This year’s Sierra Nevada Festbier is great.
yup, just in general i’ve simplified my grists so much from years past. i feel embarassed now looking at kitchen sink recipes i did with 4oz this, 4oz that and 10 different malts.
We have brewed several beers, all very good, that had a single malt in the grain bill. Sometimes less really is more.
Festbier 2020. 65/35 Pils/Munich 2. 25 IBUs of Hallertau from the start of the boil. Omega Bayern on the yeast.
Looks very good! We should be kegging our second 30 gallons in about 10 to 12 days.
Might try more base malt next time, like you did with 65% Pils.
Nice mug, where did you get it?
That’s a Hofbrau stein like this…
I may have gotten it on Amazon but I may have also gotten it at our local Hofbrauhaus… can’t remember.
how do you get rid of 30 gallons? very slowly or many people?
That is shared among the 3 main brewers. Yes, we drink it fast!
I just tasted a one ounce sample of my 3 week old, still fermenting, Fest Bier.
Made with 14 lbs Pils, 4 lbs Vienna, 4 lbs Munich. This is far better than my previous efforts, with a 1/3 split for each of these.
Much cleaner, a little less malty, and the hops really shine! Might even enter this in the upcoming Blue Bonnet Festival.
Hat-Tip to The Village Taphouse for the heads up on this recipe variation.
So it’s 4/4/4 lbs or 14/4/4 lbs pils, vienna, munich?
I’ve been working on my first beer recipe and the final version is
88% pills
9% light Munich
3% victory
Hops: hallertauer & tettnang
Yeast W34/70
14 lbs Pils
4 lbs Vienna
4 lbs Munich
For 10 gallons.
I’ve heard a rumor that some maltsters vienna malt is just a blend of Pils and Munich, has anyone else heard this?
no, and i find it really hard to believe. the vienna ive had, had had a consistent colour. munich and pils would be visually noticeable
I haven’t read about Pils blends but I have read about Cara blends. I have notes from an old 2014 article by Mike Reintz that said:
“Weyermann makes CaraMunich and CaraVienna malt by creating Kilned Caramel Malts–half ends up being Crystal Malt and the other half is Munich or Vienna (depending on temperatures).
Briess doesn’t do any Kilning for their Caramel varieties. Their CaraMunich 60L, for example, is actually just a blend of Caramel 60L and regular Munich Malt. Likewise, their CaraVienne 20L is a blend of Caramel 20L and Vienna Malt.
Based on all that, if you’re looking for a Lovibond rating of CaraMunich or CaraVienne that you can’t find, just do a 50/50 blend of Caramel Malt and Munich/Vienna.
For example, CaraMunich 40L = 50% Caramel 40L + 50% Munich. CaraVienne 80L = 50% Caramel 80L + 50% Vienna.”
Interesting stuff. Explains why I like caramunich so much.
From the Briess website:
Q: What’s the difference between Caramel and Crystal Malts?
A: Dave Kuske, our Director of Malting Operations, explains it this way.
The difference between Caramel and Crystal malts involves both terminology and chemistry and production differences.
As for terminology, the European maltsters landed on crystal malt as the descriptor of malts that go through a conversion step where starches are rapidly (typically within 45 minutes) converted to sugars and the sugars are then crystallized at high temperatures in a roaster. Somewhere in our distant past, it was decided that our crystal style malts produced in the same manner were given the name caramel Malt.
The term caramel really refers to the process of pyrolisis of sugars. When I give presentations on the process, I encourage the audience to envision a candy thermometer. There are different temperature “breaks” where different “types” of caramel are produced and each have unique and very different physical and flavor properties. Crystal style malt is in reality the end process of achieving high enough temperatures to produce a ‘hard crack’ type caramel inside of each malt kernel, which results in a hard glassy endosperm. This crystallization lends unique properties to the flavor and functionality of the malt. In order to achieve crystallization, the actual kernel temperature must exceed 300ºF, which requires much higher applied temperatures only achievable using a roaster, which has the burner capacity to reach in excess of 700+ºF if needed.
There are Caramel malts on the market that are produced using a kiln. The green malt is heated at minimal airflow and is held at high moisture content for an extended period of time (more like hours than minutes) on the upper kiln to “stew” the malt to allow the enzymes to break the starches into sugars. It is a tricky step on the kiln because it is difficult to get the wet malt heated up to the enzyme optimum temperatures (60-70ºC or 140-158ºF) without drying the malt in the process, which slows the enzymatic breakdown. I liken it to trying to heat up a wet bath towel. After stewing, the malt is heated at the highest temperature possible on the kiln, which is not hot enough to actually crystallize the sugars due to maximum temperature limitations on the kiln. In most cases, 220-240ºF burner temperature is as high as one can achieve on a kiln, which falls far short of crystallization temperature of the predominant sugars. There is some caramelization that occurs at the lower temperatures, but the majority of the color and flavor development is due to the Maillard reaction (sugar + amino acid) which provides a different flavor profile and a mealy/powdery endosperm.
So how does CaraBohemian fit in to this discussion?
Mmm, that’s good stuff. This is an area I do not dive into very deeply… I just try to use high quality stuff. I admit that I like my occasional use of CaraMunich I and II and also CaraVienne in certain styles. I will also use some Special B and English Dark Crystal but in small amounts. I will use C40 and C60 in some ales that I make. But generally I am using LESS crystal/caramel malt in my recipes these days. It also gets mildly disorienting because different maltsters have different names for basically the same thing. I ordered some CaraVienne from a local place (to pick up) and when I got there she handed me the bag and it said CaraRuby on it. I said that this wasn’t my order and that I ordered CaraVienne and she shrugged and said “This is CaraVienne… just a different name and different maltster”. :o
Just showing the process considerations for those who might be interested. Carabohemian is merely Weyermann’s 64.5-83.4 L caramel malt. Here is the link to the Briess site for its Caramunich:
Probably pretty close to Carabohemian….