Hello Guys!
Greetings from across "the pond"
Augustiner is definitively the "Bavarian Champagne", I grew up with that stuff.
The yeast strain you use will be uttermost important, but knowing the Wagner-KG I doubt that they release their yeast strains. There is more than one Augustiner brewery in existence. Augustiner is short for the catholic order of St Augustus - a reference to medieval times when monks brewed the beer. There is also an Augustiner brewery in Salzburg - are we sure that this particular strain is not from there instead?
I was born in Munich and know the styles pretty well. Munich helles is very balanced. IMO the best example you can get your hands on is Augustiner Edelstoff from the Wagner (foundation) KG.
Here are the specs:
- Alcohol: 5.6%
- OG: 12.7% Plato (1.0505 SG)
- Colour: 6.5 EBC
- Bitterness: 17 IBU
Whenever I brew my rations of Helles (it's my birthright
) I use a 3 step decoction mash.
I dough-in very thick (1.2 l per kg) with cold water and let the grain hydrate properly (check by crushing with your fingers - that can take quite a bit of time). Then I use a step infusion to bring it up to Phytase rest (38-40C).
After that I use decoctions. It's not as hard as some people make it out. The trick is to treat the combined maltose/dextrose rest (2nd decoction) like a single step infusion and to convert the starches in the first decoction properly - don't just boil it. That's how you can control the wort profile.
The first decoction is to get the temperature to the protease rest (mandatory with the not so well modified german malts) and the second to a combined rest at 68C (no, I won't tell you for how long
). For mash out I use a runoff from the mash tun (ie a thin decoction) to bring it up to 76C to lock in enzyme activity.
The first decoction uses a 10 min protease rest at 50C as well as a combi-rest at 70C for 10 minutes. The boil is bettween 5-10 mins, pending on malt quality. Successful decoctions are simply brought to boil. One can easily perform this with a 2 vessel setup. A cooler and a kettle are sufficient. Just make sure you occasionally add hot water to the cooler to maintain saccharification temparature at 68C. This is crucial. That rest can be quite long and coolers are not good at maintaining such high temperatures. Bigger setups heat the mash tun underneath or with steam.
For an authentic style I'd recommend using floor-malted malt only. German malt is not as modified as UK malt. When
Anton Dreher made the first Helles, he was heavily influenced by english pale ale malt and Goldings hops (which he adored). Old-fashioned bavarian text books sometimes refer to brewing lager as the "english method". So that should give everyone a good clue
One could just as well use Pale Ale malt instead of Floor malted German malt which is not easy to get hold of (Augustiner makes it's own malt for e.g.). Fawcett and Crisp are excellent malsters still using the floor malting technique (yummy!). However, their malts are well modified. In this case one should skip the protease rest. Pale Ale malt is also a bit darker. But who cares?
Well, that should get you started. There are a lot of other little tidbits, but they are a closely guarded secret (we haff wayz). Either way, this info here is publicly available and a bit of experimentation is always fun. I use Hallertau Mittelfrueh (not the US-variety! Get the one from Bavaria) exclusively for this style (Spalt Select is also a good choice).
Your mileage may vary, but as long as you get to a beer which has just the right level of sweetness with a bitterness that is just noticeable and an alcohol level just high enough to give you a good kick but still very easy to drink, then you are pretty much there. But to get a mouthfeel with a balance like the Edelstoff --- that's
art.
Making a good helles is quite a funky process but the end result is well worth it!
PS: don't use a Munich water profile. Our beer is brewed with mountain-water. Use a Pilsner water profile and make sure the chorine is gone. I let it evaporate to get rid of it.
And remember, no finings, protaflocs etc... The beer will settle out quite nicely when you use good yeast and fermentation is handled correctly. It's a crucial phase. A diacetyl rest is pretty much mandatory. Don't skip it, regardless what the yeast-lab says. I always re-pitch, use the yeast from the secondary fermentation before you do the diacetyl rest only. Never the one from the primary fermentation.
Happy brewing and Prosit!
BN Army // 13th Mountain Division 