Welcome to German Brewing!

This site is dedicated to German beer brewing, beer culture and German culture in general. Beer is such an integral part of German culture that anything goes. For discussion of brewing questions, recipes, ingredients and ideas on process and technique. Please tell us your stories about Germany, German beer reviews and travel adventures.

FacebookYou can also find us on our popular and fun German Brewing Facebook group.

 

And don’t forget to check out our Forum for discussion about all things German beer related, including brewing process and techniques, styles, recipes, and German food and culture discussion.

The forum requires registration before you can access all of the content and post.  We have one section, the Biergarten, which is open to all.

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Gustav Lindh’s visit to Munich

Augustiner Brau

Here’s a great write up of Gustav’s trip to Munich, visiting Augustiner Bräu Bierhalle, Nurnberger Bratwurst Glöckl am Dom, Weihenstephaners Biergarten and Andechser am Dom. Read the full story here:

English (translated): https://translate.google.se/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lindhcraftbeer.com

Original Swedish: http://www.lindhcraftbeer.com/2017/05/olresa-i-munchen/

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Low Oxygen Brewing; Exploring LODO

Low Oxygen Brewing; Exploring LODO

Low oxygen brewing has been largely dismissed as a non-issue for home brewing. The term “Hot Side Aeration” or HSA was once considered a serious home brewing problem when George Fix described beer stability issues in Principles of Brewing Science: A Study of Serious Brewing Issues. Since, a number of magazine articles, blogs, and presentations, seem to have minimized HSA as not relevant at home brewing scales. Controversy. The question remains, can low oxygen brewing improve my beers? To what extent?

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Oxygen and Mashing – Immaculate Brewery

http://immaculatebrewery.com/oxygen-and-mashing/

Hot side aeration (HSA) is a myth, right? Or is it? I’m sure by now many of you have read the PDF put out by the German Brewing Forum that has caused a bit of a stir. The reactions I’ve read have either been “This changes everything!” or “This is complete rubbish!” with little in between. I don’t want an Apple v. Android style fanboy dogfight. I want to talk facts and figures, science and chemistry. Let’s eliminate the hyperbole and see if we can dig into what is and isn’t really going on here. If you haven’t read the PDF, it basically advocates using sodium metabisulfite (SMB) in the strike water and working towards lowering oxygen ingress at all stages of brewing.

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On Brewing Bavarian Helles: Adapting to Low Oxygen Brewing

We would like to announce a recent work the German Brewing team has put together about brewing Bavarian Helles. This represents months of research, experimentation and testing to dial in a representative example of the style that reflect the true character and flavors of the originals found in Bavaria, Germany. There are some somewhat novel (for the home brewing world) techniques here, but overall pulling together a variety of brewing process steps into a cohesive process that works very well and delivers a great beer, of far better quality than typically achieved by home brewers.

We welcome your thoughts, discussion and experience if you try this process approach and recipe.

http://www.germanbrewing.net/docs/On_Brewing_Bavarian_Helles_v3.pdf

Note: Current link points to V.3 of the document, posted on October 30, 2017.

We will also be discussing on the German Brewing forum

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German Fermentation Schedules

Weizenberg has written some great articles on the various German Helles Fermentation schedules:

 

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In Defense of Decoction

Read a strong discussion and defense of decoction mashing…

In Defense of Decoction

Join the discussion in the forum…

 

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Kräusen Yeast Starter

Roachbrau’s approach to propagating and pitching yeast.

Kräusen Yeast Starter

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In the Footsteps of Joseph Groll: The Bohemian Pils

A great article about the history and production of Bohemian PIlsner.

In the footsteps of Joseph Groll – The Bohemian Pils

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Decoction mashing

Here’s a quick-and-dirty walkthrough of a Hochkurz decoction mash by Steve Roach.  Steve is a German-lager obsessed homebrewer; he goes by roachbrau on the forum.

http://www.roachbrau.com/decoction-mashing/

If you’d like to discuss decoction mashing, check out the forum decoction thread HERE.

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Kloster Weltenburger

When we first arrived in Munich this summer, on our way to my wife’s family’s house we get to (well, I get excited about it) drive through the Hallertau and Danau river regions as we make our way north.  This year that included stopping at Kloster Weltenburger, known for it’s award winning Munich Dunkel.  It’s a monastery located along the Danau (Danube) River, upstream from Regensburg in northern Bavaria/Frankonia region.  You drive through hop farms in Hallertau to get there.  Not a bad way for a German beer lover to arrive in Munich.  2 hours after we land we’re at a famous biergarten in the middle of a famous hop region.

The biergarten is located in the courtyard of the abbey and is a very picturesque German setting.

Weltenburg Abbey

Their Munich Dunkel is a great beer!  I was surprised how close it is to the recipe I have brewed several times (which I will post later).  On the first sip I noted…Weyermann Munich 2!  Very similar flavors.

Weltenburg Dunkel

Weltenburg lunch

Past the doors of the abbey takes you out to the ‘beach’, literally a stones throw from the Danube River.

Weltenburg beach

 

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