german breweries with a Kühlschiff

I'll vote for most obvious: Schneider and Sohn.

 

“And, does it bring any benefits to the brew? I mean, with spontaneous fermentation it seems logical to me that those vessels help the exposure to wild yeasts- but with traditional Lagerbiere? Are there other benefits?”

Some good questions there.

When I personally think of coolship (kühlschiff) the first thought that comes to mind is beers fermented from spontaneous fermentation (sours). I would think that Berliner Weisse brewing could leverage this process.

Historically Anchor Steam Beer (California Common) was brewed using coolships; the principle reason being to cool the wort prior to mechanical refrigeration being available. Anchor Brewing still uses large open, shallow pans today but it really is for open fermentation vs. cooling the wort: http://www.anchorbrewing.com/blog/anchor-terminology-coolship/

Some brewers are of the opinion that open fermentation has benefits; production of hefeweizen beers come to mind.

Anchor Steam beer is a hybrid beer; fermented using a lager yeast strain but fermented at warmer temperatures (low 60’s F).

As to whether there is a benefit of producing a lagerbiere using a coolship, I am uncertain.

Maybe Matt (@MattRiggs) has an opinion here.

Cheers!

 

Unless you wanted to infect your beer with an uncontrollable/unpredictable mix of microorganisms, I can't think of any advantages from using a coolship.

Open fermentation is a different story. That technique still has it's applications.

 

Let me ask about this, then, as a total non-brewer. What's the difference between a coolship and an open fermenter? Ron P. notes extensive use of the latter in Franconia. Is, as the thread he stated that in discussed, the only difference that one is done in a controlled environment, while the other is done with the windows open? That seems a pretty crude difference, but what do I know?

Open vs. Closed Fermentation

@boddhitree has some interesting pictures from Faust Brauerei just a few posts down from Ron's in that thread as well, with the use of open fermenters to brew all manner of traditional German beer.

 

In open fermentation you actively pitch brewer's yeast to the wort within the open fermenter and permit the fermentation to proceed in that vessel.

In a coolship no brewer's yeast is pitched.

For the case of historical brewing of Anchor Steam the wort was placed in the coolship simply to permit the hot wort to cool down to temperatures like 60 degrees F. Once cool the wort could be transferred to another vessel (fermenter) and brewer's yeast pitched. Or alternatively the brewer's yeast could potentially be pitched into those same coolships and open fermentation would commence.

Contemporary breweries that utilize coolships to produce sour beers let the hot wort cool and permit wild microorganisms to 'float' into the cooled down wort and create a spontaneous fermentation. In a way this is a sort of open fermentation but with wild microorganisms vs. brewer's yeast.

Hopefully this write-up is clear.

Cheers!

 

Wonderful video -- tell me that's not you in the tanktop!

Dude -- you need to add some beers: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/5717/

 

The Swedish craft brewery Oppigårds collaborated with the brewery Gänstaller in Franconia on a lager beer released at the monopoly recently. Here's a picture of their visit to the brewery and the coolship that is used by the brewery:

 

Is that some new dry-hop method?

 

I guess it's a kind of mix between a hop-back and a hop-strainer addition. I'm pretty sure the picture is of a brew made of an Oppigårds recipe which typically involves dry hopping with pellets (as per the Oppigårds facebook page they brewed at least one of their own recipes at Gänstaller).

 

That's certainly what it looks like in the picture. Have you had their beer(s)?

 

All the communal Zoigl breweries have one. The English word is cooler, by the way. Every brewery in the world used to have one.

 

You can still make really great beer with a coolship, but that beer will be great despite the coolship, not because of it.

Faust actually has their old coolship barn still. I totally get the romantic appeal of a coolship and am glad that some folks are still using them. I tried to come up with an actual advantage that they had and couldn't really think of one. Here's what I came up with:

Coolship advantages:
-it's already paid for
-it looks cool

Coolship disadvantages:
-increased micobiological load
-increased oxygen pickup
-unable to CIP (and with copper coolships, inability to use acid sanitizers)
-huge amount of heat energy lost (breweries heat their future brewing water with heat gained from cooling wort through a heat exchagner)

Am I missing anything?

 

That's more like whirlpool hopping because the wort at that point is still really hot. All of the dry-hopping aroma compounds would be immediately driven off at those temperatures.

Again, the picture looks 100% badass. I just can't think of any actual, technical advantage that this technique brings to the table.

 

One of the main advantages of using a cooler - and why they continued to be used after other cooling methods had been introduced - is that lots of sludge settles out. Being very shallow helps stuff fall out quickly.

 

It's a common practice in the U.S. at brew-pubs too -- the vessels are called "growlers," I'm sure you've seen posts that mention the take away jugs.

 

Metal pails were used for 'carry out' beer in the US 'back in the day'.

Cheers!