Ayinger clones and process

“When I visited Ayinger, I was not surprised to find the standard four-vessel arrangement typical of decoction breweries. But the mash cooker was in disuse. Immediately after installing the new brewery, Ayinger ditched decoction. My tour guide, John Forster, was dismissive. “It’s more effective now to do infusion. We say decoction is for old breweries. We can do it, but it’s not necessary.”

http://allaboutbeer.com/decoction-mashing/

Cheers!

 

Well, as you can see by reading the paragraph I quoted above Ayinger in the past did conduct decoction mashing. When they stopped?

It is my understanding that many 'modern' German breweries got away from decoction for a number of reasons:

• Modern malts are well modified and do not require decoction mashing
• Decoction mashing takes longer and add time to the brew day
• Decoction is energy intensive and adds cost

I think all of the above are considerations for a commercial brewery but I suspect that energy costs is the 'driving' factor here.

Also, there is the aspect of "We can do it, but it’s not necessary." Some brewers just do not think there is a big enough difference in the finished beer to warrant the extra time and extra costs.

As homebrewers we don't always have the same economic pressures but I will state I have a preference for a shorter brew day unless there are compelling reasons otherwise, and they had better indeed be compelling.

Cheers!

 

There are informative posters you can see on the tour. In Deutsch of course. One under the kettles had a couple of words I didn't know. It said for wheat beers and dark beers some of the mash is drawn off and boiled. So the correct answer would be what beer you are talking about. For a Maibock I would say no.

As a production brewery they stock a limited amount of grains. Pils, Munich, CaraMunich, Carafa. They also have wheat for the Weißbier. Sinamar for color adjustments.

 

?

There is no mention of Caramunich in the Clone Brews recipe.

Cheers!

 

LOL!

The book authors are Tess and Mark Szamatulski but perhaps they 'subcontracted' this recipe out!?!

Cheers!

 

What edition of Clone Brews are you guys talking about? Does it still list Wyeast 3711 for Saison Dupont? Orval without Brett? Good times.

 

The first edition of that book usually had the yeast wrong, let alone the correct grains.

 

Jason (@SFACRKnight) has the proper yeast strain for his batch.

All is gut!

Cheers!

@PapaGoose03

 

I don’t know what it is but I loath this yeast strain. Not saying you will cause there’s so many people that love it. But I can not for the life of me make a lager I like with it. Tried the Imperial, Wyeast, and White Labs version of it and they all sucked. Can’t figure it out. Made better beers with just about every other readily available strain.

L17 is not the Ayinger strain BTW it’s Augustiner. Supposedly good for warmer lager ferments.

I believe Ayinger is wlp833 or Hella Bock from Wyeast. I’ve used Hella Bock but not 833.

 

I've used L17 to make a nice Helles. Everything vi see on the internet says Augustiner equivalent.

 

That's probably so for most (or all) of the recipes if the precise yeast or grain info was not public knowledge when the book was created, or if the yeast was proprietary. I don't recall when I first brewed that Ayinger Maibock clone if the people at the Bell's General Store recommended that I switch to the 833, or if I fortuitously chose it when the two that are recommended in the recipe were not available.

Having brewed my last clone of the Ayinger Maibock in 2012 and then having the opportunity to drink the real thing in 2017 in Munich, trusting my memory may not be a smart thing to do for that span of a time period, but I think I brewed a fairly accurate clone in taste even though I had some substitutions in the ingredients list. I'll be anxious to hear from @SFACRKnight after he gets his version finished, although there is no realistic way to create a comparison tasting with the real thing.

 

I'm at fault there for not telling you the name of the authors. My bad.