Anyone familiar with Grodziskie (Grätzer Bier)?

[Brewtopia]

This style sounds very intriguing to me. I may try and brew it if I can locate a recipe. Has anyone here tried a commercial example? Looks like it hasn't been brewed in a while but may be making a comeback.

Brewed in the now Polish town of Grodzisk (Grätz in German) , this smoked wheat beer is one of the brewing world's most recent style extinctions. The last Grodziskie was brewed in the mid-1990s. Though I've heard a rumour that production is about to restart. It's another of my obsessions. You can read more about Grätzer/Grodziskie here.


"Grätzer Bier, a rough, bitter beer, brewed from 100% wheat malt with an intense smoke and hop flavour. The green malt undergoes smoking during virtually the whole drying process, is highly dried and has a strong aroma in addition to the smoked flavour. An infusion mash is employed. Hopping rate: for 1 Zentner (100 kg) of malt, 3 kg hops. Gravity just 7º [Balling]. Fermentation is carried out in tuns at a temperature of 15 to 20º C. Since the beer in the tun, as a result of the expulsion of great quantities protein and resin, doesn't break, it is mixed with isinglass and pumped into barrels. After two or three days it is completely clear and ready to be filled into delivery casks or bottles with the addition of 2 to 5% Krausen."
“Bierbrauerei" by M. Krandauer, 1914, page 301.

According to this description, Grätzer had an unusual combination of 100%, very smoky wheat malt and heavy hopping. The gravity - approximately 1028º - was very low by modern standards, but fairly typical of German top-fermenting styles of the period.

 

[Ryan_PA]

Man that sounds good.

 

[zoebisch01]

Wow, interesting. Ya know the more I think about it, the more I think I'd like smoked type beers because I love Lapsang Souchong.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Sounds like a good experiment! I would:
1. buy the appropriate amount of wheat malt
2. home smoke the malts with a fruit wood from that area (chessnut? find what they use)
3. scale the hops suggested in the article and choose an appropriate hop
4. brew away and see what you get!

Home smoking is easy, run a google search for smoking malts and byo. They had a very good article on it.

Good luck! Keep us updated!

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

free smoker made out of an old window screen.

 

[Iordz]

I have brewed one, although I have never had a comercial version. I used 100% smoked wheat malt. It turned out very smoky, and I like smoked beer, but it did mellow out after a couple of months. I smoked the grains over oak and alder. I got the idea from Randy Mosher's, Radical Brewing.

 

[Brewtopia]

Would 100% Weyermann Smoked Malt be appropriate? I can accomplish quite a bit in my little condo but I don't have any way to smoke this much grain.

 

[Ryan_PA]

The wyermann is basic 2 row, I would see abount finding that guy in CA that custom smokes grain at his LHBS, and see if you can get the wheat malt per style.

 

[Iordz]

I would say that the wheat is crucial, like Ryan said, Weyermann is smoked Pilsener malt. I did a 3 gallon batch because I wasn't sure whether I would like it and I didn't want to smoke that much malt.

 

[cubbies]

100% Wheat malt? Does wheat have enough diastatic power to convert it's own starches?

 

[Ryan_PA]

The wyermann is basic 2 row, I would see about finding that guy in CA that custom smokes grain at his LHBS, and see if you can get the wheat malt per style.

This is the LHBS I was referring to: http://www.folsombrewmeister.com/servlet/StoreFront He does not list smoked wheat, but I believe he will do any smoking you requst, however, it looks a little expensive. If I had the wheat and the time I would smoke some up for you, but alas, I have neither.

 

[RoaringBrewer]

Holy crap - 1kg = 2.21lb

Thus:

100kg = 221lb grain, with 3kg = 6.61lb hops (or 106oz. of hops)

106oz. hops / 221lb. grain = .49oz of hops per pound of grain

I'm not going to do the gravity conversion, but if you use 10lb grain, that's 5oz. of hops. Do you know if they are all bittering hops or spread out? I can't imaging they would all be bittering... It's like a smoked wheat IPA or something. Haha...

Beer sounds weird, but I'm intrigued as well. I read about the DIY smoker on BYO too. Sounds interesting...

 

[McKBrew]

Depending on the logistics, I could potentially do the smoking for you Brewtopia. I have a large gas smoker.

 

[Brewtopia]

Originally posted by Ryan_PA
The wyermann is basic 2 row, I would see abount finding that guy in CA that custom smokes grain at his LHBS, and see if you can get the wheat malt per style.

Yeah, I realized that right after I hit the submit reply button.

Originally posted by McKBrew
Depending on the logistics, I could potentially do the smoking for you Brewtopia. I have a large gas smoker.

Hmmm, that sounds like a pretty good plan. I'm going to research this a bit more and when I'm ready to move forward with a recipe, I'll touch base with you and see what we can work out.

 

[MarsColonist]

::cast undead thread revival::

Im doing one of these tomorrow.
Stan Heironymous's "Brewing with Wheat" book has a recipe in the back.
I cold smoked 5# of Canadian white wheat with white oak for about 2 hours; super smoky. Rice hulls are your friend with 100% wheat.
Protein rest (122°F) for 30 minutes, then sacc rest @ 150°F for 90 [HERMS].
90 minutes boil ; .75oz of 8%AA Northern Brewer (FWH), and .75oz 3%AA Hallertau@15.
About 32 IBU for a 1028 beer (IBU/SG:1.1)
WLP011 European Ale @ 70°F (I wouldnt normally go this high)
Fine with gelatin, keg.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I brewed one and put the instructions in the recipe in the wheat section.

Although apparently breweries in Poland did a smoked barley malt/wheat malt combination it seems the traditional path was 100% smoked wheat malt, but since there aren't any maltsters (that I know of) doing smoked wheat malt it would definitely be cheaper for those breweries to use what was available (smoked barley malt) and cut it with wheat.

I would encourage you to try going 100% wheat and smoking it yourself if you can.