My World: Brewing Beer - The Old Way and as an Industry

When you taste a beer, you might appreciate its taste, color and the freshness - especially during summer. The hop in the beer you taste has a calming effect.

Here are a few sights on the traditional way of brewing in Bavaria - there are no pumps and stirrers. Everything is done by hand. I took the following set of eight pictures at an occasion where I brewed beer together with other people under guidance of a brewer. It was hard work.


This was taken after lautering - the fermentable liquid is boiling, in front you see a construction made out of wood which is called Bierleiter - the literal translation is beer latter. It is there to capture drops of the fermentable liquid which is scooped back into the copper after lautering.



Boiling:



After some time, hop was added, samples taken for testing:



Cooking finished - now it must be tranferred to the wort chiller.




...to be continued...


Best regards,
Michael

As the there are no pumps, the liquid has to be scooped and there are no tubes either, but look yourself:



Scooping:



Wort Chiller:




End of Part I.


Best regards,
Michael

Michael, a fascinating pic essay. I have two questions.

The first one, does this manual process make a cost difference; and more importantly, is it a premium taste product? What is the timeframe to the finished product in comparison to an automated brewery?

The next question shall have to wait till I see the next part.

Interesting indeed!

Best.

Fahim,

the automated process is slightly faster and makes it possible to produce a beer which has exactly the same taste across several batches. Of course brewing this way is chaper.

You can brew good beer both ways.

More soon.

Best regards,
Michaek

Michael Nagel said:

When you taste a beer, you might appreciate its taste, color and the freshness - especially during summer. The hop in the beer you taste has a calming effect.

Here are a few sights on the traditional way of brewing in Bavaria - there are no pumps and stirrers. Everything is done by hand. I took the following set of eight pictures at an occasion where I brewed beer together with other people under guidance of a brewer. It was hard work.


This was taken after lautering - the fermentable liquid is boiling, in front you see a construction made out of wood which is called Bierleiter - the literal translation is beer latter. It is there to capture drops of the fermentable liquid which is scooped back into the copper after lautering.

Bierleiter​

Boiling:

Schaum in der Sudpfanne​

After some time, hop was added, samples taken for testing:

Taking Samples​

Cooking finished - now it must be tranferred to the wort chiller.

Hopfen in Aktion​

...to be continued...

Click to expand...

Michael,

This is most enjoyable and connects us to a human occupation and set of skills passed down over, I'd guess, at least 10,000 years! So it's not at all surprising that the process not require any machines or electrical power and electronic controls. I have great admiration for the craftsman's work and knowhow that developed to refine the brewing process and use reliable systems that are simple and easy to duplicate if one has that knowledge and is taught the necessary skills. So this is a family or tribal skill that just requires times of peace and stability for folk to put their knowledge to work.

The copper must have been a major technical advance as it would allow scaling up of the process without needing to pour giant and heavy iron pots for the cooking stage.

It's thrilling for me to see the simple but practical use of wood for the process!

Good job and I hope the taste is as exciting as the pictures promise!

Asher

Hi Michael,

Thanks for showing these images.
I always doff my cap to Germany when I drink beer (95% of the beer I drink is German).
The German purity laws regading beer are very commendable and the proof is in the drinking.

Cheers!

This is a cool picture story Michael. Although some German beers are available here, my favorite Königsbacher Pilsener which I drank for 3 years, is not. So, I have to suffer drinking Pilsener Urquel. ;~)

Asher,

Thanks. Iron would not be the material of choice - just for the taste. Stainless steel is in wide use, but of course not for that long. I am not sure about the 10000 years, but at least for 5000.
The beer was good and there is only little left.

Best regards,
Michael

Andy,

Thanks. The purity laws were actually a reaction to the use of practices widespread in Germany in the 15th and 16th century to add herbs (and even fly agaric) as the process of fermentation with yeast was not well understood to spice up beer which did not turn out well (sour).
A few cities were first and in 1516 Bavaria was first to establish this law on a larger base.
The first connections between yeast and fermentation were actually made in the monasteries, as there was also a bakery pretty close and the correlation between baking bread and brewing good beer which was in the fermentation stage became more and more obvious at the time.

Cheers!

Best regards,
Michael

Steve,

Thanks. Bad that you don't get your favorite beer, but I was in the same situation when I moved several years ago. After trying a few I found a new favorite beer. For me this was Rothaus Pils.

Best regards,
Michael

The following two sets are from a mid-sized brewery. Almost no explanation. See the difference.


Here you have a stirrer:



The top may look interesting:



There are not that many - there is a mirror at the end:



Next batch follows...

Best regards,
Michael

Of course there are tubes:



In shapes:



And complex arrangements:



At some length:



Part 3 will be from a larger brewery.

Best regards,
Michael

Part 3

This is from a larger Brewery. The difference is not that much different from the mid-size brewery, it is just a bit larger...

You need more space for the ingredients:



No mirror involved here:



There are always interesting angles:



Best regards,
Michael

There are of course pipes:



Did I write pipes?



Barrel for the beer:



That's it.

Best regards,
Michael

Michael, thank you for the wonderful and instructive presentation.

Now, the second question I had..if I may..

How do they make the non-alcoholic version of these beers?

Warmest regards.

Fahim,

I had to look this up as well. Here is one lead to explore.

Reverse Osmosis is one of the many processes used.

A side note:
There are - as you noticed - two types of beer - the dealcoholised and the alcohol-free beer.
The main difference is the maximum level of Alcohol per Volume. It can be up to 0.5% for dealcoholised beer and up to 0.05% for alcohol-free beer.
I understand that there is a need for the latter, but I just want to point out that you can have more Alcohol per Volume in an apple juice (0.1% to 0.4%) than in alcohol-free beer.

From what I could compare until now, the dealcoholised and the alcohol-free beer does not reach the taste of normal beer. There are a few beers that are not that bad, but the difference is there.

Best regards,
Michael

One way to try would be to lyophilize the beer and then just add water!! this method would really be alcohol free. Just add a tad of sugar to bring back the full taste. Someone try it and do a taste test!

Here's a nice reference! This leaves about 0.5% alcohol!

Asher

Michael, Asher.

Thank you for the explanations and links.

Regards.