Bitburger Brewery Releases Festbier

For the lighting it looks like I was in the shadow at that point. Plus, those mugs are wider than most beer glasses, so that probably played a role too.

 

Weedy, how common are bottle conditioned beers in Germany? Was this a 'special edition' beer from Augustiner or is all of the product (Festbier) bottle conditioned?

Cheers!

 

This was a special release that maybe was exclusive to employees and friends of employees at Augustiner. It was shared with us by a teacher that had an intimate knowledge of the happenings at Augustiner. She said it was a "very special" bottle. I've had Augustiner Oktoberfestbier and I think the only difference was that this bottle was bottle conditioned. In my experience, which is mostly based in Munich, bottle conditioning isn't really a technique that's used there. We did bottle conditioned (and open fermented!) lagers in school and we were told that's not the way it's done in Germany anymore.

 

You are correct, good sir! For some reason I had around 5.8% in my head

 

So, no open fermentation in Germany anymore?

During my visit to the Czech Republic I took two brewery tours: Pilsner Urquell & Únětický pivovar. Pilsner Urqell ferments their production beer in enclosed stainless steel tanks but they still open ferment in their cellar brewery:



Únětický pivovar open ferments in stainless steel fermenters:



Cheers!

 

I read your question as “bottle conditioned lagers” rather than “beers.” Bottle conditioned wheat beer is obviously very common

 

Yeah, that is what I really meant - shoulda specified lagers.

Since you brought up the topic it is my understanding that it is common for the German breweries to add lager yeast strains for bottling conditioning their wheat beers. Was this something that was discussed during your education in Munich? What is the rationale for using a different, lager yeast strain for bottle conditioning wheat beers? Does it extend the shelf-life for example? Any other positive effects?

Cheers!

 

I love those pics! I'm always hesitant to use blanket statements about German brewing since I was limited in my experience to one region, but I don't think there's much large scale open fermentation. I can't remember which brewery I went to that had this, but it was basically a museum of their equipment and there they had open fermenters viewable to the public behind a window. Their bottled and distributed beers were all in closed conical vessels though. I think I saw that at 2 breweries actually now that I think about it... There was a lot of drinking clouding my memory on our European brewery study tour!

 

I think the reason that is done is because for maximum speed, it is easiest to filter or centrifuge hefeweizens and add a known quantity of yeast.

 

They do this because otherwise the Hefeweizen beers would be too cloudy? Too many proteins?

Cheers!

 

I don't think it's even that. I think that if you have a 6 day fermentation, you can chill the beer, filter it, add yeast, and bottle condition in just a matter of days. If you cold condition the beer long enough to get yeast out of suspension, that might take weeks on its own.

 

There are many breweries in Germany that open ferment. The large modern breweries usually don't, usually CCVs are used.

 

I suppose my area of confusion was that for a Hefeweizen it is my understanding that you want yeast to remain in suspension. If the brewery is re-yeasting with lager yeast I guess they want to eliminate the ale yeast that was used to primary ferment the beer?

Cheers!

 

Yeah, the idea is that for consistency sake, it's easiest to start with no yeast and add a specific amount than it is to try to condition the beer to the point that only a certain amount remains in suspension. I believe @SierraTerence alluded to the same thing with Sierra Nevada removing and repitching yeast for bottle conditioning a few months ago. If I remember correctly it was a pretty standard practice for consistency... all the bottle conditoned beers are roughly centrifuged, coarsely filtered, and 1,000,000 cells/ml of fresh yeast and fermentable sugar are added. Maybe Terence knows more info about the German brewery bottle conditioning techniques.

 

Found a picture from last year’s release of the beer that some people say is too pale to be an Oktoberfest. Please excuse the lack of appropriate glassware. I like thin glasses for canning days when I’m doing the final visual inspection

 

Looks just awful. Send the surplus my way and I'll be sure the nay-sayers won't have to worry about it anymore.

 

Looks beautiful to me. Kinda reminds me of my favorite Sly Fox Oktoberfest:



Cheers!

 

Would love to see it in cans, however, still excited to try this one out!

 

I'll be looking to give this one a try

 

I hope to get a chance at this one. I enjoy Bitburger Pils very much.