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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Vienna malt is ... (steve alexander)


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Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:10:27 -0400
From: steve alexander <steve-alexander at roadrunner.com>
Subject: Vienna malt is ...


> From: donniestyle at directlink.net
> Subject: Re: A few replies
>
>   
>> Subject: Too sweet? [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
>> I haven't used Vienna before so am I making an excessively sweet
>> wort if I add crystal?
>>     
>
> Vienna is a more highly kilned malt.  It is dry when kilned.  It is
> fermentable, like pils or pale malt.  Munich malt is damp when kilned, and
> is slightly sweeter, but it doesn't make excessively sweet beers either. 
>   
Yes, agreed, a good start, but ...

Vienna malt is nominally "highly kilned", but a lot less than Munich or 
most UK PA malts.  "High kilned" refers to the finishing/curing 
temperature.  Traditional UK malts are high kilned and finished at 
90-100C, while traditional pils malts as low as 60C and lager malts 
~75C.   I have severe doubts that these figures apply to any modern malts.

Gabriel Sedlmeyr Sr bought the (then) small  Spaten brewery in Munich in 
1807.  His son, Gabriel Jr traveled widely, as far afield as Britain, 
Austria, Switzerland, and Bohemia studying malting and mashing and 
eventually he and his brother Josef took over Spaten ~1838, introducing 
many technical advancements.   Gab.Jr  had developed a friendship with 
Anton Dreher of Vienna during his travels.  Anton,  after great 
difficulty, took over the family brewery and introduced the "bright" 
(meaning clear and not not very dark) beer using the "new" lager process 
(circa 1840).  This was unusual as almost all previous lagers were dark 
dunkel style.  Anton became wealthy and eventually bought the castle 
brewery 'Michelob' in Bohemia (producing yet lighter lagers).

Gab.Jr's brother Josef, operating Franziskaner at the time, apparently 
introduced a variant of the Vienna style lagers to Bavaria as the 1872 
marzenbier, using what has become known as Munich Malt (or "durch 
malz/dark malt" in Germany).

Historic records of Anton Dreher's malt and beer color are 
controversial, but certainly is was a lighter version of the Munich 
"durch malz", which is better documented.   Probably the vienna malting 
process was less changed from the conventional method, but certainly 
there were changed to  kilning.  What we call Vienna and Munich malt are 
cousins, the Munich style is a bit darker and certainly more converted 
by the maltster and more Maillard products from the kiln.

To understand the kilning we must recall that all conventional malts 
have been chitted sufficient to develop some hydrolytic enzymes.  There 
are two main phases to the kilning, a drying phase and a roasting 
phase.   Note that in the absence of water the hydrolytic enzymes cannot 
act, but many are instead protected from denaturing by substrate 
stabilization.  So the enzymes may act (tho' the amount of water is 
quite low) during drying, and in the roasting phase there is little or 
effectively no creation of sugars and simple amino acids.  At the same 
time we have Maillard reactions that also require water and simple 
sugars and simple amino compounds peaking around 95C-125C, giving way to 
less flavor positive reactions of browning at higher temps. 
Caramelization (NOT a Maillard reaction) only requires sugars but the 
process is enhanced in the presence of amino acids or even nitrogen 
salts this happens around 150-180C.  Carbonization occurs at a slightly 
higher temp (~175-210C) and applies to sugars and starch as well.

The maillard reactions give all sorts of terrific "malty" aromas and 
perhaps some modest sweet & bitter flavors.  Of course the simple sugars 
that appear after malt saccharification are sweet, but the yeast consume 
all of these;  dextrins simply aren't sweet, or at least not sweet 
enough to matter.   The sweetness that persists from malt into beer is 
primarily due to caramel.

As a side-trip, caramel/crystal malt is made by adding an additional 
first kilning phase where the rather wet malt is held at 60-80C for 60 
to 90 minutes while moisture is trapped to accomplish a lot of 
saccharification.  This produces a lot of free simple sugars, 
essentially complete conversion of starch.  The malt is then caramelized 
& dried at 150-180C for variable amounts of time based on the desired 
color with considerably caramel formation and some Maillard formation.  
Charry roast malts and roast barley are routinely kilned to around 200C.

Munich is somewhat overmodified and begins with high protein malt.  
There is a long moist-hot initial drying (as long as 24 hrs ~60C) that 
certainly produces sugars, but the chitting and initial kilning is 
geared toward a high amino content.   Munich finished with a 100C-105C 
curing which is certainly high-kilned.  Color 15-25EBC.  The point is to 
encourage Maillard product and not to create much caramel, tho' a little 
must exist.

Vienna is conventionally modified, and is cured at a 90C, so it is 
barely high-kilned.  Color ~6EBC.  The processing is roughly akin it 
conventional US (2-row) pale malt except the kilning is a bit stronger & 
longer. and the color & maillard products correspondingly higher.  There 
isn't enough saccharification +> caramelization to make a "sweet beer" 
from vienna malt, but it will have more Maillard product than a lesser 
kilned product, but not an overwhelming amount.

Oddly in recent decades the traditional Octoberfest and Marzen bier have 
decreased in color or else competing light colored festbiers 
introduced.    The Vienna style is almost lost to Europe, but various 
authors suggest modern examples, and even the BJCP guidelines aren't 
terribly close to the original (perhaps less red color and less aroma in 
the original).

 -S




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