Malting and brewing in Germany in WW I (part two)

In the second of this brace of posts we look at the beers being brewed in Germany during the war.

While in Britain shortages of raw materials didn't really start to kick in until 1914, Germany had struggled virtually from the outbreak of hostilities. The Royal Navy's blockade began strangling Germany in 1914, while it was only with unfettered U-boat attacks in 1917 that Britain's supplies came under serious threat.

"We gather from the author's remarks that the beers which are now the staple product in Germany are brewed at a gravity not exceeding 1036. In these circumstances it is not surprising to learn that the German brewer has been confronted with the difficulty of obtaining yeast, and the plan adopted to meet this difficulty has been that which has been carried out successfully in many English breweries of late. It is to brew a beer of average gravity capable of yielding a yeast crop, and one of lower gravity, and to blend the two in such proportion that the mixture has the desired original gravity. W. Windisch points out that if a beer of something like 1048 gravity be mixed with one of, say, 1024, in such proportion that the mixture is equivalent to a beer of original gravity 1036, such a mixture drinks fuller than one brewed direct at 1036. With regard to the factors conducing to palate-fulness, he considers that alcohol plays the most important part, but that a high dextrin percentage in the wort tends to produce thin drinking beers. He deals at some length with fermentation, but, inasmuch as his remarks only apply to bottom-fermentation, they have little or no significance in this country."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 23, Issue 6, November-December 1917, Page 356.

Wow. I'm so glad I found this. Because it's explained something that had puzzled me for quite a while. I'd wondered why at Truman's Burton brewery they blended beer after fermentation. This is the explanation. They wanted to ferment a stronger wort to get a good yeast crop. And guess when I found the first example of it? May 1917, just when gravities started to seriously fall. It explains why they would parti-gyle two beers, ferment them, then blend the result. On the face of it, that's a completely crazy way to work.

Truman had two ways of applying this technique. The simplest was when a Single beer was being brewed. The gyles were blended to give a wort marked "S", presumably standing for "strong" and another "W", most likely meaning "weak". After fermentation these two would be mixed together to give one beer at the required gravity.

Here are two examples from 1918:

Truman XX 16th Sept 1918
	barrels	gravity
S	75	1046.7
W	152	1021.7
racked as	227	1030.0
Source:
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/334.

Truman XXX 18th Sept 1918
	barrels	gravity
S	128	1046.7
W	122	1022.2
racked as	250	1034.8
Source:
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/334.

It was more complicated when they were parti-gyling. Then they would brew the weaker beer at the required gravity and the stronger one above its target gravity. Some of the weaker beer was blended after fermentation with the stronger one to bring it down to its intended gravity. Here's an example of that:

Truman XX and XXX 6th June 1917
	barrels	gravity
XXX	69	1050.0
XX	135	1037.8
racked as
XXX	135	1043.9
XX	69	1037.8
Source:
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/333.

This is how it looks in the original brewing record:

Truman continued to perform post-fermentation blending up until at least 1939.

William Younger took a slightly different approach. They brewed to a higher gravity than intended then watered down the beer post fermentation. They, too, continued this practice well after the end of the war. It's a real pain in the arse as it makes their records really tricky to analyse.

Time to get back to our original text:

"The author goes minutely into figures, showing the amount of money which might be saved by carrying his suggestions into practice In the first place, using the particular grist he recommends, malting losses would be minimised greatly. Further, he recommends very strongly the use of a filter-press in the place of a mash-tun. "
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 23, Issue 6, November-December 1917, Page 356.

I wonder if anyone still uses the filter press method of mashing? It may have produced amazing efficiency but seems to have had an adverse effect on the character of the final beer. I think only a handful of breweries ever tried it in Britain.

"In the paper by K. Windisch an account is given of the instructions issued by the German Brewers' Union for the preparation of the lighter war-beer. Owing to the shortage of malt in Germany, beers are now brewed, we are told, at an original gravity of about 1020, or even as low as 1012. The methods recommended for producing these light beers embody W. Windisch's suggestions."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 23, Issue 6, November-December 1917, Page 356.

They shouldn't have sniggered quite so much about these watery German beers. In June 1918 Whitbread started brewing a version of their MA Mild at just 1011.5 and 1.4% ABV.