it wasn't sour. I'm going to have to do soome more searching.
ReplyDeleteBarm, you could try looking at my older articles on Berliner Weisse. There's one description from the 18th century Oekonomische Encyklopädie:
ReplyDeletehttp://barclayperkins.blogspot.com
/search/label/Berliner%20Weisse
You'll probably be interested in what it has to say about yeast.
BTW Münster Alt is a different type of lactic beer. It doesn't really belong to the same family as Broyhan, Witbier and Berliner Weisse.