Apparently there was a fairly significant fire at the Weyermann Maltings in Bamberg last night. Apparently some of the contents of one of the malting kettles caught fire and caused around $70K worth of damage. http://www.infranken.de/regional/bamberg/Brand-in-Bamberger-Malzfabrik-Weyermann;art212,688706 Anyone else hear about this? Any further news to report?
The very dark roasted grains need a skilled operator making them, as those are ready to burst into flames at the end of the roasting. Similar to making dark roast coffee. A friend has his roaster outside when do those dark coffee roasts., just in case.
that and the amount of smoke it generates is incredible...i've smoke out my house with a french roast, even with the hood fan on. Once you go past the second crack, internal temps are getting up there.
Really funny... I was there today for a tour. I didn't know about the fire until one of the owners told someone in my group not to smoke on the grounds and there was a fire the other day. I would have never known if it weren't for that. The tour was great and I didn't see any signs of a fire myself.
I think it happened in one of the malting kettles (is that how they are called in English? no idea). That's the only area of the facility where the tours don't go, as the technology behind Weyermann's kettles is apparently proprietary. EDIT: also, if you are in Bamberg I expect you to be in the breweries -- if you haven't been already. Anything to report?
I think you are talking about the kiln maybe? We did see kilning in action, as well as germination vessels, and production of sinamar. I think we got a bit more of an in depth tour since we went as a class. We also got to check out their pilot brewery which was really cool. Weyermann also hosted our group for a Franconian Buffet style dinner with beers from their pilot brewery and they even shared the recipes for their rauchbier, English ale, and an amber wheat ale. As far as visiting breweries, I have been to several now in Austria, Cologne, and Munich. Now in Bamberg I have only been to Weyermann and we are going to visit Kaspar Schulz tomorrow and then we will head to Hopsteiner for the last stop on our study tour.
I just got that article translated. It is really strange that I didn't notice any fire damage to that building. I do know though that fires in malt houses are not uncommon, but they can very quickly do a lot of damage. I think the way they typically start is actually during and after kilning you can have hot spots form if the malt doesn't get well rotated and it can result in combustion.
How did you like the Weyermann pilot beers? While I love their product and all they are doing to (re)create malts that are helping revive old German styles, I, personally, was hugely disappointed in the beers. In fact -- although it may sound brash to say so -- you'd get 1000x more of an education by visiting the breweries in Bamberg and the surrounding area and drinking those beers than by simply going to Weyermann and Schulz. If you ever have the time to make it back, by all means get out and try the local beers.
Yeah, it would be nice to have the time to go to more breweries. I thought the beers from the pilot system were very good, but the English Ale had a lot of melanoiden malt which I wasn't a huge fan of. The rauchbier though was very nice. In all honesty, a lot of the German beers have been disappointing. A lot of the pilsners have diacetyl (which I find very unpleasant) and a lot of the beers also have metallic flavors (Andechs in particular). I was very pleasantly surprised by a lot of the wheat beers though. I thought I was over drinking wheat beers until I went to Schneider. I also really enjoyed Eggenberg and Gutmann.
Not sure what beers you are drinking that have led you to those conclusions. What particular ones (besides those named) have you been disappointed in? Have you had any of the beers served by Bayerischer Anstich (by gravity from the wooden barrel), such as Augustiner Helles or Edelstoff?
I did have Augustiner from a wooden barrel, I think Andechs was as well. I know Lion Kolsch was from a barrel. I enjoyed those (except for Andechs). Augustiner was probably the brewery that I drank the most of and their pilsner was the best I think I had. As far as the off flavors, some bottles (bottles only) of Augustiner Helles tasted metallic and it seems like it is 50/50 on whether or not a brewery has diacetyl in their pilsners. One that sticks out as having a lot of diacetyl (other than Urquell) was Stiegl. I have drank so many beers here though, I am having trouble remembering the others. I remember getting to Baumgartner and being hugely relieved to find that their pils did not have diacetyl since I had been on a bad streak of getting butter beers. Weißbierbraueri Hobf had a lot of diacetyl in their dunkel as well.
I'm pretty certain that Augustiner's pils is not served from the wooden barrel. In fact, I rarely -- if at all -- see Augustiner's pils readily available in Munich at all. Is it possible you've been drinking their Helles/Edelstoff and what you are picking up on isn't diacetyl but the melanoidin from the Munich malts? I know if I were expecting a pils and instead got a Helles, I'd be pretty shocked. (Same thing for Stiegl; I know -- and really like -- their pils, but in Bavaria/Austria, the large majority of the Stiegl you see readily available is their Helles. Never seen Sion Koelsch from the wooden barrel, either; was it perhaps another brand?)
The Augustiner I had from the barrel was Helles. As well as Andechs. The comment about Augustiner Pios was meant to be seperate from the other statements. My bad on clarity. The Augustiner Pils was available at Wilder Hirsch. The Stiegl Pils was direct from the brewery in Austria. I have begun to realize that my diacetyl threshold is really low... It has become a bit of a joke with my classmates actually. As for the Kölsch, I'm fairly certain the Sion was from a barrel. I'm going through my pictures now... I know that Päffgen was from a barrel, and I didn't see them pouring the Muhlen. I also had Gaffel and Reisdorf.
Metallic flavor comes to me with a ton of bayern beers (hofbrau haus dunkle comes to mind) but I don't mind it...
