Sunday 2 July 2017

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.

3 comments:

Jeff Renner said...

Cold cellars 25°? Doesn't seem very cold.

Sebastian said...

Yeast is pitched at that temp. Maybe to ensure decent reproduction before the cold temperatures slow the yeast down?

Sebastian said...

It is still brewed although in Quedlinburg which was part of Prussia then. Brauerei Lüdde seems to be brewing (a very low 1% abv version since) 1876.