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23-02-2023, 00:03
Visit the Fuggled site (http://www.fuggled.net/2023/02/dortmunder.html)
I mentioned in my previous post that I had once come across the concept of "Dortmunder malt" at some point in the dim and distant past, but couldn't remember where I saw it. With that particular point of interest once again piqued, I decided to bimble around various online sources and see what I could find out about this elusive type of malt, which if you recall was as pale as Pilsner malt whilst being fully modified in the Bavarian manner, which according to the Illustriertes Brauerei Lexikon by Max Delbrück in 1925 makes it part of the "langmalz" family of malt.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwn5twNmr9lkWvsMuPgCuI0UhkdkKoydVz9PRa2bpKgj VHzucauB_FQDhwlCszhDiN8qKuEAibej_lCBPYs40gKjqnwged Pq-kVddMieS6xTv-JuHQuOUKH3fwL5uf7kNpMdOME8WHnUd1AiEYHEfcEQ2XdrA_9d H5zIOSb-kr87OaXUFMDqkdMsUm/s320/2023-02-16_15-05-50.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwn5twNmr9lkWvsMuPgCuI0UhkdkKoydVz9PRa2bpKgj VHzucauB_FQDhwlCszhDiN8qKuEAibej_lCBPYs40gKjqnwged Pq-kVddMieS6xTv-JuHQuOUKH3fwL5uf7kNpMdOME8WHnUd1AiEYHEfcEQ2XdrA_9d H5zIOSb-kr87OaXUFMDqkdMsUm/s426/2023-02-16_15-05-50.png)
"Langmalz", according to Delbrück, undergoes extensive modification over a longer period of time on the malting floor. Apparently it is possible for "langmalz" to be "too good" if it becomes overly modified. Such over-modification can apparently causes problems with head retention and the body of the beer, especially in "the production of pale beers". The last sentence of this section also notes that "langmalz" is used in the distillery, though here is means malt where the leaf germ is at least twice the length of the grain and at least 20 days old.
With the horrors there of the dangers of over-modification, best to just under modify and decoct right?
So we have a pretty decent idea of what Dortmunder Malt was, but malt doesn't just magic itself out of thin air, it is of course the product of an industrial process, meaning it needs inputs, in this case barley. As I learnt when I spent time with Murphy & Rude malting for my article in Pellicle (https://www.pelliclemag.com/home/2022/8/3/venus-rising-murphy-amp-rude-malting-co-in-charlottesville-virginia), not all barley is suited to the malting process. It would appear that Dortmunder malt had a very specific need when it came to the barley from which it was made.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkjdGL5Dw6r3bpuGMiRSlwCNVxq50sKUZY-RHRK1CsZ4eMusU5VDoBUCX2JiL4aTpLUxJJrJNLIrPBbRwe9Jd 1HRsZpILGj4U7IbqUPiQdUYZVV7lRLrNip2_8EmwmZ6-SB3vMyTjgPgIrO_INdM0wX7mjSLH0PtiEA4zz5z7ACgBEx56yo zyZOyb8/s320/2023-02-16_14-45-35.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkjdGL5Dw6r3bpuGMiRSlwCNVxq50sKUZY-RHRK1CsZ4eMusU5VDoBUCX2JiL4aTpLUxJJrJNLIrPBbRwe9Jd 1HRsZpILGj4U7IbqUPiQdUYZVV7lRLrNip2_8EmwmZ6-SB3vMyTjgPgIrO_INdM0wX7mjSLH0PtiEA4zz5z7ACgBEx56yo zyZOyb8/s531/2023-02-16_14-45-35.png)
The description above confirms again the process for making Dortmunder malt, extended low kilning resulting in a pale, fully modified malt, but the barley itself needs to be high quality, low-protein barley of the type you would find in Saxony, Silesia, Bohemia, and Moravia, basically modern Czechia and the appropriate bordering regions in Germany and Poland. Given that in the late 19th century Emanuel Proskowetz was busily improving the Old-Haná barley to give the world the "Proskowetz Haná" strain and from there came Kneifl, Valtice, and Diamant, it is no surprise that the maltsters of Dortmund sourced their grain from the other side of Europe.
Taking such malt, the brewers of Dortmund produced a beer that was "highly fermented, alcohol rich, vinous, delicate", and yet very pale when compared to the strength of the beer. Brewed to 14° Plato, the Dortmunder analysed in Der Böhmische Bierbrauer in 1896 had a colour rating, last column in the table, of 6 while Bohemian pilsners brewed at just under 12° Plato ranged from 5.5 to 6.5.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3E9Wtdm5ENO5EVIQ_87pUtpIZ3IyU4PdRU2AWg825j5 Rn-zvnykSdwYqRIMdCxzFTw_oIiTmHszPEeCM8BSJ4A0UCLzFBydW _Ursy1ZHUQvi74ICqFnGsTcoFjWRjzEj0au0CZ7_lnYbg4iVWP 5xu3XAJPFyOAIjDV03wXKh5dxqeRmdSqyMu73_1/s320/2023-02-15_14-15-30.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3E9Wtdm5ENO5EVIQ_87pUtpIZ3IyU4PdRU2AWg825j5 Rn-zvnykSdwYqRIMdCxzFTw_oIiTmHszPEeCM8BSJ4A0UCLzFBydW _Ursy1ZHUQvi74ICqFnGsTcoFjWRjzEj0au0CZ7_lnYbg4iVWP 5xu3XAJPFyOAIjDV03wXKh5dxqeRmdSqyMu73_1/s750/2023-02-15_14-15-30.png)
So, a 14° beer yielded the same colour as a 12°, meaning Dortmunder malt was paler than Pilsner malt, but something else was a play in Dortmund, water chemistry.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtZz9OHBKIrvtrSOyy9e1NBMwTZ3Ib2I6nQRpMkkOArm efGe8WtY7XG76hxO0hpO4vyQpSrARBWZX07mexaZTyMc6I_98R OEYQXTs74OkOrOOv9r9Pc33lzRos5E32uaMc-HwRMle6sCB5O_ON6DXwL8BOy3gHKj0F2ITgt_A9dK8HOOoAOKp bcyHh/s320/2023-02-17_10-28-14.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtZz9OHBKIrvtrSOyy9e1NBMwTZ3Ib2I6nQRpMkkOArm efGe8WtY7XG76hxO0hpO4vyQpSrARBWZX07mexaZTyMc6I_98R OEYQXTs74OkOrOOv9r9Pc33lzRos5E32uaMc-HwRMle6sCB5O_ON6DXwL8BOy3gHKj0F2ITgt_A9dK8HOOoAOKp bcyHh/s896/2023-02-17_10-28-14.png)
In the Bayerisches Brauer-Journal of 1908 it was noted that Dortmunder Bier had a "heartiness, fullness, and mildness" that would be unimaginable but for the high concentration of gypsum in Dortmund's brewing water, making it essentially the polar opposite of the soft water of Plzeň, and the writer even name checks Burton upon Trent in England as having a comparative gypsum concentration to the brewing water. Water that is high in gypsum extracts less colour from the malt than softer waters, while increasing extract yield and increasing the perception of bitterness in the beer. So important to Dortmunder was this water chemistry that the writer confidently declare that any "attempt to brew a Dortmund beer from Dortmund malt with Munich or Plzeň water would fail miserably".
This all makes me wonder if any of the beers produced today that lay claim to the moniker "Dortmunder" would be accepted as such by late 19th century and early 20th century authorities? Is there in production today a "Dortmunder malz" as opposed to the near ubiquitous, in lager, Pilsner malt? Weyermann in Bamberg produce an "Extra Pale Premium Pilsner" malt, is that basically a rebranded Dortmunder style malt? Do any of the "Dortmunders" on the market today use the necessary amount of gypsum in their brewing water to create the very pale beer the city became famous for? Have we confused additional strength for sweetness and darkness that would seem to be out of kilter with the original?
More questions, more archive diving...
More... (http://www.fuggled.net/2023/02/dortmunder.html)
I mentioned in my previous post that I had once come across the concept of "Dortmunder malt" at some point in the dim and distant past, but couldn't remember where I saw it. With that particular point of interest once again piqued, I decided to bimble around various online sources and see what I could find out about this elusive type of malt, which if you recall was as pale as Pilsner malt whilst being fully modified in the Bavarian manner, which according to the Illustriertes Brauerei Lexikon by Max Delbrück in 1925 makes it part of the "langmalz" family of malt.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwn5twNmr9lkWvsMuPgCuI0UhkdkKoydVz9PRa2bpKgj VHzucauB_FQDhwlCszhDiN8qKuEAibej_lCBPYs40gKjqnwged Pq-kVddMieS6xTv-JuHQuOUKH3fwL5uf7kNpMdOME8WHnUd1AiEYHEfcEQ2XdrA_9d H5zIOSb-kr87OaXUFMDqkdMsUm/s320/2023-02-16_15-05-50.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwn5twNmr9lkWvsMuPgCuI0UhkdkKoydVz9PRa2bpKgj VHzucauB_FQDhwlCszhDiN8qKuEAibej_lCBPYs40gKjqnwged Pq-kVddMieS6xTv-JuHQuOUKH3fwL5uf7kNpMdOME8WHnUd1AiEYHEfcEQ2XdrA_9d H5zIOSb-kr87OaXUFMDqkdMsUm/s426/2023-02-16_15-05-50.png)
"Langmalz", according to Delbrück, undergoes extensive modification over a longer period of time on the malting floor. Apparently it is possible for "langmalz" to be "too good" if it becomes overly modified. Such over-modification can apparently causes problems with head retention and the body of the beer, especially in "the production of pale beers". The last sentence of this section also notes that "langmalz" is used in the distillery, though here is means malt where the leaf germ is at least twice the length of the grain and at least 20 days old.
With the horrors there of the dangers of over-modification, best to just under modify and decoct right?
So we have a pretty decent idea of what Dortmunder Malt was, but malt doesn't just magic itself out of thin air, it is of course the product of an industrial process, meaning it needs inputs, in this case barley. As I learnt when I spent time with Murphy & Rude malting for my article in Pellicle (https://www.pelliclemag.com/home/2022/8/3/venus-rising-murphy-amp-rude-malting-co-in-charlottesville-virginia), not all barley is suited to the malting process. It would appear that Dortmunder malt had a very specific need when it came to the barley from which it was made.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkjdGL5Dw6r3bpuGMiRSlwCNVxq50sKUZY-RHRK1CsZ4eMusU5VDoBUCX2JiL4aTpLUxJJrJNLIrPBbRwe9Jd 1HRsZpILGj4U7IbqUPiQdUYZVV7lRLrNip2_8EmwmZ6-SB3vMyTjgPgIrO_INdM0wX7mjSLH0PtiEA4zz5z7ACgBEx56yo zyZOyb8/s320/2023-02-16_14-45-35.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkjdGL5Dw6r3bpuGMiRSlwCNVxq50sKUZY-RHRK1CsZ4eMusU5VDoBUCX2JiL4aTpLUxJJrJNLIrPBbRwe9Jd 1HRsZpILGj4U7IbqUPiQdUYZVV7lRLrNip2_8EmwmZ6-SB3vMyTjgPgIrO_INdM0wX7mjSLH0PtiEA4zz5z7ACgBEx56yo zyZOyb8/s531/2023-02-16_14-45-35.png)
The description above confirms again the process for making Dortmunder malt, extended low kilning resulting in a pale, fully modified malt, but the barley itself needs to be high quality, low-protein barley of the type you would find in Saxony, Silesia, Bohemia, and Moravia, basically modern Czechia and the appropriate bordering regions in Germany and Poland. Given that in the late 19th century Emanuel Proskowetz was busily improving the Old-Haná barley to give the world the "Proskowetz Haná" strain and from there came Kneifl, Valtice, and Diamant, it is no surprise that the maltsters of Dortmund sourced their grain from the other side of Europe.
Taking such malt, the brewers of Dortmund produced a beer that was "highly fermented, alcohol rich, vinous, delicate", and yet very pale when compared to the strength of the beer. Brewed to 14° Plato, the Dortmunder analysed in Der Böhmische Bierbrauer in 1896 had a colour rating, last column in the table, of 6 while Bohemian pilsners brewed at just under 12° Plato ranged from 5.5 to 6.5.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3E9Wtdm5ENO5EVIQ_87pUtpIZ3IyU4PdRU2AWg825j5 Rn-zvnykSdwYqRIMdCxzFTw_oIiTmHszPEeCM8BSJ4A0UCLzFBydW _Ursy1ZHUQvi74ICqFnGsTcoFjWRjzEj0au0CZ7_lnYbg4iVWP 5xu3XAJPFyOAIjDV03wXKh5dxqeRmdSqyMu73_1/s320/2023-02-15_14-15-30.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3E9Wtdm5ENO5EVIQ_87pUtpIZ3IyU4PdRU2AWg825j5 Rn-zvnykSdwYqRIMdCxzFTw_oIiTmHszPEeCM8BSJ4A0UCLzFBydW _Ursy1ZHUQvi74ICqFnGsTcoFjWRjzEj0au0CZ7_lnYbg4iVWP 5xu3XAJPFyOAIjDV03wXKh5dxqeRmdSqyMu73_1/s750/2023-02-15_14-15-30.png)
So, a 14° beer yielded the same colour as a 12°, meaning Dortmunder malt was paler than Pilsner malt, but something else was a play in Dortmund, water chemistry.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtZz9OHBKIrvtrSOyy9e1NBMwTZ3Ib2I6nQRpMkkOArm efGe8WtY7XG76hxO0hpO4vyQpSrARBWZX07mexaZTyMc6I_98R OEYQXTs74OkOrOOv9r9Pc33lzRos5E32uaMc-HwRMle6sCB5O_ON6DXwL8BOy3gHKj0F2ITgt_A9dK8HOOoAOKp bcyHh/s320/2023-02-17_10-28-14.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtZz9OHBKIrvtrSOyy9e1NBMwTZ3Ib2I6nQRpMkkOArm efGe8WtY7XG76hxO0hpO4vyQpSrARBWZX07mexaZTyMc6I_98R OEYQXTs74OkOrOOv9r9Pc33lzRos5E32uaMc-HwRMle6sCB5O_ON6DXwL8BOy3gHKj0F2ITgt_A9dK8HOOoAOKp bcyHh/s896/2023-02-17_10-28-14.png)
In the Bayerisches Brauer-Journal of 1908 it was noted that Dortmunder Bier had a "heartiness, fullness, and mildness" that would be unimaginable but for the high concentration of gypsum in Dortmund's brewing water, making it essentially the polar opposite of the soft water of Plzeň, and the writer even name checks Burton upon Trent in England as having a comparative gypsum concentration to the brewing water. Water that is high in gypsum extracts less colour from the malt than softer waters, while increasing extract yield and increasing the perception of bitterness in the beer. So important to Dortmunder was this water chemistry that the writer confidently declare that any "attempt to brew a Dortmund beer from Dortmund malt with Munich or Plzeň water would fail miserably".
This all makes me wonder if any of the beers produced today that lay claim to the moniker "Dortmunder" would be accepted as such by late 19th century and early 20th century authorities? Is there in production today a "Dortmunder malz" as opposed to the near ubiquitous, in lager, Pilsner malt? Weyermann in Bamberg produce an "Extra Pale Premium Pilsner" malt, is that basically a rebranded Dortmunder style malt? Do any of the "Dortmunders" on the market today use the necessary amount of gypsum in their brewing water to create the very pale beer the city became famous for? Have we confused additional strength for sweetness and darkness that would seem to be out of kilter with the original?
More questions, more archive diving...
More... (http://www.fuggled.net/2023/02/dortmunder.html)