These sweet-tasting beers are produced in various different ways based of the preferences of the intended customers.
In general they are brewed dark. It’s recommended to use Munich malt with in addition an appropriate amount of Farbmalz and 5% to 8% caramel malt, which will lend a natural sweetness and stop the beer attenuating too much.
In the first method short kettle mash is employed, with mashing in at 35º C. The mash is left to stand for half an hour to allow it to dissolve, then the temperature is raised to 50º and finally 70º C, at which temperature saccharification takes place.
In the second method the mash is heated in the aforementioned way to 65º to 68º C, a third is left in the tun to saccharify and the rest is boiled for half an hour before being added back to the tun, raising it to the mash out temperature of 75º C. After a rest of half an hour the wort is run off. It is then boiled for 1.5 to 2 hours with half a pound of good hops per 50 kg of malt, added 45 minutes before the end of the boil. The gravity varies between 8º and 12º Balling, depending on the price it is to be sold for.
The wort is top-fermented in tuns at a temperature of between 12º and 17º C (15º C is normal), depending on the outside temperature. Per 50 kg of malt 1 litre of yeast is pitched. At the end of primary fermentation the beer is filled into 2 to 5 hectolitre barrels, and is allowed to overflow through the bung. The clear beer is filled into bottles from these casks.
Or the beer is transferred to 10-hectolitre casks, bunged after three days and then the highly-carbonated beer is filtered directly into trade casks after having a cooled, boiled sugar solution in the required amount added to it.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4sZKTplep...s_Malzbier.jpgTo brew pale, golden-coloured Malzbier, high-dried pale malt is used along with 5% caramel malt. The mashing scheme is as above, with a 15 minute boil of the thick mash. Care is taken that during primary fermentation the expulsion of yeast is not interrupted. For this reason a pure yeast is used.
Higher gravity beers don’t need to be sparged because of their strength and beers over 11º Balling are hopped at a rate of 0.75 pounds per 50 kg of malt. High-dried malt is used, which naturally tend to a lower degree of attenuation, also the higher saccharification temperature of 70º C has the purpose of producing less easily fermentable sugar such as maltodextrine.
Source: Olberg, Johannes (1927) Erntebier in Moderne Braumethoden, pp 72-73, A. Hartleben, Wien & Leipzig.
