I found this interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1f7m31b_HE
I wish I knew more of the german words.
In the one bit it looked they pumped half the liquor from the mash tun, boiled it for a little bit, then pumped it back. Is that how you do a step mash?
I also loved the demonstration where they lowered the candle into the open fermenter to show that there is no oxygen in there.
Really interesting, Tom. Thanks for posting.
Ron
[quote=“JMcK”]I wish I knew more of the german words.
In the one bit it looked they pumped half the liquor from the mash tun, boiled it for a little bit, then pumped it back. Is that how you do a step mash?
[/quote]
That’s a decoction mash. It’s the classic German method for lagers. You can find many discussions on this board about whether it’s worth doing or not.
Here’s a good article on it
https://byo.com/bock/item/537-decoction ... techniquesThanks for sharing that. Pro friends who visited Uerige a few years back say that things have not changed much (there) in 75 years. That cascading wall cooler has an impressive capability.
Wow, what a process, so many steps… Thanks for sharing.
Was neat to see, thanks for sharing! Would love to have tasted one of those.
Very cool. I like the candle placed over the open fermenter to show the CO2 putting it out.
I took the Fullers tour a couple of years ago and the guide had worked there when they were using open fermenters. They would have candles in the fermenters when they were cleaning them, in case there was still CO2 lingering.
Man. Thinking about what happens if someone slips and falls through the
hole in the floor into that giant malt mill.
Ok, so what do you suppose they were doing immediately after pumping the wort out of the boil tank? I’m guessing the first big round thing was a hopback, but then they run the wort over that big, flat table, before pouring it over the heat exchanger. Does anyone know the purpose of that?
I’m not positive, but a lot of early breweries had coolships to do do initial settling of hot break as well as cooling.
from: http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/l … rchet.html
Coolships. Another time-honored method of hot trub removal is the coolship. Coolships are still quite prevalent in small, old-time Bavarian and Belgian breweries. Hot wort from the kettle is pumped into the coolship, which is usually a long, wide, shallow open copper or stainless vessel (Figure 2). Here the wort remains from 1 to 3 h (depending on conditions), cools to appromimately 140-170 degrees F (60-77 degrees C), and trub settles out. The wort is then cooled further by using a plate heat exchanger or baudelot cooler. In some cases the wort stands in the coolship for 12 h, cooling it enough to precipitate some cold trub.
That makes a lot of sense, thanks!
I toured the Pilsner Urquell brewery in Pilzn, Czech Republic a couple years ago. They still use, from what they said, strictly a pilsner malt, and a decoction step (at least one) in the process. I also am under the impression that they still fire up their brew kettle ahead of time before they dump in the wort, which adds to the slight carmelization of the beer. It was more than a little exciting to taste it down 30 feet underground in the cellars, straight from the tanks.
