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Notes

https://dafteejit.com/2016/11/historic-bavarian-weissbier/ Usually beer is divided into Braunbier (brown beer) and Weißbier (white beer). The difference was in the malt: the roasting technology was very primitive, and even in the 19th century, smoke ovens were still used. Not only did these smoke ovens give all the malt a smoky flavor, but it was quite difficult to control the temperature at which the green malt was roasted. Under these conditions, it was almost impossible to get precise control over the color of the malt, so all the roasted malt was brown and smoky. For the production of pale malt, the easiest way was to simply air-dry it. Green malt was scattered in a well-covered area with a constant draft to dry it slowly without applying additional heat. Of course, this process took much longer and was more laborious than drying, and the resulting malt could not be stored for a long time, because it quickly deteriorated and became moldy. Because of the differences in these malts, brown beer was brewed from brown (i.e., roasted) malt, while white beer was brewed from pale, air-dried malt. with wheat. The first indication is a book called "Die Bayerische Bierbrauerei oder die Brauerei der braunen Biere und des weißen Gerstenbieres", written by Friedrich Meyer and published in 1830. The name translates as "Bavarian brewery or the brewing of brown beer and white barley beer [...]" and simply refers to it as white beer brewed from barley. In the book itself, the author writes that Weißbier is brewed only with lightly roasted malt or, alternatively, air-dry malt. There was also a difference in fermentation: while brown beers in Bavaria were bottom-fermented, white beers were generally top-fermented, although deviations are sometimes documented. Due to top fermentation, it could also be produced in warm weather, and thus the ideal beer could be produced in the summer. The author also notes that if wheat is not too expensive, a little wheat malt can be added at a ratio of half a metze wheat malt to each Schäffel barley malt. Metze is 37.06 liters and Bavarian Schäffel is 222.36 liters, so that means only about 1.4% wheat malt in the ground malt. This is not so much, and even completely optional, according to the author. Interestingly, the author also mentions that the Weißbier in Bavaria is in decline, and blames the brewers in part for this.