Ayinger Jahrhundert-Bier? Any Ideas

I'm more of an ale drinker than lagers, but I absolutely love this beer. I've looked everywhere online and can't find an all grain clone. If anyone has ideas or experience with this recipe, I'm all ears. For those of you who haven't tried this beer, I recommend you go out and get one today. It's a light lager with golden hues, bready cereal malt notes with mild earthy floral hop aroma. Very little hop bitterness, just enough to balance the malt profile.

Hi Robert -

I'd like to resurrect this thread. I've recently discovered this beer and I'm with you - I think it's fantastic. I was lucky enough to enjoy some in Munich at the Ayinger Wirsthaus and was so happy to find that it's usually available here in southern CA. It's got that certain balance that neither a Helles or a Pilsner has for me that takes it from a 1L beer to a 3L beer. I'm hoping for some advice from you or anyone else on a clone or inspired-by type recipe for this beer. Did you end up brewing something? Was it successful? Would you change anything to make it more like the Ayinger beer?

Based on my very limited German-style beer brewing experience, I would guess that this starts somewhere in the 1.050-1.052 range using mostly german pilsner and 5-10% munich malt. Hop it with about 25 IBUs coming from Hallertau (the vast majority coming from a beginning-of-the-boil addition), and ferment with WLP833.

Any thoughts or advice?

Thats their dortmunder export style of beer. Ive never tried to brew it, but id start there. Quality and pils and 10% munich 1 is where id start. And hop with mittlefrau or similar. Probably around 1.055. Use gypsum over calcium chloride to hit mash ph.

Ayinger's yeast strain is available as wlp833. It is my favorite lager strain.

Still haven't gotten around to brewing a clone attempt for this beer. Felt that I should probably get some general practice brewing lagers before I endeavor to disappoint myself with an attempt on this beer.

While "practicing", I discovered this comparison:


The left is a pils I made with 100% Weyermann Pilsner Malt. Looks like there isn't a ton of character malt in the Jahrhundert - the color is a near perfect match. When I go for this one I'll keep it simple with 100% pilsner malt, Hallertau, and WLP833.

Will report back when I've brewed an attempt.

One thing to keep in mind is that Ayinger is likely getting near 100% efficiency, and they're probably also endosperm mashing Jahrhundert. These two factors combined are going to decrease the color of the beer by ~0.5 SRM. I believe that there is more than just pils malt in there - probably 2 to 3% German light crystal malt.

dfhar - thanks! That's a great point - I was JUST thinking about that last night. If I'm only getting 68-70% efficiency I have to use quite a bit more grain just to reach gravity which contributes significantly to the color on ultra pale beers.

Hypothetically comparing a 100% pils base at my 70% efficiency versus a blend of pils and light munich at 100% efficiency it looks like you'd have to be slightly over 20% light munich to reach the same color I'm getting (by calculation).

I wouldn't use Munich in jahrhundert. Contrary to what the home brew recipes say the Germans don't use Munich in light colored beers. Try a very small amount of (German) caramel malt, and don't get caught up in matching the color.

Sorry - I should have mentioned that I'm not saying that 20% light munich makes a good recipe for Jahrhundert, it was just an illustration of how much more character malt you can cram into a beer at 100% efficiency without it darkening significantly.

I will certainly try your previous suggestion of pils with a small proportion of crystal when I attack this beer.

Sounds good - don't forget to use German crystal eg caramunich, carahell from a German maltster like Weyermann.

Hey guys,

I'm happy to see this thread going again. I haven't home brewed in a while, but I have been brewing professionally for about 4 years now and taken some courses through Siebel. This is a tricky beer for sure, because it's so simple, but very hard to recreate exactly. I would definitely stay away from the crystal malt. Color in this beer comes from an extended boil (at least 90 minutes). Also, Ayinger is definitely doing a decoction mash schedule, so it's going to pick up a bit of color from that too. I'd stick with 100% Weyermann pils for the grain bill. If you have the ability to step mash go with protein, beta, alpha rests. Boil from 90-100 minutes, hopping at 60 and lightly at flameout (or even the whirlpool if you want to play around). This beer is super clean so ferment the WLP833 at 50* for primary and give it a nice 2 day diacetyl rest at 56* before slowly dropping to your lagering temp (5*/day). One thing I've picked up is slightly over or under pitching to accentuate certain traits. Not so much that it stresses the yeast or makes it lazy, but allows you to get more ester or phenol depending on what you're looking for. Mind you, I haven't tried to clone this yet so I could just be talking out of my ass, but let me know how this comes out. Happy brewing!

robertwcelliott said:

I would definitely stay away from the crystal malt.

Mind you, I haven't tried to clone this yet so I could just be talking out of my ass

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Actually try it with 2-3% carahell before you poo-poo it

Look at the grists detailed in this presentation:
http://www.ahaconference.org/wp-content/uploads/presentations/2008/SteveHolle_GermanBrewing.pdf

If you can find them (and read German) look up Ludwig Narziss' textbooks and read his recipes. Just about every single one of them calls for small amounts of caramalt.

Real German beers almost always use a little caramalt

ABV 5.5%, OG 12.8 Plato so it's OG 1.052 and FG 1.010. I have tasted it a couple of times and I like it, too. Unfortunately I don't have the temp controls to brew lagers at the moment. Being a Dortmunder it could be even 100% pilsner malt but you could add a little bit of Münich malt as well. Yeast (probably Ayinger lager yeast mentioned above) and water will be important, hard water with lots of calcium, sulphate, carbonate and chloride. More sulphate than chloride, though. Balanced German/Czech hops that are used in moderation because the water profile will accentuate the hops and they should not be too pronounced.