My Kellerbier Experiment 2024

September 28, 2024 ak Leave a comment

I don’t homebrew that much anymore these days, at most 4 to 5 times a year, and really only the beers that I absolutely want to brew and drink, which includes fixtures like an 8° Czech-style pale lager for summer and a Czech-style dark lager (which I brew with Ben) for winter. So there is really not that much room for experimentation, simply because I don’t have the time, the drinking capacity (I’m 40, it’s all about quality over quantity now) or the resources like free fridge space for fermentation and lagering.

But there have been a few things that I kept wanting to try out, all in the context of Franconian Kellerbier that I had learned about in the last year or so.

The first thing was when my friend Joe Stange visited Brauerei Knoblach just outside of Bamberg end of last year, and came back with the information that Knoblach generally uses a 1:1 blend of Pilsner and Vienna malt as a grist, that their water is fairly hard parts of the year, and that they rely on that hardness (though he couldn’t provide any concrete numbers, nor was I able to find any analytical data about the water of Schammelsdorf, where the brewery is located). I really like Knoblach’s beers, and I know its peculiar taste, so I was wondering whether these were two factors that played into it (Joe also published an excellent article about Kellerbier in the latest issue of Craft Beer & Brewing magazine which does not seem to be online yet, but as a subscriber myself, I highly recommend getting an online subscription).

The second thing was what I learned at HBCon earlier this year about how Mönchsambacher brewed their Weihnachts-Bock. The two things I wanted to incorporate were their mash profile (which I wrote about in July) and the water profile, which has roughly equivalent hardness of calcium and magnesium, and plenty of it as sulphates. Luckily, my local Berlin tap water has about the right calcium hardness, so all I needed to do was to add the right of magnesium to get my tap water roughly where the Mönchsambacher water is in terms of hardness and mineral composition.

The third point on my agenda of things to try out were Aurum hops, a relatively new German hop variety that was launched as more disease- and climate-resistant with a “highly fine” aroma. As a daughter of Tettnanger, it is meant to replace Tettnanger and similar varieties, and German hop growers as well as hop merchants have been promoting it because they see it as a variety better suited to climate change than others, including German landrace varieties. What I wanted to know was well the hops fared in a traditional style.

I know, integrating all three elements in a single experiment is not exactly scientific, as I don’t have a baseline to compare it to, nor do I isolate any of the multiple variables. I’ll still call it an experiment simply because I want to know what a beer brewed that way would taste like.

And that’s how I formulated the recipe:

The grist was simple: 50% Pilsner malt, and 50% Vienna malt. As hops, I used Aurum hops, with additions at 60 minutes for bittering, 25 minutes for flavour, and to the whirlpool for aroma, which should end up at 41 IBU (calculated):

2.3 kg Pilsner malt
2.3 kg Vienna malt
30 g Aurum hops (5.8% alpha acid) @ 60 min
30 g Aurum hops (5.8% alpha acid) @ 25 min
40 g Aurum hops (5.8% alpha acid) @ whirlpool for 20 min

My tap water needed to be enriched with magnesium, so I simply spiked the mash with food-grade epsom salts (MgSO₄). According to my calculations, 18g should get me the right amount of magnesium hardness for 22 liters of beer.

As yeast, I used the Fermentis S-23 dry yeast strain. It’s not my absolute favourite, but it’s all I had at hand, also because I had forgotten to order anything else, which is all my bloody fault.

When it came to mashing, I just stuck to the Mönchsambacher mash profile, a single decoction mash. I boiled the wort for 60 minutes, then cooled it down to 6°C, pitched the yeast, and let it ferment at 10°C until it was finished fermenting. I then ramped down the temperature to 1°C for a week, and bottled it with wort I had held back for bottle conditioning.

The resulting beer has an OG of 11.6°P (slightly lower than a typical Kellerbier, but that’s mainly from me buying the ingredients and only afterwards deciding on a mash profile with a slightly lower efficiency than my regular double decoction mash), and fermented down only to 3.5°P FG, resulting in just 4.3% ABV.

A Willibecher of the Kellerbier. The colour is golden with a tiny bit of haze, with a moderately dense head of foam on top.

A first taste test showed that the experiment, in my opinion, was successful: the beer has a minerality and a maltiness very much reminiscent of Knoblach and Mönchsambacher. The same goes for the bitterness: while it’s not quite as pronounced as I hoped it would be (I blame the low attenuation which probably leaves just enough residual sweetness to slightly mute it), as it is very lingering: even minutes after, that hop bitterness just stays on your tongue. Which is exactly what I appreciate so much about these beers.

As for the hop aroma of Aurum itself: there’s not that much there. Even though I kept the hops in the fridge and sealed at all times, it was not the freshest batch (2021 harvest), so that may have had an influence. Still, the bitterness the hops provide was quite on point.

Still, I’m very happy with the end result. I think it shows that the local water profile of Bamberg’s surrounding area has a large impact on the flavour of the beer, as long as breweries don’t soften or otherwise treat the water and embrace their very local water profile instead (which is one of the points that Joe makes in his article).

Even the yeast played out alright: I didn’t like S-23 in the past because it can produce rather fruity fermentation byproducts. In this case, the beer came out fairly clean, just with a high final gravity. In retrospect, that actually wasn’t too surprising, as S-23 is the closest known relative of the Wyeast 2001 strain, which is purported to be the Pilsner Urquell “H” strain, and is also known for relatively low attenuation.

My take-aways of this brew are the following:

Hard water, especially similar to the Mönchsambacher water profile, can get you a flavour profile in beer that is similar to the slightly rustic flavour profiles of beers like Mönchsambacher, Knoblach and others in the region.

The combination of Pilsner and Vienna malt probably adds to that rustic character.

A lower attenuation seems to help with the style, but another experiment to try out a more highly attenuating yeast should bring more clarity.

Aurum hops are probably okay for standard German styles, but also require more experimentation to understand their exact aroma potential and how to use them. A more recent harvest would be great to try next time. I generally support the idea of hop varieties that are better suited to climate change (which is an inevitability that will hit the brewing industry hard in the decades to come, so good on German hop breeders to be as forward-thinking as that), as long as we understand well enough how to apply the hops to get the same aromas and flavours as with more traditional varieties.

History

Which Breweries’ Beers Were Served At Oktoberfest in 1843?

September 25, 2024 ak Leave a comment

Bavarikon, Bavaria’s internal portal to present treasures, art and other things from its archives, libraries and museums, is an incredibly valuable platform, as you can find all kinds of random bits and pieces related to Bavaria in some shape or some. They of course have lots of digitalized material about Oktoberfest, like this map of Oktoberfest at Theresienwiese from 1843:

A map of Oktoberfest from 1843. Source. Public Domain.

This is great, because not only does it give us insight into the overall setup (basically, the horse racing course was on the outside of the field, while in the middle, most of the stands could be found, with more stands to be found on the hill on the Western side of Theresenwiese, just north of the Bavaria statue.

Of course, the King had his own tent, with the agricultural exhibition placed near it. On the South side, the shooting range was located, while in the center, the most was going on: lots of places serving beer, coffee, wine, punch, cold and hot food, or pastries, but there were also attractions like a carousel and crossbow shooting, and the Glückshafen, a lottery with the purpose that its profit be used to support the city’s poor. That attraction still exists today, and is the oldest operation at the Oktoberfest.

Most importantly though, we also learn which breweries’ beers were served in 1843:

Singelspieler
Mader
Oberkandler
Knor[r]
Hacker
Löwenbräu
Pschor[r]
Unterkandler
Tölzer (from Tölz; nowadays Bad Tölz)
Hesselloher (probably referring to the brewery in Großhesselohe in Pullach, just South of Munich)

Some of these breweries resp. brands are still around, like Hacker and Pschorr in the Hacker-Pschorr brand, and Löwenbräu, while others are less known: Maderbräu is probably best known these day through Maderbräustraße, the little street next to Weißes Brauhaus in Munich: when Georg Schneider had to move out of the old Weißes Brauhaus (roughly where Hofbräuhaus is located nowadays), he managed to buy the defunct Maderbräu brewery building and relocate his brewery there. Only the street name and a sign on the wall of Weißes Brauhaus are reminders of this old Munich brewery.

Sign on the wall of Weißes Brauhaus, Munich. It says “The White Brewhouse. Former historischer Munich brewery. 1490 first mentioned as brewery. 1540 called Maderbräu in a document. 1872 Georg Schneider built his white beer brewery here. 1944 destroyed by incendiary bombs. The undestroyed restaurant is an example of the old Munich pub tradition.”

The other Munich breweries in this list are attested through an old map from the 1830s of Munich breweries: Knorrbräu on Briennerstraße, Oberkandler and Unterkandler, both on Neuhauser Straße, and Singelspieler on Sendlinger Straße. Even beer from further away was brought to Theresienwiese and served there, such as from Tölz, South of Munich, and Hesselloher Bier, which was likely from the brewery in Großhesselohe in Pullach just outside Munich, but that’s not entirely clear from the source.

From an 1824 painting by Heinrich Adam, we can also get a rough idea how serving beer used to be organised like, on a much smaller scale than nowadays, from wooden shacks like this one:

Detail from an 1824 painting by Heinrich Adam, depicting beer getting served from a cask at Oktoberfest. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.

(header image by Heinrich Adam, 1824, licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0. source)

History

Top- vs. Bottom-Fermenting Breweries in Prussia 1889/1890

September 23, 2024 ak Leave a comment

In my recent article about top- vs bottom-fermenting breweries in Germany 1889/1890, I simplified one bit of the data: I lumped together all provinces of Prussia, when the data was actually much more detailed specifically for that state.

So let’s start with the per-province data:

		Breweries		Production volume [hl]
No.	Province	TF	BF	TF	BF
1	East Prussia	199	52	328,721	582,580
2	West Prussia	42	60	172,278	419,883
3	Brandenburg	444	125	1,839,780	2,876,476
4	Pomerania	235	82	126,654	531,615
5	Posen	113	51	218,544	270,509
6	Silesia	654	199	1,128,173	1,534,086
7	Saxony	465	174	646,987	1,791,947
8	Schleswig-Holstein	653	53	282,954	952,226
9	Hanover	355	110	155,436	1,001,521
10	Westphalia	468	248	101,883	2,000,935
11	Hesse-Nassau	90	312	28,404	1,613,806
12	Rhineland	783	371	1,030,283	2,527,309
13	Hohenzollern	93	146	4,659	117,557

List of provinces, with the number of breweries (TF = top-fermenting, BF = bottom-fermenting) and respective production volumes

I added numbers to give you a better idea where each of these provinces were located using this map:

Map of Imperial Germany, with Prussia marked green and the Prussian provinces number 1-13. This map was created using this map. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. The original map was created by Maps & Lucy and others.

Now let’s again look at the ratio of bottom- to top-fermenting breweries per province:

No.	Region	BF / TF
1	East Prussia	0.26
2	West Prussia	1.43
3	Brandenburg	0.28
4	Pomerania	0.35
5	Posen	0.45
6	Silesia	0.30
7	Saxony	0.37
8	Schleswig-Holstein	0.08
9	Hanover	0.31
10	Westphalia	0.53
11	Hesse-Nassau	3.47
12	Rhineland	0.47
13	Hohenzollern	1.57

List of the provinces and the ratio of bottom- to top-fermenting breweries in each of them

The first thing I noticed is that there are only three provinces with more bottom-fermenting than top-fermenting breweries: West Prussia, Hesse-Nassau and Hohenzollern. When you look at the raw data, West Prussia in general didn’t seem to have too many breweries in the first place. Hesse-Nassau, just like the State of Hesse (which it fully surrounds), also seems to have switched over to bottom fermentation, but not quite to the extent as Hesse. And then there’s Hohenzollern, which is actually quite separate from the rest of Prussia and located very much in the South of Germany where bottom fermentation has a more longstanding tradition.

This brings me to the next table of statistics, the average production volumes per province, divided between top- and bottom-fermenting breweries:

		hl / Brewery
No.	Region	TF	BF	BF / TF
1	East Prussia	1,651.86	11,203.46	6.78
2	West Prussia	4,101.86	6,998.05	1.71
3	Brandenburg	4,143.65	23,011.81	5.55
4	Pomerania	538.95	6,483.11	12.03
5	Posen	1,934.02	5,304.10	2.74
6	Silesia	1,725.04	7,708.97	4.47
7	Saxony	1,391.37	10,298.55	7.40
8	Schleswig-Holstein	433.31	17,966.53	41.46
9	Hanover	437.85	9,104.74	20.79
10	Westphalia	217.70	8,068.29	37.06
11	Hesse-Nassau	315.60	5,172.46	16.39
12	Rhineland	1,315.81	6,812.15	5.18
13	Hohenzollern	50.10	805.18	16.07

The list of Prussian provinces, each with the average hl / Brewery for top- and bottom-fermenting breweries, plus the ratio of bottom- to top-fermenting average production volume.

Hohenzollern absolutely stands out here, with just tiny average production volumes. Whatever top-fermenting breweries existed there, they must have been pretty small in operation (at least on average), some of them probably glorified home-brewing operations. But even the bottom-fermenting breweries were really small compared to all the other provinces.

The brewery structure of Hohenzollern (but this is just an educated guess) was probably closer to regions like Franconia, where a lot of small, local breweries were established and just served a very local market, with relatively little industrialisation at the time.

Brandenburg (which includes Berlin) seems to have been the exact opposite, not only because it had a fairly strong top-fermenting brewing industry with a pretty large number of breweries and strong average production volumes, but also had by far the largest production volumes for bottom-fermenting breweries. These number probably mostly reflect the Berlin brewing industry: a large number of breweries making Berliner Weisse and other top-fermented beers for a market that is strong but slowly declining on the one hand, and large, industrial breweries specifically founded and built for brewing fashionable bottom-fermented beers on the other hand.

Interestingly, the Rhineland, nowadays very well known for its hyperlocal top-fermented beer cultures of Kölsch (in Cologne and surrounding areas) and Altbier (in Düsseldorf and the Lower Rhine region), does not particularly stand out as much as I would have expected. While it is the province with the third-largest total production volume of top-fermented beers in Prussia, when ranked by average production volume per brewery, it can only be found on seventh place. When looking at total bottom-fermented volume, the Rhineland is even number 2 of all provinces, but at the same time also has by far the largest number of bottom-fermenting breweries, which brings down the average production volume a lot.

It does show though that in the Rhineland, beer was an important product with presumably one of the highest per-capita consumption in all of Prussia. At least the large number of breweries would suggest a focus on the local market and a comparatively less consolidated beer market overall.

History

Top- vs. Bottom-Fermenting Breweries in Germany 1889/1890

September 15, 2024 ak 4 Comments

I recently found a table with an overview of the number of breweries of 11 of 25 German States, split by top- and bottom-fermenting breweries, and total production volumes, again divided by top- and bottom-fermenting breweries.

I found it interesting because these statistics gave some insight into how prevalent bottom fermentation had become in some states, and which states’ breweries managed to brew on a larger scale than others.

So here are the raw numbers:

	Breweries		Production Volume [hl]
State	TF	BF	TF	BF
Prussia	4,594	1,983	6,064,756	16,220,485
Saxony	583	172	1,987,481	2,393,978
Hesse	17	210	1,097	998,493
Mecklenburg	351	46	129,254	412,878
Thuringia	345	656	323,738	2,131,323
Oldenburg	70	17	33,493	145,443
Braunschweig	43	34	25,498	450,966
Anhalt	55	18	95,406	316,109
Lübeck	26	6	38,498	105,175
Bremen	8	10	23,389	210,752
Hamburg	20	10	266,661	743,176

List of states, with the number of breweries (TF = top-fermenting, BF = bottom-fermenting) and respective production volumes

Now let’s look at the ratio of bottom- to top-fermenting breweries per state:

State	BF / TF
Prussia	0.43
Saxony	0.30
Hesse	12.35
Mecklenburg	0.13
Thuringia	1.90
Oldenburg	0.24
Braunschweig	0.79
Anhalt	0.33
Lübeck	0.23
Bremen	1.25
Hamburg	0.50

List of the states and the ratio of bottom- to top-fermenting breweries in each of them

What’s very noticeable is that there are only three states with more bottom- than top-fermenting breweries: Hesse, Thuringia and Bremen. Hesse stands out especially because are over 12 times more bottom-fermenting breweries than top-fermenting breweries. Interestingly, most states still had a relatively large number of top-fermenting breweries. But once we look at the average production volumes per brewery of top- vs bottom-fermenting breweries, we’re getting a different picture:

	hl / Brewery
State	TF	BF	BF / TF
Prussia	1,320.15	8,179.77	6.20
Saxony	3,409.06	13,918.48	4.08
Hesse	64.53	4,754.73	73.68
Mecklenburg	368.25	8,975.61	24.37
Thuringia	938.37	3,248.97	3.46
Oldenburg	478.47	8,555.47	17.88
Braunschweig	592.98	13,263.71	22.37
Anhalt	1,734.65	17,561.61	10.12
Lübeck	1,480.69	17,529.17	11.84
Bremen	2,923.63	21,075.20	7.21
Hamburg	13,333.05	74,317.60	5.57

A list of states, each with the average hl / Brewery for top- and bottom-fermenting breweries, plus the ratio of bottom- to top-fermenting average production volume.

Very clearly, bottom-fermenting breweries were producing significantly more beer on average than top-fermenting breweries, across the board.

Again, the most noticeable is Hesse, but for a different reason: their average production volume per top-fermenting brewery is just 64 hl. Given that the number of top-fermenting breweries was tiny to begin with, this looks as if the last few remaining top-fermenting breweries were glorified home-breweries, not unlike what we had with Carinthian Steinbier in the decades before its demise.

The only state where top-fermenting brewing was still relatively strong was Hamburg, as it’s the only one with an average 5-digit hl production volume.

The main takeaway from these statistics is certainly that even though bottom-fermenting breweries were generally more industralised and at a more modern technical level with the capabilities to produce larger volumes of beer, many of the less mechanised top-fermenting breweries still seem to have hung around for a while. Unfortunately, these statistics don’t give any insight into what beer styles were brewed. A lot of them may still have been the old local beer styles.

Beer Styles, History, Uncategorized

The Demise of Carinthian Steinbier

August 28, 2024 ak 2 Comments

Back in 2020, I wrote about how Carinthian Steinbier used to be brewed. In that article, I also mentioned that Steinbier brewing in Carinthia ended in 1917, as brewing ingredients had become unavailable during the war.

I now found concrete data about how much Steinbier was brewed in the last few years of this style’s existence. Fairly detailed data from 1904 to 1917 (with the exception of 1907-1908) about the production volumes of Carinthian breweries were published in trade journals at the time.

The last three remaining breweries were Ure and Kaschitz, both located in Waidmannsdorf, nowadays part of the Carinthian capital Klagenfurt, and Schorn, from Untergoritschitzen near Klagenfurt.

Year	Ure [hl]	Kaschitz [hl]	Schorn [hl]
1903	1,413	1,305	24.69 hl (1902/1903)
1904	1,267	1,117
1905	1,416	1,413
1906	1,359	1,289
1909	839	744
1910	792	733	106
1911	1,098	768	168
1912	874	704	153
1913	810	675	144
1914	823	609	154
1915	690	372	121
1916	744	334	17
1917		52

Production volumes of breweries Ure, Kaschitz and Schorn, 1903-1906, 1906-1917

As you can clearly see in the numbers, before Steinbier brewing ended, it was on an almost steady decline over the course of 13 years. For 1917, the records say that production at Ure and Schorn was shut down, while Kaschitz had produced a mere 52 hectoliters.

Before that time period, we only have spurious records, but even in 1886, the total Steinbier production in Carinthia amounted to just 2474 hectoliters between 11 breweries, and between then and the 1910s, Ure and Kaschitz may have had a tiny boom by being able to fill the gaps left by the other breweries that presumably closed down:

Kaschitz (Waidmannsdorf): 810 hl
Ure (Waidmannsdorf): 480 hl
Marinitsch (Gurlitsch): 435 hl
Archer (Haarbach): 348 hl
Kometter (Köttmansdorf): 81 hl
Jablatnig (Amschkau): 87 hl
Rovin (Rauth): 64 hl
Goritschigg (Dobeinitz): 58 hl
Tritz (Straschitz): 51 hl
Dobinnig (Haber): 45 hl
Wedenig (Unterwuchl): 15 hl

Of these breweries, all brewed Steinbier with an original gravity of 6°, with the exception of Wedenig, who brewed a 4° Steinbier.

This low original gravity of Steinbier also seems to show (although not explicitly stated, so this is slight speculation) in the 1889/1890 brewing season beer volume statistics of Austria-Hungary by original gravity: 6° beer was the lowest OG listed, with a production volume of 2,587 hl (which is roughly in the ball park what all the Steinbier breweries together used to brew in a year), and that number is significantly higher than the next stronger beers: of 7° beer, just 49 hl, and of 8° beer, just 102 hl.

In any case, the production volumes are tiny, the numbers are going down, all clear signs of a declining “industry” that was really closer to homebrewing, serving what was probably a tiny market of aging consumers. Despite the fact that brewing stopped because of a lack of ingredients during World War 1, the tiny volumes were probably a big contributor to not resuming brewing after the war.

History, Recipes

An American Mashing Method from the 1890s

August 21, 2024 ak 2 Comments

In 1893, Austrian brewing scientist Franz Schwackhöfer visited the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, recorded everything related to brewing, and subsequently published a book about it in 1894 titled “Amerikanische Brau-Industrie auf der Weltausstellung in Chicago” (lit. “American brewing industry at the World Exhibition in Chicago”).

It contains a lot of details about American brewing, but what caught my eye are the descriptions of five different mashing methods that were used in the US and were personally witnessed and recorded by Franz Schwackhöfer himself. In this article, I want to describe and dissect one of them (pp.33-34).

Basic Numbers

The recipe is to brew 130 barrels of wort with an OG of 13.1°Balling. The grist consists of 4,300 lb malt and 2,300 lb of unmalted grains (the recipe just mentions grits, but in the parts of the book, grits specifically from white Flint corn are mentioned).

Cereal Mash

800 lb of crushed malt are mash in with 35 barrels of water at a temperature of 25°C, then heated up to 50°C. 2,300 lb of grits are then added and the mash is heated up to 66°C. After a rest of 15 minutes, the mash is heated up to 75°C over the course of 20 minutes. It is then diluted with 6 barrels of thin mash from the main mash (this is meant to help saccharify more of the starches and make the mash more liquid), and then brought to a boil. The whole mash is boiled for 60 minutes under constant stirring.

Mashing, Lautering, Sparging

3,500 lb of crushed malt are mashed in with 27 barrels of water of 37.5°C and stirred for 40 minutes. Then over the course of 15 minutes, the cereal mash is slowly mixed in. This should increase the mash temperature to about 67.5 to 68.75°C, at which temperature it is rested for 30 minutes. To get to the final temperature of about 73°C, 23 barrels of boiling water are underlet (through a Pfaff) and mixed in. Stirring then stops and the mash is rested for 90 minutes, that’s when lautering begins.

The specific gravity of the first runnings is 19.2°Balling. Sparging happens in four different steps, first with 10 barrels, then 35 barrels, then 25 and finally 24 barrels to hot water of about 77 to 81°C. The specific gravity of the final runnings should be 2.5°Balling.

Boiling the Wort

When 25 barrels of wort have been collected in the kettle, heating begins. At 70 barrels, the wort should start boiling and 15 lb of hops are added. When the kettle is full, the boil of 2 hours begins. 30 minutes before the end of the boil, 35 lb of hops are added, and at 10 minutes before the end of the boil, another 55 lb of hops are added. The total hop addition is 105 lb per 130 barrels of wort, which is equivalent to 3.15 grams per liter. For the final hop addition, more high quality hops are used. Together with the final hop addition, 4 lb of Icelandic moss is added to help with precipitation of proteins (I think this should actually be Irish moss as this is frequently used for exactly that in brewing).

125 barrels of wort end up in the hop jack, where it is left to sit for 40 minutes so that the hops can settle out. The hop remains are then sparged with 5 barrels of boiling water.

Allegedly, some breweries add fir pitch to the kettle at a rate of 3-4 lb per 100 barrels of wort to impart a pitch flavour to the beer, as the lagering vessels are not pitched but only lacquered.

At Home-Brew Scale

If you want to rebrew this at home-brew scale to produce about 20 liters of beer, do the cereal mash with 650g of crushed malt, 1850g of grits and 5.9 liters of water. For the main mash, use 2850g of crushed malt and 4.6 liters of water to mash in. For the final temperature step, use 3.9 liters of boiling water. Sparge with a total of 16 liters of water, though you may require a bit more sparge water, so prepare more.

The hop additions should be 10g hops at 120 minutes, 23g at 30 minutes, and 37g hosp together with 2.5g of Irish moss at 10 minutes. Assuming Cluster hops at 7% alpha acid, this should end up with a nice 32 IBU (calculated) of bitterness. Unfortunately, the whole book does not mention specific varieties of hops, only for another recipe, it mentions that exclusively hops from New York state were being used.

In any case, I think there is enough information available to recreate this specific 1890s mashing method from the US. Not that I’ve tried it, but it certainly sounds intriguing, and the resulting beer (13.1°P OG, about 32 IBU of bitterness, and an estimated 5.4% ABV) actually sounds quite nice.

The (then) new brewhouse of Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, as shown in Franz Schwackhöfer's book — The (then) new brewhouse of Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, as shown in Franz Schwackhöfer’s book

History

Dreher Breweries vs Burghers’ Brewery Pilsen 1894, In Numbers

August 18, 2024 ak Leave a comment

While researching a different topic, I recently came across an article in the Austro-Hungarian Café and Inn Newspaper (it really rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?) that I hadn’t seen before. It basically contains general information about the size and the operation of both the breweries belonging to Anton Dreher (in particular Kleinschwechat, Steinbruch, Michelob and Trieste) and the Burghers’ Brewery in Pilsen (since 1898 and nowadays better known as Pilsner Urquell). It’s full of numbers, but because they’re from the same time period, they allow for some interesting comparisons about the extent of the businesses.

In terms of production, the largest brewery was of course Dreher Kleinschwechat, with about 610,000 hl for the brewing season 1892/1893. Pilsen on the other hand brewed 522,270 hl in the same time period. Dreher’s Hungary-based brewery in Steinbruch brewed another 400,000 hl, while for the other two Dreher breweries, no volumes are listed. It shows to what a large operation the Pilsner brewery had grown, while Dreher’s advantage was having multiple large breweries across Austria-Hungary that were all serving different markets.

As for the malting and brewing operation itself, there were some stark differences: Kleinschwechat had about 23,000 m² in malting floors as well as 14 kilns, Steinbruch had 10,788 m² with 7 kilns, while Trieste only operated a single kiln. Practically, most of its malt was actually produced in Kleinschwechat and shipped down to Trieste. The malting capacity of Michelob was not listed. Pilsen did well with “just” 9,000 m² of malting floor and 10 kilns.

When it came to brewing itself, Kleinschwechat featured 3 coppers for boiling wort, 4 mash tuns, 4 coppers (mash kettles) for boiling mash, and 4 lauter tuns. The wort was cooled on a total of 29 copper coolships of a total surface area of 2,500 m².

Steinbruch operated 8 coppers (presumably smaller ones than in Kleinschwechat) and 11 coolships of 698 m².

Pilsen on the other hand had 5 separate brew houses: the original one with 1 copper and 1 mash tun (since no dedicated mash kettles or lauter tuns were listed, I assume the copper was used for boiling decoctions and the mash tun also functioned as lauter tun), one built in 1852 with 1 copper and 1 mash tun, then the third brew house built in 1862 and extended twice in 1872 and 1874, with a total of 6 coppers and 6 mash tuns, and then two more brew houses, built in 1888 and 1894, with 2 coppers and 2 mash tuns each. That’s a total of 12 coppers and 12 mash tuns. Cooling operations were supported by 22 iron coolships.

In the fermentation cellar, Kleinschwechat had 2,000 fermenters with a total capacity of 40,000 hl, Steinbruch 1,200 fermenters with 30,000 hl capacity, and Trieste just 210 fermenters of an average size of 30 hl, adding up to 6,300 hl. Pilsen operated 2,000 fermenters, but no volume is listed.

One thing though where Pilsen absolutely excelled the Dreher breweries was the number of beer wagons: while Kleinschwechat owned and operated 60 of them, and Steinbruch 20, Pilsen had much more capacity for export with a whopping 132 beer wagons. With the improved train connectivity of Pilsen since the 1860s (the article specifically cites the 1862 opening of the Bohemian Western Railway that connected Pilsen to Prague by train), it could ship its beer all over Europe and beyond.

The manufacturer of these beer wagons was F. Ringhoffer from Prague Smíchov. Thanks to the book Die Mechanische Technologie der Bierbrauerei und Malzfabrikation from 1885, we know more about these beer wagons.

Technical drawing of the Ringhoffer beer wagon design

The construction was double boarded, and the space between the boards was filled with a poor heat conductor as insulation material. It contained 2 ice reservoirs for up to 1,100 kg of ice that could hold the inside at a constant 4°C for 5 and half days. Melted water and condensation was drained at the bottom, using a bend to ensure that no outside air could get into the sealed wagon. That way, any freight could rest on a completely dry floor. The remaining space was sufficient to transport 25 casks of 200 liters each, i.e. each wagon could hold up to 50 hl of beer at a time. This was only slightly less than the ice wagons used by Dreher, which had a capacity of 54 hl and could keep its load cool at 4°C for up to 7 days.

In terms of refrigeration at the respective breweries, all of them used Linde refrigerators. Linde had actually been contracted to develop an artificial refrigeration machine for Dreher’s Trieste brewery, and while development was done by Linde at Spaten brewery in Munich, the first Linde refrigerator was officially sold to Dreher in Trieste. In 1894, the Trieste brewery was operating two of them, while Kleinschwechat had 8 Linde refrigerators “Nr. VI” (presumably a newer model), and Steinbruch operated 6 of them. According to the article, Pilsen only operated a single Linde refrigerator, but it’s unclear which specific model.

Interestingly, the refrigeration machine the brewery in Pilsen was using had been built under license from Linde by E. Škoda, the Pilsen-based mechnical engineering company, probably best known through the Škoda car brand and the Škoda trams in Prague.

A map of Burghers' Brewery Pilsen's distribution centers across Europe, ca. 1894. Not pictured: Sarajevo, Belgrade — A map of Burghers’ Brewery Pilsen’s distribution centers across Europe, ca. 1894. Not pictured: Sarajevo, Belgrade

The article also lists all the distribution centers in Austria-Hungary, Germany and the rest of Europe plus one importer in New York City, which I turned into a map to get a better feeling about how widespread their beer was.

In addition to all these statistics I listed above, we also learn more details about the Burghers’ Brewery Pilsen. As you’re probably aware, the brewery was founded by the citizens of Pilsen with brewing rights in 1839. The article specifically says that it was 250 houses with brewing rights, and their duty was to elect a new administrative committee every 3 years.

We also get more insight into the beer types that were brewed at the time: as was still usual at the time, two types were produced, an 11% Schankbier (the percentage refers to the original gravity, not the ABV) that still needed 2-3 weeks of lagering before it was tapped and was brewed and sold only during the winter, and a 12% Lagerbier that was entirely free from yeast (due to the long lagering) and only sold during the summer season.

The article also discusses the modest beginnings of the brewery itself: the first brew only had a volume of 64 Eimer (3621 liter), and the total volume of the first brewing season was a mere 3657 hl. In 1843, Pilsen had a population of 8,892, that’s just a bit more than 41 liters per capita. Could it be that the amount of beer produced by the Burghers’ Brewery was initially not nearly enough to cover the demand of consumers?

In any case, the business grew so well over the years that Burghers’ Brewery Pilsen grew to a size similar to Dreher’s Kleinschwechat brewery. While the production volume was still smaller in 1894, it seems like the Pilsen brewery was prepared much better for export across Europe. By 1912, Pilsner Urquell produced almost 1 million hl of beer per year and was considered to be Austria’s largest brewery, while Dreher Kleinschwechat was “only” producing 594,865 hl in 1912 and about 621,398 hl in 1913.

If you want to learn more about Vienna Lager and the history of Dreher’s breweries in Kleinschwechat and elsewhere, you can find more about the topic in my book Vienna Lager.

Brewing, Technique

The Brilliance of Mönchsambacher’s Mash Profile

July 28, 2024 ak Leave a comment

Yesterday, I brewed a Kellerbier, a recipe that I had developed myself but was based on a number of inspirations that I picked up over the last year, such as water profile, mash profile and ingredients.

The grist I chose was based on what I had heard about Knoblach, as they apparently use 50% Pilsner and 50% Vienna malt in their pale lagers. I just liked the idea of adding that bit more malt complexity to a pale beer.

The water profile was based on what Stefan Zehendner talked about at HBCon 2024. Fortunately, my Berlin tap water is already as hard as it should be on the calcium side, all I had to do was to add magnesium. Epsom salts are the way to do that.

The hops I chose were Aurum, a relatively new variety (first approved in 2020 and probably a bit lost in the whole COVID troubles) that is a daughter of Tettnanger with a “highly fine” hop aroma. It apparently has a high disease resistance and better agronomic properties in hotter, drier climates. From what I remember reading, it is expected to take over other varieties like Tradition and Perle, so I thought I’d better try it out now.

And finally, the mash profile: instead of doing my typical double decoction, I thought I’d try out the Mönchsambacher mash profile Stefan Zehendner described at HBCon 2024. Only when I actually used it, I realised how low-key brilliant it is. It basically goes like a normal multi-step mash: start with a protein rest, then heat up to 62°C for the beta amylase to do much of the conversion, followed by a rest at 72°C for the alpha amylase. This forms dextrins for body and also gets glycoproteins into solution for better head retention. Finish by heating up the mash to denature most of the enzymes.

If this is done as a multi-step infusion mash, the temperature steps are simple done by heating up the mash and stirring. The difference at Mönchsambacher is that the step from 62°C to 72°C is done as a decoction instead: about a third of the volume is drawn off and heated up, briefly rested at 72°C for 15 minutes, then brought to a boil and boiled for 5 minutes until it is mixed back into the main mash. The main mash still remains at 62°C until mixing back.

A time/temperature diagram that illustrates the single decoction mash profile that I used.

So what’s so brilliant about it? Well, the whole mash overall takes about the same time, no matter whether done as multi-step infusion mash or as single decoction mash. But most importantly, a part of the mash is boiled, causing Maillard reaction products to be formed. It’s really the best of both worlds: more Maillard products while not spending most of the brew day on extensively boiling decoctions.

The decoction portion of the mash, while boiling.

The main mash, visibly paler than the boiling decoction portion.

The main mash after the decoction portion has been mixed back in, noticeably darker than the main mash before mixing back.

So what’s the downside? Well, efficiency. I’ve not noticed any significant increase in efficiency between multi-step infusion mash and single decoction mash. The enhanced double decoction (which involves boiling two thirds of the whole mash) I normally on the other hand use gives me a bump of about 4-5 percentage points in efficiency. To compensate for that, I just need to buy 10% more in malt. At homebrew scale, those additional costs are very manageable (about €1).

This very positive experience made me rethink my approach to decoction mashing for German beer styles. I think I will stick to double decoction as a mash profile for Czech styles for maximum intensity, but for German styles, single decoction seems absolutely sufficient and saves me 1 to 1.5 hours of time.

Lager Beer Made in USA

Lager Beer Made In USA, Addendum: The Rest

July 25, 2024 ak 1 Comment

In this addendum to my series of lager beer that I discovered in the US, I will cover all the lager beers I had that we tried but weren’t quite top tier.

The Perch, Wicker Park, Chicago

After 9 hours of non-stop flying from Zürich to Chicago, a long wait in immigration, an excruciatingly long Uber drive from the airport to our Airbnb and generally being awake for 22 hours straight, we just wanted to have a quick bite and maybe a beer or two. We mainly chose Perch because it was close to where we stayed and the food seemed good, but it turned out the beer was also great. I enjoyed their Woodpecker Pils, which was dry and bitter enough, and their Cream Ale, brewed from 6-row malt, corn and Saaz hops (I know, not a lager). The latter was refreshing, slightly husky from the 6-row, with a distinct taste of corn that I enjoyed a lot.

Pils and Kölsch, served in nonik pint glasses.

Old Style at Wrigley Field

I was told Heileman’s Old Style was the iconic beer at Wrigley Field when watching baseball. I had it, it was okay, probably wouldn’t order it again. What fascinated me more about Old Style was how it was advertised around Chicago, like this sign in a dive bar’s window in Wicker Park:

A sign with the logo of Heileman’s Old Style, with the slogan “Authentically Kraeusened”.

Who would know these days what kraeusened means if they’re not somehow involved in or adjacent to the brewing industry?

Old Irving Brewing Co., Irving Park, Chicago

If we hadn’t been invited by my friend Colin to meet up there for drinks and food, we wouldn’t even have thought about going to Old Irving Brewery. I unfortunately forgot to take pictures that day (only took some of the Malört we had later on…), but both the beer and the food were really good. Both the Maibock and the Helles were really solid, but the highlight was probably the food. While most of the beers they brew aren’t exactly what I drink, I’d probably come back for the relaxed atmosphere, the food, and the lagers.

Meanwhile Brewing Co., Austin

After our fantastic experience at Live Oak, we also wanted to see other breweries. One stop was Meanwhile. We didn’t exactly know what to expect, other than that we knew that they had some lagers on tap. Louise really enjoyed their Helles, while my first beer was the Polotmavý. It wasn’t the best version of the style, too little body and too dry for my taste, but in the grand scheme very clean and refreshing (which was very necessary that day). My second beer was Gift of Gab, a Dry Nitro Stout, which was pretty amazing. Very creamy, super drinkable and surprisingly refreshing. Not exactly like Guinness, but slightly more flavourful while retaining that same drinkability.

Helles, Nitro Stout and smoked peanuts at Meanwhile Brewing.

Distant Relatives has their barbecue food truck directly at Meanwhile, and while we didn’t want to eat any barbecue there as we still had leftovers from Franklin Barbecue and Micklethwait at home, we still got their smoked peanuts which were a fantastic beer snack. In retrospect, we really regret not at least trying some of their smoked chicken or ribs.

The beer garden at Meanwhile also felt the most Texan: a relaxed atmosphere among trees with shade, while the seating arrangement was mostly not trying to imitate a Bavarian beer garden and the ground was soft grass and wood chip mulch, not gravel.

Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co., Austin

After our visit at Meanwhile, we popped over to Austin Beer Garden Brewery. Pilsner, Helles, Pre-Prohibition Pilsner and Pale Ale were all very good. The free water tasted of mould, the people that were sat next to us called it “that Texas taste.” Some of the beers were sold as 16 floz (473 ml) but were poured into 0.5 liter Seidla glasses with very little foam. We guesstimated by how much it was overpoured, and think that it was at least an extra 20% of free beer. Also, when we were there, most other customers seemed to have been there for some country music and dancing thing. When that ended, the whole place very quickly emptied.

Tables and stage at The Austin Beer Garden Brewery. Over the stage, it says "PILS! PILS! PILS!" in large, illuminated letters. — Tables and stage at The Austin Beer Garden Brewery. Over the stage, it says “PILS! PILS! PILS!” in large, illuminated letters.

Macro Lagers at Dive Bars

Of course I had to try all the macro lagers I’ve been warned about it, so I had Coors Light, Coors Banquet, Lone Star, Busch Light and Natural Light. They all tasted… fine. They were all technically flawless beers, just bland and boring, but still fulfilling a purpose. At strengths around 4% ABV, I’d rather have one of these than a 6% IPA, especially with the Texas heat.

Trillium – Fenway, Boston

After our great baseball experience in Chicago, we wanted to see even more baseball, so we spontaneously bought some ticket for Fenway Park, to watch the Red Sox play Phillies. Our pre-game stop for drinks was the Trillium bar at Fenway. Lots of Red Sox fans hanging out there. The beer was fine but was served in plastic cups. My favourite was probably the nitro dark mild at 2.8% ABV, but at $8 for a pint, it does not feel like you’re getting good value. Also, I don’t particularly care about a menu of 8 sours and 12 IPAs.

Jack’s Abby House Lager at Fenway Park

Jack’s Abby House Lager is a pretty good Bavarian-style Helles, but brewed locally just outside of Boston. Available in cans at Fenway Park, it’s probably the best beer option in the whole stadium. We unfortunately did not make it to Jack’s Abby’s taproom/brewery ourselves, so having cans of their House Lager at least partially made up for it.

My hand holding up a can of Jack's Abby House Lager, with Fenway Park in the background. — My hand holding up a can of Jack’s Abby House Lager, with Fenway Park in the background.

A Lagery Tour through Somerville

Somerville is located just outside of Boston, while fully connected through public transport, in particular the Green Line (they call it a train, but it’s really a tram). That’s where we met our friend Chris and his wife for drinks on our last full day in Boston. I’ve known Chris for 7 years or so, as he’s one of the original members of our Stammtisch in Berlin. Chris is a Canadian diplomat, and spent time in Munich (where we had last met him January 2020, just before COVID broke out properly) before being posted in Boston.

Like us, Chris very much likes his lager beers, so he decided to show us the best spots around his area. We started off at Olde Magoun’s Saloon, an Irish-themed pub with a particularly good beer selection. I started off with Sacred Profane‘s Pale Lager (another brewery I would have liked to visit, but it was just a tiny bit too far out from Boston) which was an absolutely solid pale lager with a strong reminiscence of Czech beer (I bet it tastes even better at the brewery when served as tank beer).

My second beer was Schilling Jakobus, an excellent German-style Pilsner of yet another brewery I would have liked to visit, but couldn’t make. I would have loved to try Volksgarten, their Vienna Lager (also based on information from my book), but couldn’t see it anywhere in or around Boston.

Louise started off with Hofbräu Helles and continued with a locally brewed cask bitter (served from hand pumps, of course) that tasted light and fruity but was visually slightly underwhelming since it was unfined.

We then continued to Aeronaut Brewing, a short Uber ride away, because Chris said we specifically needed to try their Czech Dark Lager (a style about which I have opinions). Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite up to my taste: too roasty, a bit too thin, just lacking overall body, and more like a bottom-fermented stout. The atmosphere in the outside seating area was nice and relaxed, but still busy enough.

One beer was enough there for us, so we went on to Remnant Brewing for another recommendation Chris had for us: Hella Crispy, a Corn Lager. Honestly, I could not taste any corn in this beer, but what I could taste seemed like a pretty good Czech-style pale lager with a firm bitterness and a very clean hop aroma, good body, super crushable. We only stayed for one last beer until we headed home.

An Attempt at a Summary

The United States has lots of good beer. The stereotype these days is that it’s either macro lagers or hazy IPAs, pastry stouts and fruited sours. If neither of that is to your liking, you will always been acceptable lager options, and if you look around a bit, you will come across some very good or sometimes even excellent lager of all kinds of styles. What still impresses me the most is the variety: whenever a brewery brews lager beers, and focuses on it, you will be able to drink a broader spectrum of beer styles than anywhere in Germany, in a quality close to or equal to some of the best breweries here.

I just hope I’ll be able to make it back to the US just to enjoy all that great beer.

Me holding a plastic cup of Heileman's Old Style, with Wrigley Field Stadium in the background. — Me holding a plastic cup of Heileman’s Old Style, with Wrigley Field Stadium in the background.

Lager Beer Made in USA

Lager Beer Made In USA, Part 4: Notch Brewing, Session Beer Experts

July 21, 2024 ak Leave a comment

This is the fourth part in my series about some of the excellent lager beer that we had on our trip to the US in June 2024. Our final stop was Boston, MA. One place my wife and I definitely wanted to visit was Salem (probably best known for the deadliest witch hunt in the history of North America) just outside of Boston, but it wasn’t for the touristy witch trial stuff. Rather, we wanted to go to Notch Brewing, known for brewing top-notch (no pun intended) examples of Central European beer styles.

Notch Brewing (Salem, MA): Session Beer Experts

Unlike the previous visits at Dovetail, Goldfinger, and Live Oak, I did not know anyone at the brewery, didn’t get in touch previously, and wasn’t introduced by anybody. Notch were also the only ones of these that didn’t serve a Vienna Lager at the time of my visit (it is apparently a thing, though, according to untappd), so this was just a visit for our own quiet enjoyment.

After just 35 minutes on the train from Boston North Station to Salem and another 15 to 20 minutes of walking we arrived at the brewery that had only just opened. My plan was clear: to try as many of the classic styles as possible. Fortunately, Notch makes this very easy as most beers are between 4.0 and 4.5% ABV, and are optionally served as Schnitt/šnyt.

A view at the menu at Notch, with a long row of beer glasses on two shelves underneath.

Louise’s first choice was Ungespundet, Notch’s take on a Franconian Kellerbier, while I went for Tenner, a 10° Czech-style pale lager. That beer strength is known in Czech as desítka, of which “tenner” is a direct translation.

We sat down with our beers in the gravelly beer garden that was set up with classic German beer tables and benches and wide sun umbrellas, right next to Salem’s harbour.

The Tenner was perfection. I feel like a broken record over the 4 parts of this series, but that beer was a great example of a 10° Czech pale lager, formulated and brewed by someone who obviously understands the style very well and enjoys it themselves.

A Notch-branded Willibecher of Ungespundet next to a Tübinger glass of Tenner.

Louise equally enjoyed her Kellerbier, and after I tried it as well, we both came to the conclusion that it bears resemblance to pre-2021 Mahrs aU. It is obviously not a direct clone, but again a beer developed by someone who knows their Franconian beers very well (and frankly speaking, Notch Ungespundet would fit perfectly into any Franconian Bierkeller).

That someone is Chris Lohring, a 30 year veteran of the Massachusetts craft brewing scene. Much has been written about him and Notch, like this article by my friend Joe in the Brewing Industry Guide, or this brewery portrait in Good Beer Hunting. And he’s certainly a man with strong opinions, like in this podcast episode of Craft Beer & Brewing (and I’m not somebody to agree with all his opinions, but it’s a great source to gain a better understanding how he approaches brewing at Notch).

The view from the outside into the brew house at Notch in Salem. While the gate is open, access is blocked off with a yellow chain and a sign saying "Authorized Personnel Only". — The view from the outside into the brew house at Notch in Salem. While the gate is open, access is blocked off with a yellow chain and a sign saying “Authorized Personnel Only”.

After this first excellent thirst quencher, I went on to try other beers. As a big fan of Czech Dark Lager with some strong opinions about it (read about my favourite tmavý recipe which is probably the best beer I ever brewed), I of course had to try Notch’s version. While it was very good, it was also a bit too roasty for my taste. But that’s fine, tmavé pivo comes in many expressions, some sweeter, some drier, some more going towards chocolate and caramel, some more roasted, some stronger, some lighter, some brown, some black.

A Tübinger glass with Notch Tmavý. Thick foam sticks to the side of the glass, while the beer is a very dark brown that still lets pass through a little bit of light.

In the connected world of the 21st century, I’m always “on” with my Stammtisch friends, so when I posted pictures of Notch to our private Signal channel, including the menu, I almost immediately got a request what to try next. It was the Kölsch (served in a half-liter Willibecher, sorry purists!) that I chose. With only a medium bitterness, a hint of floral hops, and a restrained fruitiness from the top-fermenting yeast it was very convincing and I think captured the essence of good Kölsch. Probably the only two things that stood in the way of the beer not getting served by a Köbes in Cologne were where it was produced (i.e. not in Cologne) and that it was unfiltered and looked ever so slightly hazy. Nevertheless an excellent example of the style.

I then went on to try all the other beers that I could: I remember the German Pils as generally very good but not to the point where I remember anything specific about it (I did not take any notes, as this brewery visit was just about enjoying ourselves), while the Helles Rauchbier was memorable as what I basically perceived as a clone of Schlenkerla Helles. Ironically, Schlenkerla does not serve their smoked Helles in their Bamberg pub/restaurant at all, so getting a beer like that from draft anywhere always feels like somebody outsmarted Schlenkerla a bit at their smoked Helles game.

Finally, The Standard, their 12° Czech Pale Lager: it felt more full-bodied, more rounded out, and most importantly more balanced than the Tenner. And just like it, a beer that feels like it has teleported you back to Czechia. As it was the last one I had on site, I sipped it more slowly while we were playing a few rounds of skee-ball.

Just before leaving, we also asked for crowlers (1 quart cans that were filled and closed up right at the bar, and they’re meant to be consumed within 2 weeks) of The Standard, Ungespundet and the Kölsch to bring back home. We shared them with our friend Ben about 1.5 weeks after canning. Both Kölsch and The Standard held up really nicely, while the Ungespundet unfortunately did not travel so well and had developed a bit too much diacetyl that ultimately made it not as good and pleasant to drink as straight from the source in Salem.

Inside the taproom, a doorway to a separate room with tables, with the letters “STAMMTISCH” over it, and antlers on the wall

As with the other breweries discussed in this series, Notch was fantastic to visit as a place that offers a wide range of Central European styles, all super drinkable, all as good as you’d find them in some of the best breweries where the styles originated, and all bundled in a single brewery taproom, like you wouldn’t find it in Europe.

So, what’s next?

This article concludes my series about the 4 best breweries we visited on our trip to the US in June 2024. But worry not, there will be an article with all the other breweries we visited and/or whose beer we drank that didn’t quite make the cut to warrant their own blog posts, because frankly, even though they weren’t quite as amazing as Dovetail, Goldfinger, Live Oak or Notch, there was still lots of great beer that we enjoyed in Chicago, Austin and Boston.