German Mashing Technique: Hochkurz

I've been frustrated with my German Style beers and the last one (Pils) turned out more like Tooheys New. For non Australian Members that's like saying you succeeded in making a bad copy of Miller or Carling.

So I've been doing some studying up and found a great site Braukaiser http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
I've found that the most popular mash used by German breweries today is the Hochkurz (high-short) mashing schedule.
It's an infusion mash and instead of just mashing at some mid range such as 65 degrees celsius, you use three 'rests'


A maltose rest at 63 degrees for half an hour to produce maltose
A dextrin rest at 70 degrees for half an hour to convert the rest of the starch to dextrins etc
A mashout at over 75 degrees

It produces a much fuller bodied beer than just a single temperature infusion mash apparently. Anyway I've just done one in my 40L electric urn and it's truly a breeze. What I did was:

Heat strike liquor to around 67 degrees
Fit bag and dough in. I hit 63 spot on - it's a bit cool here ATM and the grain was coolish
Lag the urn and rest for 30 mins
Lift the bag off the electric element and raise to 71 degrees with a good pumping. I hit it first off, but it could take a couple of tries.
Lag the urn and rest for 30 mins
Lift the bag off the electric element and give it a good surge for about 10 minutes to get the mash to around 78 degrees.
Give wort good pumping, lag the urn again and go to ALDI (actually not required, but it can sit there for a while as enzymes should be zapped)

I'm currently boiling, and it's smelling like malt heaven - it's a Munich Dunkel:

4.00 kg Pale Malt, Galaxy (Barrett Burston) (3.0 EBC) Grain 65.47 %
1.00 kg Munich Malt - 20L (39.4 EBC) Grain 16.37 %
0.50 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 8.18 %
0.30 kg Crystal Malt Dark (240.0 EBC) Grain 4.91 %
0.25 kg Caramel Wheat Malt (90.6 EBC) Grain 4.09 %
0.06 kg Carafa II (811.6 EBC) Grain 0.98 %
20.00 gm Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 16.6 IBU
20.00 gm Hallertauer, New Zealand [8.50 %] (20 min) Hops 10.0 IBU
8.00 gm Tettnang [4.50 %] (20 min) Hops 2.1 IBU



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.84 %
Bitterness: 28.7 IBU Calories: 90 cal/l
Est Color: 34.5 EBC

Drinking a pint of Ralph's ESB he sent me :twisted:

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LOL outbreak ...

Great post as usual BB,

I have hardly ever tasted a great lager or pilsner. Even the gold medal winners I have sampled never say, "Wow," to me. The best beer I have had in my life though was a Munich Helles / Pilsner recipe brewed by Nev. I think it's a Munich Helles but it is probably a proper Pils - hard to tell as we home brewers often over-hop beers for their style.

Anyway, this, "best beer I have ever tasted," brewed by Nev, had no "Wow" factor for me until I tasted the last of the 6 bottles he gave me, 9 months later. This last bottle was sublime. I actually opened the bottle in the middle of a tasting session - after a heap of other beers. I can never taste any beer once I have had 3 or 4 but this one jumped out even after I had tasted a mango beer??? I re-capped it straight away. Even though half of it had been poured, I just knew I had to taste this beer again on a clean palate.

The next day, I couldn't face a beer as it ended up being a rather big night .

A day later, I poured it out. And yes, it was the best beer I have ever tasted. For me it was far more interesting and captivating than Deus but then again I am not into beers like that.

I replicated that recipe and sure enough, it got better and better over time. I actually had mine in a keg with a dodgy weld resulting in, what I reckon was a quite major, "acetyldeyde," fault. But after 9 months in this dodgy and, by that stage, almost empty keg, that beer still scored a Bronze. The captivating flavours still overwhelmed the ugly . (Even to me, actually.)

Anyway BB, excuse the long ramble but none of us should have to wait 9 months for a great lager/pils. Maybe the Hochkurz method will help and I am certainly prepared to give it a crack.

You have two urns now so you might be able to do a side by side?

The next double-batch lager I do, I'm actually going to do something unheard of. After cold-conditioning for a few weeks, I'm actually going to expose the beer to about 40C or more for a few weeks. It worked with a BIAB lager I had in a keg as I travelled across Australia that got exposed to 60 C several times over 8 weeks, it works with red wine so I think this stupid idea is worth another crack. Looks like I'll have to bottle that brew though .

Once again, great thread BB and hope I haven't taken it off-topic - ways of improving lagers/pils always fascinates me and when I brew the above double-batch, I will use your mash regime for sure,

PP.

• • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
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Stitch: I just rang Nev and he has no problems with me sharing it. I have put it up here and have called it a Munich Helles. A few extra hops though and it would definitely be a pilsner.

Beachbum: This recipe is all Weyermann but I may have used Galaxy the last time I brewed it - I have notes somewhere .

• • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
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This mashing technique has got my intrest. Do you think an ale recipe would benefit from this style of mashing, or would it be just for lagers?
Cheers

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I'm seriously considering trying it this weekend, looks like fun

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