German Lager styles in 1984 (part two)

We're now moving on to other styles, lumped together by Narziss as "Special Beers". It encompasses Pils, Export, Märzen, Dunkles and Spezial.

We'll start with Pils because, er, that's where I've decided to start. This is what Narziss has to say about brewing Pils:

"Pils Beers and very light Export Beers
They are expected lo be of very light colour and less body; it is the hopping rate that determines the character. Measures lo reduce the 'malt body' and to provide very light colours are shown in Table VI.

Very light malts of an EBC colour of 2.5-2.8 from a kilning temperature of 80°C. made from a low protein content of barley (ca. 10.5%) are used. Water quality including a residual alkalinity -2°G, short mashing procedures with a mashing-in-temperature of 62°C, and high liquor/grist ratio (1:4.5-5). are used. The first wort concentration is 14.5-15%, Plato. Separation of the husks takes place during milling and; they are added to the mash at a late stage. Infusion mashes or two mash decoction systems are used equally for this purpose."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 90, Issue 6, November-December 1984, page 354.

Elsewhere in the text he's more specific about the mashing scheme:

"2 Mashes short boiling time (5' [5 minutes] each) or infusion mash (programmed)
Avoidance of prolonged exposure to heat after wort boiling
Efficient reduction of colour during fermentation"
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 90, Issue 6, November-December 1984, page 355.

You can see that great effort is being taken to keep the colour very pale. Not really surprising when you're brewing a Pils. That including the mashing scheme. He produces a little chart detailing the process, which I've changed into easier to read words. He calls it a high-temperature short-mash system. The German name is more succinct: Hoch-Kurz.

I know the name because I've come across it before. It's identical to the method described by Dickscheit in "Leitfaden für den Brauer und Mälzer" (1953, pages 64 – 66). Dickscheit commented: "The decoction effect is small and beers produced this way resemble those from an infusion mash." Interesting. Do German Pils brewers mostly mash this way? If they do, then the best-selling bottom-fermented beer will have little trace of decoction in its flavour.

Here's that Hoch-Kurz mashing scheme as described by Narziss:

Mashing in at 62º C
stand 30 minutes
raise temperature of mash to 70º C
stand 30 minutes
boil 25% of thick mash for 5 minutes
thick mash returned to main mash but temperature remain 70º C
stand 30 minutes
boil 25% of normal mash for 5 minutes
thin mash returned to main mash and temperature raised to 76º C
stand 5 minutes

Hang on. I haven't shown you the table with the details of these styles yet:

Special Beers
		Light export
Type	Pils	1	2	Marzen	Dark	Special
Original wort %	12.0	12.8	12.8	13.6	13.6	13.3
Colour EBC	7.0	7.5	11.0	24	50	27
EBC BU	35	29	24	24	22	33
Brewing liquor Alkalinity °GH	-2	-2	+2	+5	+10	+12
Mashing procedure	D2	D2	I	D2	D3	I
Mashing-in temp *C	62	62	45	37	37	37
Malt average colour EBC	2.7	2.7	3.5	10	32	15
Malts
Light	100%	100%	100%	40%	10%
Dark				60%	84%	100%
Caramel malt Light			(3%)
Caramel malt Dark					5%
Black malt					1%
I = Infusion mash.
D2 = Two mash decoction
Source:
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 90, Issue 6, November-December 1984, page 355.

I'll translate the style names back into German so it's clearer what they are:

Light Export = Helles Export
Dark = Dunkles
Special = Spezial

That last one, Spezial, is a style that's been ignored by the anal retentives of the style guidelines committees. They usual lump beers of that type in with Helles. Why should they bother sticking with German definitions? After all, who are the real experts on German beer? Augustiner Edelstoff is a good example, though that's probably less bitter than the one in the table. Paler, too, now I come to look at the colour. Maybe not such a good example.  I've just noticed that the one in the table is darker than Märzen.

It's the grists that most fascinate me. I assume that by "dark malt" he means dark Munich malt. It must be something diastatic, as it's the only malt in Spezial. "Light malt" isn't very specific, either. Is that pils malt or pale Munich malt? It's a shame he didn't include EBC values for the individual malts in this table. Hang on a minute. I should be able to work them out from the average. And, as a real service, I've also included the name of the matching Weyermann product:

malt	EBC	Weyermann
Light malt	2.7	Pilsner malt
dark malt	15	Munich malt I
caramel malt light	40	Carared
caramel malt dark	130	Caramunich III
black malt	1300	Carafa III

The grist of the Dunkles is quite complex, with light, dark, dark caramel and black malt. I think the latter is generally called Farbmalz is German. I know from my time traipsing around Franconian breweries asking stupid quastions that the grist for Dunkles vary enormously, at least amongst the smaller breweries. One of my favourites (Hofmann of Hohenschwärz) is mostly Vienna malt with a little Farbmalz.

Again, it's interesting to see a couple of beers using an infusion mash, one of the Light Exports and the Spezial. I'm wondering why in the case of the latter. As it was dark, what was the reason for not going with a decoction?

Oddly, the normal method of double decoction isn't described. Though the classic triple decoction is included:

Mashing in at 37º C
stand 30 minutes
boil 33% of thick mash for 35 minutes
thick mash returned to main mash and temperature raised to 54º C
stand 15 minutes
boil 33% of thick mash for 30 minutes
thick mash returned to main mash and temperature raised to 65º C
stand 15 minutes
boil 40% of thin mash for 20 minutes
thin mash returned to main mash and temperature raised to 76º C
stand 15 minutes

There is more to come from this article, but not about Lagers. It's about those weird North German top-fermenters.