Weyermann ®

Inside Weyermann ®
with Axel Jany

The Weyermann ® video series provides you with exciting insights from their red and yellow Weyermann® world. You can expect information about their products, technical questions and many other topics relating to malt and brewing.

Say hello to their expert Axel Jany, Weyermann® team leader international customer consultants! 

 
Top malt is an undermodified malt to improve foam stability. The modern version of the top malt is our Weyermann® Carapils®.
In the USA, our Weyermann® Carapils® is registered as Weyermann® carafoam® and is distributed by our distributor BSG as Carafoam®.
The Weyermann® Carafoam® was first developed in 1908 by Weyermann® under the name Carapils®. It’s a 116 year old, modern product and a great way to get a consistent “top malt result” with a nice foam and bright beer color.
Slightly darker and delivering more body, the Weyermann® Carafoam® and the Weyerman® Carahell® are great technical malts that can be added to the base malt for Pilsner and Helles.
There are two aspects relevant to answer this question: it is pragmatic and quality/taste oriented.
Looking back to a time when all the malt was dried over an open fire, a diverse selection of fuels were in usage. Straw, peat, wood, coal or even dung. Everything available was used.
While the peat is used on many Scottish islands ever since, the beech was used mainly in Central Germany, due to the beech trees in the mixed forests.
The fuel characteristic of beech wood is very good. In addition to this pragmatic aspects of high availability and the fuel characteristic, beech wood provides a round smoke aroma which makes it the ideal flavor supplier for smoked beer.
With beech you can control the appropriate amount of smoke to create different intensities.
To produce this product, the green malt is diverted directly from the germination box into the roasting drum, so that the amylases already formed during germination can break down the strength.
For this, temperatures are driven in the roasting drums, which mimic the maize in the brewery.
Thus the alpha and beta-amylase will attack the strength and release the sugars, which are later brought to caramelize by thermal treatment.
Depending on the intensity of caramelization, different flavors and aromas are formed: from salty and biscuit-like to caramel and nut flavors.
Enzymes are natural reaction aids, so-called “bio-catalyticators”, and they control the degradation process in malt:
1. ) Breaking down the cell walls to get to the flour body.
2. ) Reduction of starch in sugar: amylases are enzymes, polysaccharides are e.g. B. Splitting and breaking down strength. In 1833 a French chemist discovered amylase (still diastasis at that time) in a malt solution. Diastasis was the first enzyme discovered.
Melts activate and form the naturally occurring enzymes during the germination process. These are needed during the brewing process so that the starch in the grain can be transformed into perishable sugar.
Brewers then use them to make alcohol and CO2 with lower or upper yeast during fermentation.
Biotechnologically produced amylases are used by bakers if the flour has too little gas producing capacity. Here too, the amylases create sugar, which is converted into ethanol and carbon dioxide during fermentation and thus allow the dough to knead.
3. ) Protein reduction: Optimal solution of protein components in cereals for good processing in the brewery. Enzymes break down the protein molecules into smaller proteins and amino acids. Protein composition plays an important role in beer production for fermentation (yeast nutrition), foam stability and flavour profile of beers.
Like all beers, wheat beers are characterized by a composition of different aromas.
In case of wheat beer, these are, in addition to the malty aroma components, the balance of phenolic and estery aromas produced during fermentation.
Phenolic compounds such as 4-Vinylguaiacol produce flavors ranging from clove to spicy, peppery aromas. Responsible for this are compounds that can be formed from the so called “ferulic acid”. Ferulic acid is contained in malt and is found in the cell walls of the endosperm. Here it is bound in pentosan chains.
The brewer can already influence the ferulic acid content in the wort by selecting the raw materials and further processing in the brewhouse and thus decide how pronounced the phenolic clove aroma will be in the finished beer. One way to increase the ferulic acid content in the wort is to start mashing at low temperatures and performing a rest at 45°C.
By using Weyermann® acidulated malt or by adding sour wort or even by a combination of both products, an optimal mash pH range of 5.2 – 5.4 can be achieved.
The biologically produced lactic acid serves to lower the pH of the mash which gives the base for a high enzyme activity.
This optimises the brewing process and the beer quality. Other advantages are the optimal fermentation process, a shorter fermentation time as well as an easier process step on filtered beers due to the reduced viscosity.
The increased taste stability improves the beer quality further.
Biological acidification represents a reduction of the pH value in a natural way, thus the requirements for the German Purity Law are given.
These Weyermann® products can therefore be used without hesitation and significantly increase the quality of the beers and their taste.
Weyermann® acidity extract is a controlled, non-alcoholic fermented sour wort in concentrated form with a hazy, brown appearance.
The product offers breweries without their own sour wort production the opportunity to use the many advantages of a biological acidification.
It can be used in mashing and / or in the wort kettle.
Thus, the sour wort extract is a good alternative or supplement to the acidulated malt, to set optimal pH values in the brew house.
The sour wort extract is available as a re-sealable BaginBox unit.
A BiB contains 16 liters, which corresponds to 20 kg.
The dosage recommendation to reduce the pH by 0.1 for mash acidification is about 10 l / 1000 kg of malt or alternatively later for acidification in the wort kettle at about 6 l / 1000 kg malt.
Weyermann produce the very dark roasted malt Weyermann® Carafa® in their roasting drums at temperatures up to 250°C – together with the husks.
The Weyermann® Carafa® Special is manufactured without barley husks (protective skin of the grain). These are specially removed by a peeling technology developed from Weyermann®.
When producing Carafa® Special, they reduce the bitterness by removing the husks and thus they are able to achieve mild, roasted flavours.
Moreover, the Weyermann® Carafa® Special is roasted additionally with a patented gentle process for debittering, specially developed from Weyermann®.
When it comes to Weyermann® Carafa® Type I to III – all trademarks of Weyermann® – the strong roasted aromas are highly welcome though. They bring the characteristic taste to stouts or porters, for example.
Then again in German Style black beers strong roasted aromas are less in demand. Therefore, they recommend the Weyermann® Carafa® Special for milder ales. They recommendation includes a use of up to 5% in the malt filling.
For Weyermann® speciality malt production in Bamberg, they only use the best raw materials. Of all trucks with products such as summer malting barley, quality wheat, spelt or rye, they take an average sample directly after the arrival. This sample is immediately examined in detail in their central laboratory for many parameters.
 
If the delivery meets their specifications, a truck with approx. 25 tons of product can be unloaded gently in 20 minutes. With state-of-the-art technology, the dust is removed from the grain efficiently during this process as well.
 
In this way, they sample and unload up to 16 trucks daily on their historic Weyermann® premises in Bamberg in order to be able to supply our customers in over 135 countries around the world with our diverse range of malts at any time.

Introducing Weyermann® Acidulated Malt: The Perfect Addition to Your Brew

We are thrilled to present to you Weyermann® Acidulated Malt. With a pH level of 3.3 – 4.5, this speciality malt is ideal for lowering the pH of your wort. By doing so, it enhances mashing and fermentation, leading to a more refined beer flavour.

This malt boasts an EBC value of 2.5 to 12.0 and the addition of up to 5% of Weyermann® Acidulated Malt can boost the flavour stability of your beer. It is highly recommended for use with hard brewing water and is particularly effective for Pilsner, Ales, light beers, wheat beers, and draft beers.

For naturally sour beers, we recommend adding up to 10% for that perfect characteristic taste, which brings hints of dried fruits. The sensory impression is completed by nuances of vanilla, hazelnut, and honey. Overall, Weyermann® Acidulated Malt is an excellent choice to harmoniously complete the taste of your beer.

Reddish and Dark Ales and Lager Beers can perfectly be made with the Weyermann® Melanoidin malt.
 
With an EBC value for the beer colour of 60 to 80, the speciality malt from the extensive portfolio of Weyermann® Malts (over 85 products) perfectly rounds off exquisite beer colours and brings reddish nuances. With a recommended addition of up to 20% the Weyermann® Melanoidin also improves the flavour stability and the full body of beers. The mashing is optimized through the use of this speciality malt from Bamberg.
 
In taste, the Weyermann® Melanoidin convinces with its intense malt sweetness and delicious honey and biscuit notes. The speciality malt skillfully combines acid, sweetness and bitterness into a harmonious whole – supplemented by impressions that remind of bread crust and jam. Next to Dark, Red and Amber Beers, the Weyermann® Melanoidin malt is used in Wheat Beers and Bock Beers.
 
“Happy brewing” anywhere in the world where it is brewed with speciality malts from the world market leader!
The friability value is a characteristic of a base malt that measures the hardness of the grain’s endosperm. The endosperm is the pale, normally white, region inside the cereal, covered by different layers up to the external husks. These protect the endosperm and all its components, mainly starch, from the outside.
 
The friability of grain is achieved due to the malting process: the enzymes produced during the germination break down the cell walls that cover the starch granulates transforming the endosperm into a friable material after proper drying and kilning. It means, that the malt will be easy to crush, and a lot of grits and flour can be produced. A small particle size improves the conversion of starch into fermentable sugars during the mash.
 
Due to the caramelization and roasting process, the friability cannot be measured in this kind of speciality malt. A correct caramelization implies that the simple and small sugars polymerize to produce more complex compounds (react which each other to form very long chains) that harden the endosperm back again. For this reason, no friability test is applicable to speciality malts.
 
The storage of the grain could also influence the friability of a malt. The higher and longer exposure of the malt to high temperatures at high air moisture levels could reduce the ability of the malt to produce the desired grits and flour after crushing it. That means that the friability value in these conditions could be lower.
 
In Weyermann® laboratories they have friability meters that measure both parameters: friability value and glassy kernels.
 
A sample of base malt is put into a rotating wire sieve that is pressed together with a standard roller. It causes a grinding effect on the kernels and subsequently, a separation into two fractions: the amount passing the sieve gives the friability value. The rest is checked and the glassy kernels are sorted out.
 
At Weyermann® they have a limit of a maximum of 2,5% glassy kernels in a base malt to avoid lautering issues. This analysis is not processed for wheat malts.
The high-quality level at Weyermann® Malts partly already begins before the actual malting process – the steeping, germination and kilning – with a sophisticated total six-step grain cleaning.
 
First, the grain – they mainly use barley and wheat, spelt and rye – is cleaned and sorted (80 tons/hour) in our Weyermann® grain reception in Leesau after the harvest. If necessary, they can also gently dry, and always perfectly cool off and ventilate the grain here.
 
In a second step further grain cleaning is required upon reception of our raw material at the operating locations Bamberg and Hassfurt. Again, they rely on an efficient aspiration and the most modern cleaning and sorting.
 
Thirdly, following the reception, further grain cleaning occurs. Only the grains which are the biggest and rich in extract thus get to the steeping vessel. As a control, they always conduct analyses in the laboratory and run functional tests on our modern cleaning and sorting technology every day. Magnets ensure that there are no further impurities.
 
In the fourth step, the grain is cleaned once again precisely before production.
 
Further cleaning is carried out after kilning, caramelizing and roasting. Here they operate very gently during the malt cleaning and polishing, as well as the separation of the radicles. Daily quality analyses and the use of metal detectors in the shipping gives us the certainty that the cleaning always works perfectly and their customers receive a quality product at the highest level.
 
As a final and sixth step in the Weyermann® grain cleaning there is another gentle malt cleaning and polishing of the grains before bagging and loading the premium Weyermann® quality malts – everything in terms of our quality philosophy which they always uphold for the good of our customers and their high-quality products and always keep up-to-date in terms of technology.
 
As a result, their customers receive big malt grains and the best sorting, so that they can always count on perfect workability and the highest extract yields with their Weyermann® malt!

Weyermann® Beech Smoked Barley Malt, which continues the Bamberg-smoked beer tradition. In the 19th century, all malt was traditionally dried on an open fire, giving the beer a smoky taste.

Weyermann®’s sensory experts describe the Beech Smoky Barley Malt as having a honey-like sweetness and smoky aroma with recognizable flavours of clove, candy, caramel, vanilla, cocoa and breadcrumb. This malt is ideal for smoked beers, lagers, “Kellerbiere”, speciality smoked beers, and wheat beers, with up to 100% added content. A rustic “slightly smoky” taste can be achieved with the addition of 10-20% malt.

Weyermann® Carafa® is the perfect complement to dark smoked beers, with a colour range of 4.0 to 8.0 EBC. For those seeking an example of a successful smoked beer, give our Weyermann® “Schlotfegerla®” a try – always available at the Weyermann® Living & Drink Shop.

Did you know that smoked malt is also used by many distilleries, and not just for dark beers? In fact, for a lighter version of smoked beer, check out the Bamberger Hofbräu® Rauch, another offering from Weyermann®.

Join us in continuing the tradition of smoked beer with Weyermann® Beech Smoked Barley Malt.

Brewing beer and stocking raw materials in tropical climates do hold some extra challenges for the brewer. It is a common practice to invest in second-hand refrigerated sea containers for storage purposes. They are great for cooling your beer but also protect beer during the rainy season or against rodents. So naturally the idea springs to mind using these refrigerated containers also for your malt storage. In this case, there are a few things to consider:
 
1. Please don’t freeze the malt below 0°C/32°F.
 
2. Make sure that you do not create condensation in the malt bags by taking them in and out of the cold storage often. For example, if you store all your malt inside the cooler, leave the bulk in there and only withdraw the malt bags that you will use. If you repeatedly take the pallets in and out, this could cause condensation and subsequently create a risk for mould.
 
3. Make sure not to store any odour-rich materials side by side with the malt. 
Weyermann® has added the oak smoked wheat malt to the portfolio to meet customers’ demands for an identical malt for the Grätzer beer production.
 
Grätzer is a historic beer style from Poland. There, the available oak wood was used to smoke and dry the malt.
The Grätzerbier was made with 100% oak-smoked wheat malt. It was brewed as light beer and drunk almost all day.
The nearly forgotten beer style was revitalized in the late 90s by some craft breweries. To assist them with the ingredients Weyermann® has launched its oak smoke wheat malt. Not only Gräzer beer fans love this malt. It is popular with smoked beer drinkers and distillers worldwide.
Weyermann® Carawheat® diversifies the aromas of fermented beers and adds colour and flavour to wheat beer, dark wheat beer, and grain beer. With a colour range between 100-140 EBC, it will bring dark and red-brown to beer.
 
In addition, Weyermann® Carawheat® helps thicken the beer body and creates an intense aroma of wheat malt with about 15% added content.
 
Weyermann®  malt flavour circles are a unique tool for customers to easily access and distinguish malt products. In which Carawheat® is described with delightful shades of light caramel, almond, bread and pastry. The smell of malt is reminiscent of freshly baked goods and candies.
The Weyermann® Carapils® is their oldest trademark. Registered in 1908, it is the world’s first trademark for pale caramel malt. In the US and Canada Weyermann® Carapils® is known as Weyermann® Carafoam®. This speciality malt with its light notes of malt sweetness and honey is particularly suitable for Pilsner, non-alcoholic, Lager and light beers.
 
An addition of up to 40% enhances the beer’s full mouth feel and foam stability without altering the beer colour. The EBC value of the Weyermann® Carapils® is 2.5 and 6.5. Weyermann® products bring colour and aroma to beers in 135 countries worldwide. Find your desired product in Weyermann’s® large product portfolio of more than 85 malts.
Weyermann® Dark Wheat Malt is in the Weyermann® wheat malt group along with Weyermann® Pale Wheat Malt, Weyermann® Carawheat® and Weyermann® Chocolate Wheat Malt.
 
Wheat grains were selected by Weyermann® from the Franconia region, to create a range of high-quality wheat malt. Weyermann® Dark Wheat Malt has a 15 – 20 EBC color is perfect for wheat, “Kölsch”, “Altbier”, “Schankbier” fermented wheat, light, low-alcoholic, non-alcoholic and dark wheat beers.
 
With a usage ratio of up to 50%, the fermented wheat beer flavour is very distinctive and outstanding. Therefore, Weyermann® Dark Wheat Malt is the perfect choice to create rich beers with the malt’s characteristic sweet tooth aroma combined with pastry, bread rinds, nuts and cocoa/chocolate.
Weyermann® Malts continuously update its quality management system in accordance with the standards of DIN ISO and HACCP (“Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points”).
 
They guarantee that all Weyermann® products comply with all applicable health and food safety regulations. Each malt bag that leaves the factory is provided with a unique code. That way, you too can trace the way of the malt back to the field!
 
In addition to the QR code, the labelling of the malt bag includes a batch code with expiry date and filling time (day, hour, minute, second!) as well as the article number to make the Weyermann® malt sacks the ambassadors of Weyermann’s® red and yellow world.
Weyermann® acidity extract is a controlled, non-alcoholic fermented sour wort in concentrated form with a hazy, brown appearance. The product offers breweries without their own sour wort production the opportunity to use the many advantages of biological acidification. It can be used in mashing and/or in the wort kettle. Thus, the sour wort extract is a good alternative or supplement to the acidulated malt, to set optimal pH values in the brew house.
 
The sour wort extract is available as a re-sealable BaginBox unit. A BiB contains 16 litres, which corresponds to 20 kg. The dosage recommendation to reduce the pH by 0.1 for mash acidification is about 10 l / 1000 kg of malt or alternatively later for acidification in the wort kettle at about 6 l / 1000 kg malt.
The Weyermann® Carared® is used for the production of dark or red beers and is added to brown beers, bock beers, amber beers, dark beers, wheat beers, red ales and Scottish ales.
 
With an addition of up to 25%, the full body of the beer as well as the warm colour, with an EBC value of 40 to 60, can be intensified. The overall impression of this caramel malt is completed by the malt aroma that reminds of toffee, caramel and honey.
The Weyermann® Floor-malted Bohemian Wheat Malt with an EBC value of 3-5.5 is used in authentic Bohemian Wheat beers, Wheat Bock Beers and other full-bodied, top-fermented beer specialities. The recommendation of use may be up to 70% if you have a mash filter up to 100%.
The malt is produced from Bohemian brewing wheat varieties. Trained tongues recognize an intensive wheat malt aroma and a mild malt sweetness and experience a velvety creamy mouthfeel.
The Weyermann® Abbey Malt® with a malt colour of 40-50 EBC is especially used for speciality beers according to Belgian style, for example, in Blond, Bruin, Amber, Triple, Double, Faro or Fruit Beers. An intense malt flavour and bread notes make the Weyermann® Abbey Malt®, which is mindfully produced with a special kiln technology, is also interesting for traditional Abbey Ales and Trappist Ales.
 
Beer experts, such as 20 Weyermann® beer sommeliers, also find nuances of dark chocolate, pastries and almonds in the sweet taste of Abbey Malt®, so that the Abbey Malt® can be certified with a wonderfully balanced and characteristic flavour. The addition of the malt can be up to 50%. It is – as it is common for all Weyermann® products – always available and a great counterpart to the “Honey Malt”.
The Weyermann® Caraamber®, with an EBC value of 60 – 80 is used in bock beers, dark beers, red beers and, according to the name, amber beers, amber lager beers and amber ales.
 
With an addition of up to 20%, this malt improves the taste stability and fullness of the beer. With the Caraamber®, Weyermann® customers can optimize the mashing and experience the taste of delicious toffee, caramel and bread notes in their beers.
 
 
Weyermann® distillery team leader, Philipp Schwarz, is often asked what is meant by “water for blending”.
 
Water for blending is a term used by distillers and means the water used to reduce the high-percentage distillate to drinking strength.
 
Mixture water must have at least drinking water quality.

The Weyermann® Caramunich® is perfect for classic “Bavarian” dark beers. Depending upon the addition (1-5% for light beers, 5-10% for dark beers), our Weyermann® Caramunich® delivers a robust, full and round flavour in dark and brown beers, Festival beers, Oktoberfest beers, Bock beers, non-alcoholic malt beverages, nutritional beers, Schankbier and light beers.

Weyermann® beer sommeliers describe intense malt aromas, a distinctive caramel flavour with notes of pastry, bread crust and cocoa in Weyermann® Caramunich®. You can also notice a subtle flavour of raisins, coffee and almonds. Weyermann® Caramunich® allows for a brilliant play of colour between dark copper and amber brown to maroon brown. Thanks to several Weyermann® special malts, there’s no limit to brewers’ imagination as they craft their recipes. This malt comes in three categories: I, II and III. The Weyermann® Caramunich® I, has an EBC value between 80-100, Type II between 110-130 and Type III between 140 and 160.

The Weyermann® Caraaroma® with an EBC value of up to 450 is used in beers such as barley wine, porter, stout, in dark export and bock beers, October beers, dark ales, in triple and Belgian strong beers.
 
In the beers brewed with Weyermann® Caraaroma®, the Caramel brings a beautiful dark red to hazelnut colour. The flavour profile of Weyermann® Caraaroma® is reminiscent of the delightful taste of bread crust, walnut, and dark chocolate.
 
In the Weyermann® Malt Aroma Wheel®, developed by Bamberg’s experts of the brew manufacture notes of bread, nuts and chocolate as well as a fine taste of raisins and dark caramel can be found in the Caraaroma®. Overall, the Weyermann® Caraaroma® improves flavour stability and the full-bodied beer and rounds off the beer colour.
We can definitely not recommend adding 100% rye malt. Rye (Secale Cereale) is a completely different species than barley (Hordeum Vulgare), which also comes with other features. Thus rye contains twice as many gums, so-called pentosans. These make the lautering process more difficult during the brewing process since the viscosity is correspondingly much higher.
 
Moreover, rye doesn’t bring husks into the brewing process, which could build a natural filter layer. Thus, a special way of operating with rye malts is required, already starting during the mashing, and an addition of 60% max. is recommended.
With an EBC value of 150 to 200, beers brewed with Weyermann® Cararye®, an addition of up to 15% is recommended. Thus a darker, golden-brown colour is achieved and the taste of rye intensified. It is similar to the taste of bread. Trained beer connoisseurs recognise fresh bread in addition to fine caramel and toffee notes.
Yes, the Weyermann® Bioland Melanoidin Malt is available in 25 kg/55lbs. bags.
 
Brewers can now use the colour and flavour spectrum of the Melanoidin malt and brew organic beers with a pleasant reddish colour and biscuit and honey-like aromas. The malting of Weyermann® Bioland Melanoidin malt is done with barley grown under the German organic label “Bioland”. The protein content in the barley is carefully selected because the increased formation of amino acids during warm and CO2-rich germination of green malt is the key to the unique taste and special colour.
 
In many cultures Sour beers have been produced for a long time. Especially in the early days of brewing, different regional styles of sour beer developed. Before yeast was discovered, brewed worts were often left to ferment spontaneously, which usually caused other microorganisms, such as lactic acid bacteria, to accumulate in the young beer in addition to the yeast. As a result, natural souring took place.
 
Nowadays, there are several controlled ways to produce sour beers. One of them is “kettle souring” to produce kettle sour beers. An additional step is added to the classic brewing process. Before the hops are boiled, the wort is cooled down to 37°C and inoculated with lactic acid bacteria and naturally soured in a controlled way, in about 30 hours. The SafSour™ LP 652 from Fermentis is ideally suited for this purpose. After souring, the classic brewing process is continued with hop boiling.
 
Not only the controllability of the process is the biggest advantage, but also in the aroma formation during souring. Complex citrus, tropical and fruity aromas, as well as a pleasant lactic acid taste, are already created before hop boiling and fermentation. This allows the production of many beer styles, such as sour IPAs, fruit sour beers, sour ales and Berliner Weisse, which are becoming increasingly popular not only in the summer season.

Weyermann® Isaria 1924®. An order only item from Charles Faram, which means that it’s not on our shelves but we can order it for you.

Isaria was first bred in 1912 by Ackermann, a German barley breeder since 1903, and it was officially accepted for brewing in 1924 becoming a European success variety.

Isaria was in the brewing barley program until 1963, making it one of the oldest commercial spring barley varieties in the world.

The impressive influence of Isaria and its preference by German brewers during the first half of the 20th century were enough reasons for Weyermann® to grow and malt Isaria in the 21st century again.

Now, nearly 100 years later, Isaria adds its flavour to beers once again as a Weyermann® exclusive heirloom variety: Isaria 1924®, giving beers a malty, yet not so sweet taste and a soft unique nutty aroma.

Back then malts had had a darker colour, and also Weyermann Isaria 1924® with its colour of 7-9 EBC or 3.1 – 3.8 Lovibond shows this lineage.

Isaria1924® is perfect for beers such as Zoigl, Keller, unfiltered Lager as well as Festbier.

Top malt is an undermodified malt to improve foam stability. The modern version of the top malt is our Weyermann® Carapils®. In the USA, our Weyermann® Carapils® is registered as Weyermann ® Carafoam® and is distributed as Carafoam ® by our partner BSG Craftbrewing.

The Weyermann® Carafoam® was first developed and registered in 1908 by Weyermann ® under the name Carapils®. It’s a 115 year old, modern product and a great way to achieve a consistent “top malt result” with a nice foam and light beer color.

The Weyermann® Carafoam® and the Weyerman® Carahell®, which are slightly darker and provide more body, are great technical malts that can be added to the base malt for Pilsner and Helles.

To make this product, the green malt is transferred directly from the germination box into the roasting drum, so that the amylases already formed during germination can decrease the strength.

For this, temperatures are driven in the roasting drums, which mimic the maize in the brewery.

Thus, the alpha and beta-amylase will attack the strength and release the sugars that will be caramelized later through thermal treatment.

Depending on the intensity of caramelization, different flavors and aromas are formed: from greasy and cookie-like, to caramel and nutty flavors

Water hardness occurs when water penetrates through soils and/or aquifers.
The geological underground is therefore strongly responsible for the geographical distribution of the water hardness.

For example, you can ask the city works about the hardness of your city’s water.

Information on the hardness of the city water is crucial for the burner because he will or will not carry out water treatment based on this information.

Despite the knowledge of the municipal corporation, it is useful to analyze the hardness of the city water within its operation in order to determine the exact hardness before and after the water hardening.

If the city water exceeds a hardness of 3°dH, the water used to lower the distillate / spirits must be hardened.

If the “average water” (more on that in the next episodes of our FAQ Tuesday series) is not hardened, hardnesses form in the distillate.

Philipp Schwarz, Weyermann® Distille team leader, explains today what you mean by hardening in distillates / spirits.

As already explained last week, the geological underground is strongly responsible for the hardness of the water.

Groundwater from plaster layers can produce high concentration
Be responsible for magnesium and calcium ions in city water.

These magnesium and calcium ions are insoluble in a mixture of alcoholic water, such as a beer fire, and cause so-called hardness.

Therefore it is important to harden city water before burning.

Philipp Schwarz is often asked the question of what is meant by cutting water.
Intermediate water in distillation inserts is the water that is used to lower the high percentage of distillate to drinking strength.
Intermediate water must at least have drinking water quality.

In the past weeks, we talked to Philipp Schwarz, our Weyermann® team leader distillery, about the terms surrounding water for distillates/spirits.

In this context, we should answer today what the abbreviation “°dH” is all about.

The abbreviation °dH denotes the degree of German hardness and is used in connection with the total hardness of water, which denotes the sum of the eartalkali calcium and magnesium (rare strontium and barium) present in the water.

The hardness is now indicated in mmol/l or mol/m3.

The °dH unit is outdated, but still useful in practice.

We want to provide our customers with the best quality, no matter what the weather conditions may be on the way from Bamberg to your brewery.
Recently we focused on Sinamar® and examined our RME when kept under freezing temperatures.
The tests have shown that frozen samples (frozen over two weeks) do not differ from the samples kept at ambient temperatures of the same batch. This was confirmed by our laboratory, as well as our trained taste panel members.
No differences between the frozen and reference samples were noticed in regards to taste, quality or solubility behaviour!
As an additional plus, we can say that our canisters can withstand the most adverse transport temperatures, even at -18 ° C.

In order to cope with the growing market of non-alcoholic beer, Fermentis searched for and found a suitable yeast stem for producing non-alcoholic beers.

The dry yeast SafAle® LA-01 is derived from Saccharomyces cerevesiae var. Knights of Hefestamm.

As the exclusive distributor for fermented yeast in Germany and Austria, the Maltzfabrik Weyermann® has helped in the development of this yeast with fermentation trials in our experimental brewery.

The know-how of our brewing masters, the different malts and parameters have been incorporated into the research.

The peculiarity of this yeast is that it cannot use either maltose or maltotriose and only simple sugars such as glucose, fructose or sucrose are metabolism. As a result, beer with an alcohol content of less than 0,5% vol with a 7° plateau result in regular spices.

However, the complete process of fermentation does not have to be without fermentation by-products that sometimes give beer its character.

In addition, this yeast is also suitable for light beers, since even with higher spices, only low alcohol content is achieved.

Important when using this yeast is the final pasteurization, or run through a KZE, to prevent possible degeneration. The target is 100 PE.
The dosage is indicated at 50 to 80g/hl beer.

A beautiful example is our non-alcoholic beer Weyermann® #99, which was brewed with this yeast.

The barley stored by Weyermann® has a water content of 12-14%.
This is just enough to keep the barley alive, to minimize life expressions and to ensure a safe storage, especially in regard of spoilage (mold).
In order to initiate the germination necessary for the starch modification, the moisture content must be increased. This happens during the so-called soaking.
Here, the grain receives the water that is necessary for the vegetation. A significant increase in the appearance of life can be seen at about 38% of water content. The barley germinates steady and quickly. Depending on the desired modification during the germination process, a further increase to 43 or up to 48% water content is necessary.

If the brewer wants to spice up your beer and emphasize its taste and aroma, as well as push the color into the copper-red or darker area, then our Weyermann® special malts, which are generally divided into two categories (roast and caramel malts), are used.

Roasted malt represents the very dark, roasted malt products that are responsible for the darkening of the beer color.

These will be available in very small quantities (max. 5-6%) of the maize to create, for example, an inferior dark beer or a superior stout.

In addition to the color, the Weyermann® roast malts create pleasant roast, coffee and chocolate notes.

There are many different types of malt. Among the large variety of brewing malts, the base malts are used as, you guessed it already, the base of your beers.

Base malts include all components required to make a beer wort and ultimately to brew a beer from it.

The base malt should show an enzyme-strong potential, which is able to break down high molecular weight compounds – especially the starch – and produce fermentable sugars from it and provide other nutrients to the yeast.

Furthermore, the malt husks serve as a natural filter during the lautering process to achieve a clear wort runoff.
Finally, a base malt gives the basic colour of a beer: usually situated in the middle of the colour spectrum (blond and yellow).

Wheat is a general term that contains many grains of the genus Triticum. There is therefore a relatively long list of wheat varieties that differ in their genetic composition and therefore in their properties and use in the food industry.

Since the genetic classification of wheat is too complicated for daily use, it is more common to categorize different types of wheat according to their rheological characteristics, global production volume and food applications.

The two most commonly used and accepted types are hard wheat
and soft wheat.

Wheat contains very high protein content, which makes it a perfect ingredient for pasta dough. Soft wheat is the most commonly used wheat variety in the food industry, which is often used for baking due to its significantly lower protein content.

This is why soft wheat is the best wheat variety to make sweet and soft bread and to brew salty and tasty wheat beers.

Therefore, Weyermann® works exclusively with local wheat varieties from locally grown, which are milled to light, dark, caramel-colored and roasted wheat mills.

Further differentiation criteria were adopted by the food industry to also classify brewing wheat varieties. In fact, the terms “red” and “white” (the difference can be found in the US and Canada) were considered useful to categorize wheat varieties when brewing.

However, it does not present a reliable classification method, as Weyermann® can adjust the final wheat malt color either on the tar or in the roasting drums depending on the desired expression.

Foam represents a very important visual feature of beer in many beer-drinking cultures. Fundamentally, the beer foam is a complex system called dispersion, in which a gas (CO2) is dispersed in a liquid (beer).
The beer head retention is naturally stabilized by high-molecular proteins.
These enhance the stability of the CO2 bubbles and prevent and delay their collapse.

Malt is a natural source of proteins. By adapting the malting process, it is possible to keep the proteins to remain high-molecular.
This is the case of the Weyermann® Carafoam® / Carapils®, a malt product that is just slightly modified and carefully germinated and dried, so it provides the wort with high-molecular proteins.
Being smoothly caramelized in rotating drums, Carafoam® / Carapils® improves the head retention by giving body and malty taste to the beer at the same time. All done naturally by our skillful maltsters.

The second product we produce with foam improvement characteristics is Carahell®.
Carahell® is produced with a darker color and a more intense malty taste in the rotating drums for the usage in darker beers than the light colored Carapils®/Carafoam®.

To improve the beer foam characteristics after pouring a beer, a minimum of 5% of either Carapils® or Carahell® is recommended. To extend the head retention, a minimum of 10% will be required.

Happy brewing!

At Weyermann® we use only new and high-quality pallets for the worldwide shipping of our malt.

All of our pallets are sourced from sustainable forestry and certified according to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) criteria. The seal of quality confirms that all wood meets the social, economic and environmental needs of present and future generations. Thus forests will remain sustainable.

In addition, the pallets are chamber-dried and IPPC certified.
According to the International Plant Protection Convention, the wood is gently heated and prevents such pests and the emergence of wood diseases. Until they are used, the pallets are stored moisture-proof in our halls.

By using only new pallets, we ensure that our malt remains free of foreign substances and, when exported to over 135 countries, the further travel of unwanted organisms in wood is prevented.

In this way, we can close the circle of our high-quality Weyermann® philosophy, which extends from the selection of grains to the entire production of our high quality products to the packaging in our Weyermann ® malt ambassadors with the renowned aroma protection.

Yes, every malt bag from Weyermann® has a best-before date of 18 months. The aroma profile of our over 80 different malts does not change significantly in this time, as we could find out in the weekly tasting rounds from our experts of the quality assurance regarding the flavor stability of our specialty malts.

The most important reason for this great flavor stability of our malts are our high-quality Weyermann® bags, our red printed ambassadors – disposable bags of extra tear-resistant PP (polypropene) with a waterproof PE (polyethene)-inlet.
The PE-inlet ensures optimal aroma protection.

All bags are folded up at the top, sewed up twice (!) with red and white thread and thus provided with a freshness seal.

We wish all our customers everywhere in the world “happy brewing” with our fresh, tasty Weyermann® specialty malts!

See More

Malts, malt products, storage, drink styles, glasses
and more…

The “I-nigma” barcode reader is a free smartphone application which works very well to download the batch malt analysis by scanning the analysis code from Weyermann® bags.

In some operation systems the analysis pdf is stored in the “download” folder.
For I-OS: “IBooks” can be used to store the analysis.
Analysis can be printed or forwarded by email, WLAN or Bluetooth now.

Top malt is an undermodified malt to improve foam stability. The modern version of the top malt is our Weyermann® Carapils®.
In the USA, our Weyermann® Carapils® is registered as Weyermann® carafoam® and is distributed by our distributor BSG as Carafoam®.
The Weyermann® Carafoam® was first developed in 1908 by Weyermann® under the name Carapils®. It’s a 116 year old, modern product and a great way to get a consistent “top malt result” with a nice foam and bright beer color.
Slightly darker and delivering more body, the Weyermann® Carafoam® and the Weyerman® Carahell® are great technical malts that can be added to the base malt for Pilsner and Helles.