Today we continue with the individual beer styles of the DDR.
What I find fascinating is how they were mostly pretty much the same as in West Germany. But not exactly. And how there were some styles which were unique to the DDR. Schwarzbier being a good example of a beer which only really existed in the East.
There are multiple slides on Berliner Weisse because, well, I have more information. And I particularly liked the version brewed in the East, at the former Willner brewery. It was a wonderful beer. Sour, bone dry and very complex. You just had to ignore the funny looks when you ordered it "ohne Schüss", that is, without syrup. I don't think I ever saw anyone else drinking it straight.
I was recently given a bottle from the 1980s. I'm saving it until I can find someone who can culture up whatever is in it in the way of yeast and bacteria. Having seen photos of the brewery, where there were open wooden fermenters, I imagine that there's quite a cocktail of microflora.
Porter is a style which while not unique to the East, was much more common there than in the West. Not sure exactly why that was. The eastern version was remarkably authentic, having a top-fermenting primary fermentation and a Brettanomyces secondary.
Doppel-Karamel was unique to the DDR. And really weird. It was brewed as a 6º Plato Dunkel Malzbier, then, after primary fermentation sugar was added to bring the virtual OG up to 12º Plato. Amazingly, a couple of breweries in the former DDR still brew examples.
The base low-gravity Dunkel Malzbier was also sold straight. Surprisingly, not just in bottled form, but also on draught. Not sure how common that was. I certainly never came across it in that form.
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5 comments:
Did the Brett porter that you brewed with Freigeist have any bugs other than the Brett to account for the sourness.?
Not sure. I can't remember.
what was the recipe for the porter? it would be interesting to try brewing it
Add caramel to achieve the desired hue, and add sugar to the kettle to bring the original gravity to approximately 18 to 20%.
Caramel and color malts are generally added to the grist. The color malt is typically added at a rate of about 7 to 10%. The hop addition is approximately 600 to 700 g per hectoliter. After the wort has boiled for three hours, it is transferred to the cooling vessel and, after about 20 minutes, cooled to 18 to 24°C using cooling equipment. The cooled wort is then fermented with a highly fermenting yeast. Since the fermentation temperature is between 18 and 24°C, a vigorous fermentation begins shortly thereafter. During primary fermentation, cooling is carried out very carefully to maintain the temperature between 18 and 24°C.
The room temperature should be approximately the same as the pitching temperature. The aim is to achieve complete fermentation of the fermentable extract.
Once primary fermentation is complete, the young beer is racked into small lagering vessels. There, it is inoculated with Brettanomyces and spiked with a sugar solution. After a relatively short time, a lively secondary fermentation begins. The lagering vessels are not carbonated; natural fermentation is allowed.
During fermentation, the Brettanomyces produces substances that impart a distinctive, wine-like flavor to the beer. As soon as this flavor is sufficiently pronounced, the porter is filtered using an electrofiltration system; then, sugar is added again at a rate of 50 g per hectoliter. It is inoculated a second time with Brettanomyces and bottled.
Bottle aging initially takes place in cellars at 15°C to allow the Brettanomyces to initiate a vigorous secondary fermentation and for the bottles to develop a head. Once a sufficient bung is available, the cellars will be cooled to 0°.
I was interested to see in your slide that sugar was allowed in Schwarzbier. Back in your posts in 2022 on the subject you state that only Doppel-Karamel allowed sugar (TGL7764 from 1960). Had this changed in later years?
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