Saxon Braunbier

I know that Saxony was one of the regions of Germany where top fermentation hung on the longest. Also that a local speciality was Braunbier. It’s nice to have some more details about it.

Though looking at the numbers, that’s not quite so clear:

Output and no. of breweries per region in 1893
	top-fermenting breweries	bottom-fermenting breweries	top-fermenting beer	bottom-fermenting beer	% top-fermenting	% bottom-fermenting
Brandenburg	430	138	1,724,795	3,157,941	35	65
Königreich Sachsen	541	190	1,710,653	2,476,475	41	59
Rheinland	575	377	761,519	3,121,390	20	80
Schlesien	576	219	977,143	1,794,259	35	65
Provinz Sachsen	451	186	594,312	1,862,008	24	76
Westfalen	456	233	84,020	2,250,789	4	96
Thüringen	264	578	243,652	1,974,374	11	89
Hessen-Nassau	66	275	23,019	1,712,756	1	99
Schleswig-Holstein	582	56	247,960	1,009,047	20	80
Hannover	310	101	131,494	1,121,364	10	90
Grossherzogtum Hessen	7	183	660	1,055,851	0	100
Ostpreussen	154	55	266,334	609,050	30	70
Pommern	243	79	108,453	554,576	16	84
Hamburg	18	13	169,130	476,537	26	74
Westpreussen	33	62	133,917	463,095	22	78
Braunschweig	42	33	22,870	463,654	5	95
Posen	101	57	177,038	307,800	37	63
Mecklenburg	346	43	115,318	293,561	28	72
Anhalt	53	18	90,838	285,073	24	76
Bremen	9	10	19,778	204,697	9	91
Oldenburg	61	17	25,855	125,421	17	83
Hohenzollern	84	143	4,596	122,088	4	96
Lübeck	26	6	31,485	65,126	33	67
Total Brausteuergebiet	5,428	3,072	7,664,839	25,506,932	23	77
Sources:
“Zeitschrift für das gesammte Brauwesen 1894”, p.23
Handbuch der deutschen Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte  2 vols. Stuttgart, 1971-76, vol. 2, p. 18.

There were indeed a large number of top-fermenting breweries in Saxony, but they produced far less beer than the rather smaller number of bottom-fermenting breweries.

I’m going down the summarising rather than translating route again. It makes life much easier for me and I reckon it’s all the same to you in the end.

Braunbier is a well-liked top-fermenting beer in the province of Saxony.

It’s brewed from high-dried malt (dried at 66-70º C) with about 2 kg of Farbmalz per 50 kg.

The kettle mashing system is used with either one or two boils of the mash. OG 8-8.5º Plato, 1.5 hour boil, hopping rate 1-1.1 pounds per 50 kg of malt.

It is pitched with top-fermenting yeast at 20º C, in cold cellars 25º C. First the entire wort is transferred to a collecting tun in order to remove sediment and the yeast added. As soon as the wort displays a thin white head it is transferred to already prepared casks of 1 to 2 hl. And bung fermentation carried out.

Because the wort had been in the collecting tun for a few hours the sediment is completely removed. When the fermentation is complete the casks are stood up straight again, washed and refilled to the top. In the following days a nice cap of yeast seals the bung hole. Now the barrels are sent out to the pub, where they are stored for a few more days until the beer is almost clear. Only then is it filled into one litre stone jars sealed with new corks. After 8 to 14 days, according to the time of year, it foams strongly and is particularly thirst-quenching. The colour is cherry-red like Bockbier.

Source: Olberg, Johannes (1927) Braunbier in Moderne Braumethoden, pp 62-63, A. Hartleben, Wien & Leipzig.

The finished beer would have been 3-3.5% ABV and not very hoppy. It sounds quite different to the Berlin type of Braunbier but, like that, it was delivered to publicans pretty much at the end of primary fermentation and bottled by them.

I wonder when the last Saxon Braunbier was brewed? It sounds like it wold be pretty easy to recreate.