Are "open-fermented" and "harvest-fresh hops" common brewing techniques in Germany?

Let's not go confusing the newbies...

@muck1979 -- Fernsehbier translates to TV Beer -- meaning the brewery is big enough to advertise on television, and thereby so big that they've sold out and their beer is sub-par. Of course, that isn't always true.

Probably the first fermentation, then transferred to other tanks for secondary fermentation (off the settled yeast), then into the lagering tanks for maturation. But I'm only speculating.

 

I don't know how common open fermenting is in Germany anymore, it's more traditional for Weizenbier, I believe.

But if you like the Veltin's Pils you should try their Grevensteiner -- a really nice Landbier, or country beer. It's also priced nicely here in the States.

 

From the Veltins website:

“As a German premium brewery, C. & A. VELTINS uses a special, gentle pitching procedure for the production of VELTINS Pilsener. The boiled wort is moved to open vats for fermentation.”

https://www.veltins.com/brewing-techniques/

During my 2019 visit to the Czech Republic I took a number of brewery tours and I saw open fermentation a couple of times. One example is from Únětický Pivovar (brewery):



Cheers!

 

Well, you got me there.

I have been brewing beer for over 25 years. I have batch number 467 (a lager) in my primary right now and I have no idea what "prefermentation" means.

How would you term Primary Fermentation in German?

Cheers!

P.S. The process for producing a lager is x days of Primary Fermentation followed up by y weeks of Lagering (Cold Conditioning).

 

@herrburgess -- you're brewing lager professionally, any input on "prefermentation?"

 

Boy, that seems odd for such an import-rich area like MN. I see the Grevensteiner here in Illinois and in Wisconsin a lot.

@grantcty -- are you seeing it near you?

 

I imagine it's akin to starting the primary fermentation in open starting vats/tanks, which was common in the US back in the day, from the open starting vats the beer was then turned over to (typically) enclosed fermentation vessels (where the carbon dioxide would be collected). Here's a schematic from the 1950s of an American brewing process. Note the starting tanks followed by closed fermenting tanks.


Here's a visual of the same process starting at 9:10.

 

sometimes german brewers use flotation tanks to separate cold break from the wort before moving to primary. maybe that's what is meant?

 

Can't say that I am. I think it was a one, or a couple, time drop here and it's largely disappeared. Must not have sold as well as Veltins?

 

Wow. One German beer I can get, but you can't.

 

Yeah, a lot of US lager brewers were still using that "starting cellar" open-fermentation method, into, at least, the 1950-1960s. Here's a picture of AB St. Louis brewery's in 1942.


Text read:

And then moved to the:

After that, the beer was moved to the so-called Gontard* Cellars w/glass-lined tanks or the Lagering Cellars (likely lined-cement) and then to the (closed) krausening and lagering vats.

(Other US open fermentation pics, both ale and lager breweries.)

* Assumed named after the Von Gontard family - Baron Von Gontard (once president of Mercedes Benz) married a daughter of Adolphus Busch and member of succeeding generations continued to work for the brewing company.

 

Exactly what I thought.

 

Open fermentation is common in the small breweries in Franconia. Some regional breweries use open fermanters, such as Schönramer and Höpfner use open fermentation.

Looking for locations using Google maps satellite view, I've seen big breweries with outside CCV tanks. There are some big ones that don't have those big outside tanks. Do they have smaller inside tanks, or do they use open fermentation?

 

Schneider Weisse use this method too. It's also used in the UK, certainly by Samuel Smith's who use York Stone open fermentation tanks.

Samuel Smith's York stone fermenation:

I agree with this statement. It's a lovely beer.