Monday, June 27, 2011

Week 20

Monday: We started the week with a brew day at school. We made an IPA. It was supposed to be a hybrid between an English and American style IPA. For the majority of the base malt we used a pilsner malt that was malted at the school. It was pretty under modified so we added some acidulated malt to it help balance the pH. We also used a bit of Vienna and Cara-red to round out the malt bill. For hops we did one kettle addition of Herkules hops for bittering and added some Hallertau Mittelfruh and Citra hops to the whirlpool. This beer was originally brewed at the school as a test batch for a brewery. It's now on the market so I guess what we brewed was a clone. The day went pretty smoothly. I was able to spend some time sitting at the controls learning the automated system. It's a whole different experience when you are not the one opening valves and such. The beer was put in to an open fermeneter and we pitched an Irish ale yeast in to it. I think it will be a very good beer. The open fermenter will really let the esters be up front coupled with the use of Citra hops this beer will be pretty fruity.

Nice color for the pH sample

Perfect oxygenation.

Tuesday: My group piled into a sprinter van and headed south and east of Munich. We were headed to Braukon. They make brewing systems and fermenters for smaller to mid-size facilities. We were supposed to be going there to brew on their 10 hl. show system but there was some sort of mix up in communication so we spent the majority of our time there watching the brewer make beer. The show system is fully automated. The brewer even explained how he can start the first batch from his Iphone at home and by the time he gets there in the morning that batch is in the fermeneter and the next batch is already boiling. They are making some pretty exciting beers at the facility. Since we weren't brewing and just kind of standing around they started handing us samples. I was especially excited about trying their Saison. It was the first Bavarian Saison I have ever has. Sadly it wasn't what I was hoping for . It was good it was just a little under attenuated and pretty boozy. They had an Imperial Stout that was a real treat. The other exciting beer was a zwickle sample of their IPA. We had a nice time there and they were very gracious hosts, even if we didn't get to brew.


The brewhouse

Lunch

Bavarian Saison


Wednesday: We started out our day by transferring the IPA from the fermenter to a horizontal maturation tank. Normally you would want to let the beer ferment all the way before moving it but we had Thursday and Friday off from school because of a holiday so it needed to be done sooner rather than later. This was also the time we did our dry hopping with more Hallertau Mittelfruh and Citra hops. It went pretty smoothly and the smell coming out of the airlock was reminiscent of  mango or passion fruit coming mostly from the Citra.

Inside the maturation tank
After class one my classmates and I decided to have a tasting of some stuff we had in our fridges. We started with the Saison De Pipaix from Brasserie a' Vapeur . This is a very good Saison. It was full of Brett character and was dry with a bit of pepper and fruit. This is my kind of beer. I had wanted to try this one for a long time. Next we had the Wayan from Birrificio Le Baladin. This is their farmhouse ale. It was a good beer with a lot of CO2 and nice dry finish, it was just lacking in the fruity ester quality I like in this style of beer. Last we had the Boon Mariage Parfait. I like this one better then the regular Gueze from them. This one has a heavy Brett character but isn't as sour probably due to the blending.







Thursday: We had Thursday off because of a holiday. There was a brewery I had heard about that I wanted to check out. The weather was awful so it seemed like a good day to go beer hunting. I met up with Robbie and Kyle and we took a train south to Isar Braeu. The attraction was that this an independent brewery which is very rare in Munich. The building is in an old train station and kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately they only brew weisse beer on site. Not that that is a bad thing, I was just hoping for some variety. We had some food and enjoyed a half liter of weisse beer. It was a good beer though with a nice tart finish. 


Kyle approves


 Friday: Friday was another day off. I really didn't do too much except re-stock my Orval supply. I had been noticing that the one's I was buying earlier were pretty young bottles. They have a stronger dry hop aroma and taste and not that much Brett. At the one place that sells it in Munich I was able to find some older bottles in the back row. I can't wait to try them

Saturday: I was felling like I was getting sick so I just quarantined myself in my apartment and studied.


Sunday: A very similar day to Saturday, except in the evening I met up with some out of town friends who are here to do some filming, More on that later.

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