Okay, where was I? Oh, yes; getting to the 'hands-on' part of period German beer brewing.
Obviously, to do 'hands-on' brewing in a period style, we need to know what period-style brewing looks like. Enter Johannes Coler, with his Oeconomia oder Haussbuch. Published in 1599 in Berlin, this was actually Coler's father's work; the old man was on his deathbed, and Coler took it up on himself to put it out there. Volume 2 of the work is On Beer. And scanning down to chapter ten gives us a step-by-step process!
Fourteen steps for beer, going from raw grain to tapping the cask. Herewith, part 1:
Das X. Capitel.
Vom Brewen.
Wiewol ich droben gesagt/dz die weise zu brewen in einem jedern Lande
und ort von den Einwonern mus gelernet werden/So wil ich doch hier
anzeigen/was wir allhier zu Berlin für eine art zu brewen haben. 1.
Schütt man die Gerste in eine Butte/und lefft sie drey Tage und Nacht
drinnen weychen/im Winter auch wol viere. 2. Schütt mans auff einen
Söller oder Pühne uber einen hauffen/biß es beginnet zu keimen oder zu
schiessen. 3. Rüret mans immer ein wenig und aber ein wenig von
einander/biß es an den spitzen fein lödicht wird. 4. Wenns genug
geschossen oder gewaschen/so bringet mans fein weit von einander/und
treugets/entweder in einer Stuben/oder in der Sonnen/oder in einem
Dörrofen.
The translation -
Chapter 10.
On Brewing.
As I said above/the wise must learn to brew in any one country and
place from the residents/so I want to show here/what kind of brew we
have here in Berlin. 1. Put the barley into a butt/and leave it for
three days and nights/in Winter four is as well. 2. Put it in a pile or
a heap/until it begins to germinate or shoot. 3. One always stirs it a
little, but separates a little from another/until it has at the point a
made a fine sprout. 4. When it is sufficiently shot or washed/so one
brushes the fine parts far from it/and dries it/either in a
stove-room/or in the sun/or in a drying-oven.
Commentary: So,
we're looking here at a Berlin-beer. This is pretty much the basics of
barley malting. The "drying in the sun" part is of interest--that would be "wind-malt," which would certainly be very lightly-colored; most reports I've seen also describe it as being a little "grassy."
The Stuben/stove-room notion sounds interesting. I've got a wood stove in my living room, with space beneath it; I may have to try drying some in a tray there, this winter. A
medieval German Dorrofen would be an interesting thing to see. (I've got another book that describes some of the specifics of building a malt kiln, but that's for a later post.)
Next up: Mashing!
Labels: experiments, Historical, plans, projects