We’ve started digging into our archives and have come across a bevy of articles and essays written by KC Bier Co. founder and managing owner Steve Holle for a variety of beer publications prior to founding KC Bier Co. We’ll start posting these here for your enjoyment. Kicking off this series is an article from Zymurgy magazine written in May 2007, “Make Better Lager Beer The Bavarian Way – Use More Yeast!” An excerpt is below; click the link at the end to read the full article.

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In March of 2006, I spent a week with three brewers touring nine breweries in Bamberg and Munich, Germany.  Many of the breweries, especially in Bamberg, are small with aging equipment cobbled together over decades and crammed into centuries old buildings with less than ideal floor plans for a modern brewery. Yet, the brewery was able to produce very good beers, which I credit to the power of yeast and a fastidiously clean brewer.

Cleaning protocols often includes only a brush and elbow grease, and fermentation is sometimes conducted in open fermenters. Yet, in spite of these challenges, each brewery produces great beer. In certain ways, these Bavarian brewers are coping with the same issues as a homebrewer who pieces together a multitude of gadgets constituting a brewery in an overcrowded garage or basement.  The reasons for their success are applicable to homebrewers as well.

The first key to the Bamberg brewers’ success is the short distance they distribute their beer, which is often sold on premise (like a homebrewer) or distributed within a very short radius from Bamberg. Even if some of the filling equipment introduces elevated levels of oxygen and the pipe work isn’t extremely sanitary, the beer remains delicious until drunk a few days later. The short time period between packaging and consumption does not allow for defects to be manifested.  Because of the freshness, Germans still expect that beer drunk within site of the brewery smokestack will be the very best beer.

However, these breweries also use another safeguard.  They ferment with lots of healthy yeast at cold temperatures.  Each of the small breweries we visited obtains fresh yeast from a larger brewery nearby because they do not have the time, space, or financial capacity to propagate their own yeast. The large breweries seem unconcerned about safeguarding a proprietary yeast strain. The yeast is treated just like any other ingredient. In fact, many of the brewers did not even know the specific yeast strain they were buying.

Lager yeast works and multiplies more slowly than ale yeast because the cooler fermentation temperature slows down the yeast’s metabolic activity. This is the reason that brewers use larger quantities of pitching yeast for lagers compared to ales (typically 50 to 100% more yeast). The Bamberg breweries usually obtain their yeast in sterile milk cans immediately before brewing and then pitch directly into the brew. Their pre-pitching protocol, if any, is usually limited to mixing the yeast slurry with a slotted spoon to homogenize and aerate.

Finally, the brewers use traditional cold fermentation. Lager beer first gained popularity in medieval times because of its clean taste and stability. When Bavarian monks unknowingly selected for yeast that could ferment at cold temperatures, they reduced the number of spoilage microbes that could only survive in a warmer environment. When beer was fermented cold and stored cold, it remained stable longer before souring.

The most fascinating brewery that I visited was the brewpub Union Bräu on Max-Weber-Platz in Munich. In an attempt to replicate an old-fashioned brewery, Union Bräu operates one of the most archaic commercial brewing systems I have seen.  Yet, the brewery was able to produce very good beers, which I credit to the power of yeast and a fastidiously clean brewer. Union Bräu is an excellent working museum that demonstrates how beer was made 100 years ago.

My hero, Japanese-born and German-educated brewer Yasubumi Sawamura spends 2 days brewing and 3 days cleaning each week. Yasubumi said he initially believed that he could never brew contamination-free beer when he first started working at Union Braeu. Yet, he said he has never had an off-tasting beer, which is a tribute to his hard work, since the whole brewery must be cleaned by hand. Secondly, the fact that he uses a large quantity of yeast ensures that the yeast can overwhelm and crowd out spoilage organisms.

Finally, the cold temperatures inhibit the growth of other organisms because their metabolism and growth are drastically reduced by the cold. In this regard, Union Bräu is a throw back to the original attraction of lager yeast – it could produce clean tasting, spoilage resistant beer without the application of modern sanitation practices. The quality beer served at Union Bräu is a testament to the historic power of lager yeast and the dedication of one highly motivated brewer.

-Stephen R. Holle, May 2007
IBD Diploma Brewer, GABF Judge, and member of the North Texas Homebrewers Association

CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE: “Make Better Beer with Better Yeast 5-19-07”

I was asked recently why our new fall seasonal, Festbier, is labeled as a Vienna-style lager instead of a Märzen-Oktoberfest, a style descriptor used for many beers marketed as “Oktoberfest” beers during this season. Because I’m a huge bier nerd, here is why we call our Festbier a Vienna-style lager.

The Viennas and Märzen are closely related, but my understanding always has been that Vienna-lagers are typically a bit lighter in color, a bit lower in alcohol, and a bit more bitter than Märzen. I think our Festbier is lighter in color, a bit more bitter, and lower in ABV than most Märzen-Oktoberfest beers. Guidelines from the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) and North American Beer Awards (NABA) support these general comparisons, while the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) guidelines indicate that a Vienna lager is darker than a Märzen.

While Vienna is a “style” of amber-colored lager bier, Märzen is technically not a “style,” but rather a brewing method by which the bier is brewed in March (Maerz) with a higher ABV than a normal version of the bier in order to preserve it while being stored during the summer.

Why? Bavarians traditionally did not brew bier during the hot summer season for fear of infection from heat-loving, beer-spoiling bacteria.

Brews had to stop by the end of April (April 23 – St. George’s Day) and could not commence again until the end of September (September 29, St. Michael’s Day).  So, Märzen bier was traditionally brewed in March, and the brewers wanted their barrels emptied by the end of of September, often at the Oktoberfest celebration, so they could refill them with the new bier brewed in the fall. We brewed our Festbier in late June/early July, not March, so it is not produced by the “Märzen method” of brewing.

In the mid-1800s, brewers Anton Dreher in Vienna and Gabriel Siedelmayer (Spaten) in Munich were friends. They both helped to promote lager brewing methods, and Dreher is credited with popularizing an amber “Vienna” lager that was darker than Pils but lighter than Dunkel. Dreher’s amber lager also became a popular style for Munich brewers, and a style they found well-suited for production by the “Märzen-Method” of brewing.

Dreher and Siedelmayer also both pioneered the use of artificial refrigeration in brewing, which led to better microbial stability of the bier. This also probably led to the lowering of ABV with the Vienna-style bier, while the Märzen tradition of brewing seems to have influenced the retention of the higher ABV bier in Munich-style Märzen.

BJCP explains the differences in Vienna lager versus Märzen-Oktoberfest as follows:

Style Comparison: Vienna has a lighter malt character, slightly less body, and is slightly more bitter in the balance than a Märzen, yet with many of the same malt-derived flavors. The malt character is similar to a Märzen, but less intense and more balanced. Lower in alcohol than Märzen or Festbier (Export Helles/Wies’n bier). Less rich, less malty and less hop-centered compared to Czech Amber Lager. 

Part of the confusion surrounding what is an “Oktoberfest” bier is that the original rich amber/brown Märzen lager style is no longer served in Munich at the official Oktoberfest. It has been replaced by a pale Export Helles/Wies’n lager that is a higher alcohol version of the common Helles Lager. The Munich breweries serve a +/-6% pale lager at Oktoberfest and send a dark amber traditional Märzen lager to the U.S. The BJCP explains the evolution of Oktoberfest bier as follows in their description of “Festbier/Wies’n Bier.”

History: Since 1990, the majority of beer served at Oktoberfest in Munich has been this style (i.e., 6% golden lager). Export beer specifically made for the United States is still mainly of the traditional amber style, as are US-produced interpretations. Paulaner first created the golden version in the mid-1970s because they thought the traditional Oktoberfest was too filling. So they developed a lighter, more drinkable but still malty version that they wanted to be “more poundable” (according to the head brewer at Paulaner). But the actual type of beer served at Oktoberfest is set by a Munich city committee.

In conclusion, we first contemplated doing the Wies’n bier style by making a 6% golden Export Helles Lager, but we thought it would be too similar to our existing Helles, and that Americans familiar with dark amber Oktoberfest bier would not see the authenticity. We brew a 6.25% ABV Maibock with a rich amber color, and we did not want to make our Festbier too much like it. So, we made a bier that fit midway between Helles and Maibock that still qualified as a bier style for Oktoberfest.

Now, next time you enjoy a Festbier, you can enlighten your friends with some serious bier nerd knowledge and appreciate all the extra thought that we put into making this bier. Prost!

Steve Holle, The Bier Nerd
Founder & Managing Owner, KC Bier Co.