Hi from Stuttgart Germany!

[tripelthelightfantastic]

Hi all, long time reader and now (hopefully) active threader
I started brewing 15 years ago, took a 10 year break and have started up again in the last few years here in Germany.
This forum has given me a lot of really great info to help brew Belgian styles and IPAs, so thanks a lot and looking forward to new conversations on the best hobby ever!


Cheers,
Damon

 

[soccerdad]

Hello Damon -
Meine Großmutter wurde in Rudersberg geboren.
I was 15 when she died and pretty much stopped speaking German then .. 55 years ago.
When she came to the US she met my Bavarian grandfather who worked for many years as a cooper. He made beer barrels
Welcome.

 

[tripelthelightfantastic]

thanks soccerdad, glad to be here
although my German isnt great (I´m orginally from Australia) wir können auf Deutsch sprechen auf jedem Fall
Rudersberg isnt far from Stuttgart, have you been over this way recently (pre Covid)?

I guess you brew a few German style beers?

 

[Knightshade]

Hey…you jumped the lurker fence! Lots of knowledge to be spread and gained, but you already know that. (And I saw your other thread, nice work)

Welcome aboard, officially!

 

[hout17]

Welcome to the forum! You will not be disappointed great place with lots of great folks. A lot of knowledge to be had here.

 

[soccerdad]

thanks soccerdad, glad to be here
although my German isnt great (I´m orginally from Australia) wir können auf Deutsch sprechen auf jedem Fall
Rudersberg isnt far from Stuttgart, have you been over this way recently (pre Covid)?

I guess you brew a few German style beers?

I have yet to visit Stuttgart or Rudersberg. I hope to one day. I have made a few German, Czech, and Belgian beers. The beer history over there is fascinating.

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the group, from Colorado

I love a German style lager!

 

[2hennepin6]

Welcome. What are some great Stuttgart beers?

 

[tripelthelightfantastic]

This is a great pils from the black forest
https://www.rothaus.de/biere/tannenzaepfle
And an export/helles/Keller beer
https://stuttgarter-hofbraeu.de/produkte-geschmack/produkt-sortiment/buegelflaschen/
Found in every supermarket for under $20 per carton/box.

For that reason I don’t brew any German beers!

On the flip side, any APA is $$$ to buy here

 

[CUSTOM-441]

Welcome! I was born in Germany in the 80’s. Went back with my wife & parents for a visit in 2019. We spent a night in Stuttgart and went to the Canstatter Volksfest! Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Such amazing beer & people!

 

[bracconiere]

best hobby ever!

it's a lifestyle!

Welcome!

 

[tripelthelightfantastic]

Welcome! I was born in Germany in the 80’s. Went back with my wife & parents for a visit in 2019. We spent a night in Stuttgart and went to the Canstatter Volksfest! Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Such amazing beer & people!

Great time and place to visit in Stuttgart!!
It’s the only place you can tell your wife you’ll have only a few beers and actually mean it.

 

[tripelthelightfantastic]

it's a lifestyle!

That’s a great way to put it

 

[tripelthelightfantastic]

So for the ones with German background, is brewing German styles the majority of your brewing?

 

[Shenanigans]

Hi Damon.

Welcome on board.
I'm in a similar situation to you, English native speaker but from Ireland and living in Germany (near Düsseldorf).
I also don't bother brewing German style beers as they are easily accessible, reasonably fresh and inexpensive.
I don't think I could ever make a Pilsner as good as I can buy in the store for 50 euro cents for half a liter.
My contacts on a German brew forum say it's really worth while to brew a Weizen as it tastes best when drunk within a month of conditioning.
However I haven't gotten around to that yet.

I'm also only 15 mins from the Dutch border and the supermarkets there are full of Belgian beers at a reasonable price so I also only brew Belgian beers now and again.

So I mostly brew all the different types of IPAs, porters, stouts, barley wines and English ales.

Anyway I'm an active member of a German brewing forum and have been brewing here since 2013 so if you need any help/advice with sourcing ingredients/equipment or substituting with local ingredients let me know.

Paul

 

[Miraculix]

Hi Damon.

Welcome on board.
I'm in a similar situation to you, English native speaker but from Ireland and living in Germany (near Düsseldorf).
I also don't bother brewing German style beers as they are easily accessible, reasonably fresh and inexpensive.
I don't think I could ever make a Pilsner as good as I can buy in the store for 50 euro cents for half a liter.
My contacts on a German brew forum say it's really worth while to brew a Weizen as it tastes best when drunk within a month of conditioning.
However I haven't gotten around to that yet.

I'm also only 15 mins from the Dutch border and the supermarkets there are full of Belgian beers at a reasonable price so I also only brew Belgian beers now and again.

So I mostly brew all the different types of IPAs, porters, stouts, barley wines and English ales.

Anyway I'm an active member of a German brewing forum and have been brewing here since 2013 so if you need any help/advice with sourcing ingredients/equipment or substituting with local ingredients let me know.

Paul

Same for me, I think I didn't even once try to brew a classic German style, but hefeweizen is still on my list though.

I brew almost exclusively English styles plus APA's.

 

[tripelthelightfantastic]

Hi Damon.

Welcome on board.
I'm in a similar situation to you, English native speaker but from Ireland and living in Germany (near Düsseldorf).
I also don't bother brewing German style beers as they are easily accessible, reasonably fresh and inexpensive.
I don't think I could ever make a Pilsner as good as I can buy in the store for 50 euro cents for half a liter.
My contacts on a German brew forum say it's really worth while to brew a Weizen as it tastes best when drunk within a month of conditioning.
However I haven't gotten around to that yet.

I'm also only 15 mins from the Dutch border and the supermarkets there are full of Belgian beers at a reasonable price so I also only brew Belgian beers now and again.

So I mostly brew all the different types of IPAs, porters, stouts, barley wines and English ales.

Anyway I'm an active member of a German brewing forum and have been brewing here since 2013 so if you need any help/advice with sourcing ingredients/equipment or substituting with local ingredients let me know.

Paul

thanks Paul,
Düsseldorf is a nice place, we go there every year so my wife can stock up on Japanese groceries and its easy to cross the border to Belgium/Netherlands for the beer factor - everyone is happy
I´m currently buying everything from Braumarkt as they have great prices and service but often things are out of stock, so am looking at Brouwland as a replacement. Hobbybrauerversand is a little more expensive....
Do you know of any other good shops?

Have you had much luck culturing yeast from local EU beers?

 

[Shenanigans]

thanks Paul,
Düsseldorf is a nice place, we go there every year so my wife can stock up on Japanese groceries and its easy to cross the border to Belgium/Netherlands for the beer factor - everyone is happy
I´m currently buying everything from Braumarkt as they have great prices and service but often things are out of stock, so am looking at Brouwland as a replacement. Hobbybrauerversand is a little more expensive....
Do you know of any other good shops?

Have you had much luck culturing yeast from local EU beers?

Hi Damon,

There's a wiki site that the brew forum put together of beers that they managed to culture the yeast from and some that didn't work either because they are pasteurized or use a different bottling yeast to the fermenting yeast.
Mostly German and Belgian but some international ones in there too.

https://hobbybrauer.de/forum/wiki/doku.php/hefestripping
The only ones I have done myself were Bolton Uhr Alt and Schneider Weizen.
They were easy and have a load of original yeast in the bottle especially Schneider.

As for online shops, I find there is no one-stop shop that beats them all.
Braumarkt and Brouwland are where I have been shopping lately too but really depends on what you are wanting to buy.
You can't beat Brouwland prices for some of Halltauer Hops, 2 euro for 100 grams or 16 euro for a kilo.
Amihopfen is another one with a wide range of products with not the cheapest but OK prices.

There are other shops that offer better prices on more exotic hops, especially if you buy in bulk.

It's really worth shopping around as the prices vary a lot.

This site here makes it possible to check the prices on about 25 different shops related to brewing including Pinta in Italy and others around Europe.
Which works out cheaper than German shops if you make a bigger order.
https://brauen.online/zutatensuche/
The search doesn't work perfectly for all shops but at least it's a list of other shops that you can check their websites.
Resch hops has a good selection of hops at decent prices and free shipping on orders over 30 euro.
They also have weyermann malts and some dry yeasts and DME.

My last order was actually from Ireland, the Homebrew Company.
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie

They had some hops, British and American malts (Honey Malt, Naked Golden oats) cheaper than or that I couldn't get from the German shops.
Plus the bulk hops (Kg) prices are good and they often have a 10% discount.
So the savings more than covered the extra shipping costs.
Just make sure you register on the .ie and not the .co.uk website or else they will charge you British sterling instead of euros.

 

[Shenanigans]

Same for me, I think I didn't even once try to brew a classic German style, but hefeweizen is still on my list though.

I brew almost exclusively English styles plus APA's.

I also still have to try a Gose it's a classic style but not so easy to find a commercial example.
So it's on my list for next Spring to do few days kettle sour with SourPitch boil and then ferment with K97.

I might give a Schneider Hopfenweisse a go too; not so traditional but a tasty German wheat IPA.
I need to use up the 250 grams of Saphir getting old in my freezer and reanimate the yeast I cultivated from Schneider Tap 7

 

[Miraculix]

I also still have to try a Gose it's a classic style but not so easy to find a commercial example.
So it's on my list for next Spring to do few days kettle sour with SourPitch boil and then ferment with K97.

I might give a Schneider Hopfenweisse a go too; not so traditional but a tasty German wheat IPA.
I need to use up the 250 grams of Saphir getting old in my freezer and reanimate the yeast I cultivated from Schneider Tap 7

Regarding the kettle sour, I'd try the following method instead:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/fast-souring-modern-methods.670176/
I'm not the biggest fan of gose, but it could also be done the same way.

 

[Shenanigans]

Regarding the kettle sour, I'd try the following method instead:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/fast-souring-modern-methods.670176/
I'm not the biggest fan of gose, but it could also be done the same way.

Might be worth a try, I just need to figure out how to reliably get to about 15 IBUs without a traditional boil after the souring.
I'm sure it's explained in detail somewhere in that 19 pages

sorry for going

 

[Miraculix]

Might be worth a try, I just need to figure out how to reliably get to about 15 IBUs without a traditional boil after the souring.
I'm sure it's explained in detail somewhere in that 19 pages

sorry for going

Easy hop tea in plain water. Account for that when choosing the og of your wort, as you will dilute the wort slightly with the tea. You can solve enough ibus in about 2-3l of plain water to make a 20litre batch almost undrinkable (don't ask how I know....).

 

[tripelthelightfantastic]

Hi Damon,

There's a wiki site that the brew forum put together of beers that they managed to culture the yeast from and some that didn't work either because they are pasteurized or use a different bottling yeast to the fermenting yeast.
Mostly German and Belgian but some international ones in there too.

https://hobbybrauer.de/forum/wiki/doku.php/hefestripping
The only ones I have done myself were Bolton Uhr Alt and Schneider Weizen.
They were easy and have a load of original yeast in the bottle especially Schneider.

As for online shops, I find there is no one-stop shop that beats them all.
Braumarkt and Brouwland are where I have been shopping lately too but really depends on what you are wanting to buy.
You can't beat Brouwland prices for some of Halltauer Hops, 2 euro for 100 grams or 16 euro for a kilo.
Amihopfen is another one with a wide range of products with not the cheapest but OK prices.

There are other shops that offer better prices on more exotic hops, especially if you buy in bulk.

It's really worth shopping around as the prices vary a lot.

This site here makes it possible to check the prices on about 25 different shops related to brewing including Pinta in Italy and others around Europe.
Which works out cheaper than German shops if you make a bigger order.
https://brauen.online/zutatensuche/
The search doesn't work perfectly for all shops but at least it's a list of other shops that you can check their websites.
Resch hops has a good selection of hops at decent prices and free shipping on orders over 30 euro.
They also have weyermann malts and some dry yeasts and DME.

My last order was actually from Ireland, the Homebrew Company.
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie

They had some hops, British and American malts (Honey Malt, Naked Golden oats) cheaper than or that I couldn't get from the German shops.
Plus the bulk hops (Kg) prices are good and they often have a 10% discount.
So the savings more than covered the extra shipping costs.
Just make sure you register on the .ie and not the .co.uk website or else they will charge you British sterling instead of euros.

thats awesome - thanks Paul!