We woke up, ate breakfast, and Amanda and I gave her presentation on brewing behind the iron curtain. She explained how the iron curtain separated Europe into two separate areas, then on the USSR side, they were only allowed to brew and sell one type of beer only, crazy. Then I presented on gose (pronounced "go-sa") style of brewing. This is where the beer is brewed with salty water, since it was originated in Goslar, next to the river Gose (where it got it's name), which was salty. The style came in and out of fashion because it was very sour. When people figured out how to make beer that wasn't sour, gose went out of style. Eventually it was resurrected.
After this we took the S-Bahn to Brauhaus in Spandau for a tour of their brewery. It was very cool. Similar to the brewery at the museum with copper appliances, but everything was much more modern, and the process was much quicker. It's always interesting when the tour guide can only speak German, so he informs our professor of what's going on, then our professor relays the information to us. The language barrier hasn't been too much of an issue, but does crop up every once in a while. Most people here know enough English for us to figure out what's going on, which is great because I only know 4 German words. I'm trying to learn, but can't get the accent down. We then tried there Helles lager beer, which was GREAT. It was foggy since they don't filter it. But the mouthfeel was medium thick and coated my tongue almost perfectly. Then we ordered a darker lager (Plotz Blitz) which was also very good. I think that they were my favorite beers of the trip so far.
After we were finished at Brayhaus, most of us went strait to the Jewish Museum Berlin. This was quite an experience. It was designed by Daniel Libeskind, zig zagging and going up hill, down hill, and slanted at random places, with the intent of leaving the interpretation up to the visitor. It was very disorienting and confusing, which definitely set my mood. We were in the museum for about 2 hours and I learned quite a lot from it. The experience was the most unique experience I've had at any museum.
Monday
Today was definitely a fun day! We went to Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei, (VLB) which is a fermentation and brewing sciences institute. It was SO COOL! They did EVERYTHING there. One section brewed beer, then the other sections were testing facilities making sure the beer was perfect for consumption, from packaging testing (bottle caps, labels, glass strength...etc) to tests that checked to see if the color was right, to tests to see where the isomers are from. So basically all of the chemistry stuff was way over my head, but all of the technology was so advanced. So companies can send this institute their beer, to make sure nothing is defected. We asked them if they could take samples of us and see where we are originally from, he said yes but it would be very expensive, too bad. After we went on a tour we were given sensory tests. The first one was 4 cups of water, one was bitter, one sweet, sour, and salty. The traces weren't very potent so it was kind of difficult, but everyone got the correct answers. Next we were given 4 samples of beer, and we were asked to detect the defects in them. (We were lectured before, so we knew what to look for.) We found that the beer that had been left out in the heat for too long tasted like cardboard. Bacteria and bad yeast caused one to smell just like butter. Another smelt like canned corn. And the last was the real beer, unaffected. Just by smelling, I couldn't tell the unaffected beer from the paper tasting beer, but once I tasted the papery one, I knew right away.
German man talking to Brian (our professor) and Kieth, who then explained everything to us
Beer fermenting! (Bottom fermenters)
This was at the museum. Part of it was to go outside into a very small area with stone floors and 24 foot high walls and no ceiling. It was very cold and the only light was the moon. It was very surreal, and made us think about how some people were forced to live.
This is a small area also outside called "falling leaves." There were 10,000 scared looking faces on the floor.
Had to do this...
Monday at the sensory panel
Spiked water. Got it correct!
I'm becoming an expert in sensing beer flaws!
PROST!!!!
Could you explain what goes on during a 'sensory panel'? spiked water? beer flaws?
ReplyDeleteYes...
ReplyDeleteThe water was spiked with different stuff to make it taste sweet, sour, bitter, and salty and we had to decide which cup tasted like what. Just a kind of taste training. The more you taste these specific things the more you get attuned to them and can pick them out easier.
The beer was the same way. Different bad tastes and smells comes from errors in brewing and incorrect storage. So now when I drink beers I can smell them and figure out if there is something wrong with them. Some examples of bad smells and tastes are: buttery, canned corn smell/taste, papery..