Germany is not noted as a major beer importer. In fact according to the latest figures I could find imports account for less than 2% of consumption. In the proud and patriotic United Kingdom we import nearly 10% of what we drink. I heard yesterday that a prototype stout I made for a fairly large German brewery has been the Del Monte thumbs up by their buyer and brewing team. The design brief was to closely match Guinness. I am happy to say that I failed miserably in achieving this. I did consider getting some John Smith’s Extra Smooth and adding some roasted barley extract, ammonia caramel and a few milligrams per litre of iso alpha acids to it but I thought I’d take a risk on a rounded hoppy stout with dry and moreish finish. I’m quite pleased that they liked it because it’s the first commercial stout recipe that I have ever written and I was pleased with the result. The next stage is a modest sized brew which will be trialled in a few of their pubs. Fingers crossed that the German public like it as much as their brewers.
With my smarm-filled self satisfaction for the day over with I can go back to being stressed about lack of pins, a broken racking head, missing flow meter readings, a late HEPA filter and some oh-so-fun job interviews.
The last couple of yeast vials have arrived for my battle of the yeasts on Friday. I now have;
1. Sharp’s
2. Trappist (Scourmont)
3. Abbey
4. Old English
5. Champagne
6. Gloria Estefan
7. ESB
8. Moortgat
The contenders are warming up and the tension is building. There was a minor scuffle between Sharp’s and Champagne (he doesn’t like the French) but I calmed things down by rustling a sachet of Turbo Yeast™ at them. No one ***ks with Turbo Yeast™.
This brew should prove to be interesting.
8 comments:
Speaking as someone who would really appreciate a nice German-made stout, and not the sad excuses that some breweries present as porter, I commend your efforts at failing to produce a Guinness-a-like.
Now, where can I get it?
Nice one!! I will raise a glass in celebration tonight!
Thanks gents,
I'll have to get back to you on that one Barry. We will be shipping the sterile filtered kegs to Germany late May. I'll let you know where it is likely to be retailing when it leaves.
Ah, so it's not actually being made over here (yet)? Any clue as to what federal state or city they are based, just to get a feel if I'm in the right part of this all-too-large country?
I feel strangely excited at the prospect! :D
Sorry for any confusion Barry. This is a stout that Sharp's brewing and exporting to Germany. I belive that the beer will be sold in the Stuttgart area.
Bugger. Although the in-laws are in that area, so we're regular visitors. I'll seek it out next time we're down that way (and once I know what to look for and where).
PS. I'm easily confused, so don't worry ;)
In case anyone was wondering about the broken racking head, it was fixed by lunchtime even though the engineer was (supposedly) on holiday.
The Engineer is diamond. Even though his welds don't last more than a few days!
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