Jever - The German Pilsener

Munich's Octoberfest only represents Munich's "6" breweries.

 

Yeah, such statistics vary (as do, of course, the actual recipes of the beers) from source to source and over time. In the below report, for instance:

...they claim that Pilsner Urquell uses "whole flower Saaz hops" (pg 7) and has 31.6 BU's (pg. 22). Yet, according to a 1990 in-house Newsletter (formerly here, no longer online that I can find):

The pellets can be seen at the official P.U. website's video "Pilsner Urquell's Hops" at approx. 2:20, though, interestingly, the video itself only shows the hops being harvested and then bailed, skipping the pelletizing process, and then cutting to brewhouse.

As for P.U.'s IBUs - in The Brewers Digest March 1986, it was claimed the beer had “44 bitterness units”, in a September 2011 Modern Brewery Age article, brewer Vaclav Berka says "39 IBU's" and the recent packaging for the new brown bottles it states, under the "FULL DISCLOSURE" paragraph, "40 IBU's" - Granted, a slight and insignificant 1 IBU difference.

 

Meant to add this to the above post, but Imgur's squirrely (again) this morning.

 

Correcting a misstated date above:

As can be seen by that now-inop webpage's URL, the Newsletter's date was 2005, so 15 years before when they started using pellets (pre-SABMiller) would have been ~1990.

 

Only those breweries are represented, but the celebration is truly Bavarian and not representative of, say, Berlin -- to Ranbot's point.

 

Truly Bavarian, leave out Franconia.

 

Can't find any similar festivals in Franconia? Maybe not as large (nothing really is), but I'm rather skeptical.

 

I thought we were talking Oktoberfest? There are festivals all over Germany, I used to go to a lot of wine festivals in the Rheingau. There is a Starkbier fest in Stuttgart, but that is not Bavaria. Any excuse for a party.

 

I was talking about the Oktoberfest being representative of Bavarian festivals, not representative of the whole of Germany or German beer.

And this is a problem?

 

Jeff,

I noted your post of: “Then again, it would be nice to have independent analysis. I know of too many cases where a brewery says x, it is measured as y, and y<x.”

There is an issue concerning IBU testing of beer to establish a baseline value.

IBUs decrease with bottle age

In a joint BYO-BBR study in 2011, Dr. Brad Sturgeon measured the IBUs of four different commercial beers:

· SNPA: Measured 32 IBUs (Reported 37 IBUs)

· Founders Red Rye: Measured 53.1 IBUs (Reported 70 IBUs)

· Newcastle: Measured 15 IBUs (Reported 24 IBUs)

· Michelob Amber Bock: Measured 12.2 IBUs (Reported 19 IBUs)

Dr. Brad Sturgeon also measured IBUs of given beers over time:

· Beer 2: 6/16/11: 23.5 IBUs, 8/22/11: 16.4 IBUs – 31% decrease

· Beer 3: 6/16/11: 43.5 IBUs, 8/22/11: 32 IBUs – 26.4% decrease

· Beer 4: 6/16/11: 49.5 IBUs, 8/22/11: 37.2 IBUs – 24.8% decrease

· Beer 5 6/16/11: 51.5 IBUs, 8/22/11: 43.7 IBUs – 15.6% decrease

From the IBUs measured over time (about 2 months) you can easily see that IBUs fairly significantly decrease over time; about 1/5th.

So, unless we can obtain a factory fresh Jever the measurements will indeed be lower simply due to the decrease in IBUs that occur over time.

Cheers!

 

Agreed Jack, I was not thinking of that. Maybe mule some back next time I am Germany?

 

Sounds like a plan.

I will kick in some bucks to cover testing and shipping costs.

Cheers!

 

Or @StoneGreg expressed interest earlier in the thread. He is in Berlin now and then, and has access to a lab. Just thinking out loud.

 

I was going ask if IBUs decrease over time after reading this thread yesterday. Because I would have been willing to contribute, but I think there's too many variables involved, not just IBUs decreasing over time.

We're taking one single sample (a bottle), from one lot, and then having it tested by an outside source. What is the error on their measurement system? What is the range of IBUs from multiple bottles in a given lot? There's far too many variables to place too much stock into analyzing a single bottle. As was stated earlier, the easiest task would be to simply e-mail Jever themselves.

 

I've heard many great things about Jever but sadly, it's not available in my area.

 

Did that. Also e-mailed Conrad Seidl.

 

The issues of IBU measurement accuracy and bottle to bottle variation is ‘down in the noise’ compared to IBU decrease over time.

Cheers!

 

Awesome, I look forward to the results then!

 

Considering that @StoneGreg instigated this entire discussion of Jever's IBUs being reduced I think that's a fair request!

 

The e-mail from the brewery said "about 40".