Aussie Brewer Disputes German Beer Law?

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Good old Chuck another self promoter, really what did you expect him to say ?Its all about the bottom line.I can make watery thin beers with out sugar.
GB

 

[Adamt]

The only reason a decent proportion of the general population know about the "Purity Law" is because it's used as a wanky marketing gimmick for Beck's.

Chuck made a mess of his argument, but he's obviously trying to speak out against the completely and utterly redundant "law", that never applied to Australian beer, to play on national pride and sell more beer.

 

[Handy]

Just stumbled on this little clip on American craft brewers vs the big guys, seemed a bit apt here:

http://vimeo.com/4298464

 

[Bribie G]

I eat maybe two slices of bread every couple of days. I like a nice normal sandwich made with left over corned silverside or pork, salad, some pickles, some avocado... and the only bread that ever comes into this house is ALDI $1.05 white. I know the bakeries and hot bread shops are full of sourdough, rye, multigrain etc but personally I like the ALDI. Before that I used to pay three times as much for Wonder White, UP etc but I reckon the ALDI hits the spot for me perfectly.

Now imagine that all the UPs Wonder White, Tip Top etc - that undoubtedly occupy 90% of the bread market - were withdrawn from sale and the only bread available was dunkel rye hoffenbrot with sesame and poppy seed.... there would be huge outrage. I would suggest that VB, XXXX, West End etc are the ALDI white of the beer world and their recipe just echoes what the public have been used to for decades. Thank God that these beers...... which are actually fairly good by international standards.......became our main sellers. We could have ended up with a different style, like the awful 4% draughts put out by DB or Lion, or the nasty UK keg beers (Althought we would like to think otherwise, most beers sold in the UK are not TTL or Ruddles County etc, they are cans of god awful 3.5% lagers and so called bitters sold through Safeway or ASDA or weak nitrokeg, or fake Fosters 4%)

Worst of all, we could have ended up with Bud or Coors and this could have happened, considering the cross pacific brewing influences such as the Fosters Brothers and our fondness for USA hops such as Cluster shown by our breweries. I believe POR came from an American strain. Count our blessings!

Edit: just researched and found that apparently POR came from Pride of Kent. Floats my boat

 

[HoppingMad]

Dunno about bagging Chuck Hahn. I'm sure we've all had a malt shovel drink or two and their Porter is one of my faves at the moment. So yeah, I'll agree that some of what he's said is odd and not well thought out but can't bag a lot of his beers. He's done a lot for moving decent beer tastes and perceptions on beer forward in OZ. His food and beer sessions are also getting the average jo-bloh to appreciate that beer is more than just for swilling and raising it's profile to be more like wine - so I can't fault the guy for that either.

Thanks for clarifying my point on Coopers Pale versus Sparkling and the use of sugar Butters. Opinion was based on the number of recipes out there for Pale that use cane sugar so assumed it was part of process - even a book by Laurie Strahan I'd read. Regardless Sparkling use 5% as you've confirmed with your link and many of us here will admit to enjoying a Malt Shovel (20% sugar) or a Coopers Sparkling (5% sugar) or a Rochefort, Duvel or Chimay (off the dial sugar).

German Purity Law works for the Germans. Stupid amounts of sugar works for the Belgians. Brew any which way works for Aussies. I think one of the joys of Homebrewing is experimenting with your brews - and if sugar helps you with your taste/alcohol or other things you're trying to acheive with your bevvy then why not I say. Stick a turnip in your next brew for all I care - then again, maybe not! :lol:

Hopper.

 

[Darren]

I always found it amusing that the original purity laws did not include YEAST 8)

cheers

Darren

 

[buttersd70]

Butters, you seem to have a bee in your bonnet in regards to this CPA clone, I'm wondering why?
When I formulated the recipe it was based on the ingredients list from the white board photo and my mashing practises at the time, which was pretty much a single infusion rest and a short mash out.

You seem to forget that a clone recipe is not only about the ingredients but about producing a beer that ENDS up as close to the original as is possible, and using my system and mash schedule the addition of sugar (as Coopers once did) was essential in getting the attenuation required.
Home brew systems are totally different to the larger commercial systems and hence the results of the same recipe are different as I am sure you know, so a homebrewer has to "tweak" the original recipe to attain the same final results.

Having said all that if you read in the discussion thread for the CPA clone I have since experimented with a 4 step mash regime and salt additions to get the same result without using sugar. But I have to say it is a lot more involved and time consuming than going with the simple CPA with sugar recipe.
Sorry for the slight deviation off topic.

Andrew

No, Andrew, I don't have a bee in my bonnet about your clone recipe. In my post prior to the one quoted, I responded to the statement that coopers (not your clone, or any other clone, tribute beer, similar-ish beer, etc, but the Coopers Brewery themselves) use high level of adjunct. I wasn't thinking about the fact that you had a very popular clone recipe; I was thinking about Coopers.....the response to that came back as 'but the database recipe has it'....to which I replied that yes it does....but I was talking about coopers, not clones, and heres what coopers say they use. If anything, I was diverting back away from the clone, which was nothing to do with my earlier statement that Coopers use no sugar in the PA and a maximum of 5% in the sparkling.

Sorry for the OT

 

[reviled]

We could have ended up with a different style, like the awful 4% draughts put out by DB or Lion

Thanks for pointing that out mate <_<

 

[HoppingMad]

No, Andrew, I don't have a bee in my bonnet about your clone recipe. In my post prior to the one quoted, I responded to the statement that coopers (not your clone, or any other clone, tribute beer, similar-ish beer, etc, but the Coopers Brewery themselves) use high level of adjunct. I wasn't thinking about the fact that you had a very popular clone recipe; I was thinking about Coopers.....the response to that came back as 'but the database recipe has it'....to which I replied that yes it does....but I was talking about coopers, not clones, and heres what coopers say they use. If anything, I was diverting back away from the clone, which was nothing to do with my earlier statement that Coopers use no sugar in the PA and a maximum of 5% in the sparkling.

Sorry for the OT

Peace love and mung beans boys. B) Feeling bad for dragging Andrew into this - apologies fella, it's a great looking recipe and high on my to do list. And Butters, as usual your research is second to none and all points noted. Was using his recipe to illustrate the point that there are good beers (and recipes too by the looks of it!) that use sugar and a lot of us homebrewers like 'em.

Hopper.

 

[AndrewQLD]

Peace love and mung beans boys. B) Feeling bad for dragging Andrew into this - apologies fella, it's a great looking recipe and high on my to do list. And Butters, as usual your research is second to none and all points noted. Was using his recipe to illustrate the point that there are good beers (and recipes too by the looks of it!) that use sugar and a lot of us homebrewers like 'em.

Hopper.

No problems Hopper, perhaps my sensitivity knob needs turning down, it's just that I have seen similar comments on a couple of other threads and took more notice than I should.
No problems with Butters either.

Andrew

And I still think sugar has it's place in brewing. And I like Mung beans too.

Andrew

 

[Bribie G]

Thanks for pointing that out mate <_<

It's a constant source of amazement that NZ produces hops to die for (I have just had a sneaky taste of my Kiwi Blonde showcasing Green Bullet and NZ Cascade in a blonde maize ale :icon_drool2: ) and I wonder why the mainstream Kiwi brews are so bland, does it arise from a time when they had to import all their hops or is there a nanny society thing happening here - I believe that the Temperance movements were far more active in good old Protestant NZ. Porridge and John Knox. aye.

 

[KingPython]

Doesn't NZ make better craft beer than Australia..or something?

 

[Batz]

Hello homebrewers,


ahem....I forgot to say: I love XXXX Gold and Bitter, Queenslands No.1 beer rocks :super:

I don't mind XXXX either Zwickel, I drink it when I go to the hotel, Coopers Pale as well but I find that's a bit heavy and I soon get tired of it.

V.B. I'm afraid I can't drink, but then I never have liked it. Australian beers have there place,but I'm a 4th generation Australian so I perhaps that's why.
You are a German living in Germany, perhaps you like it because it's not a bad beer at all.

I think home brewers can get a little narrow minded in this country.

Ok off to hide under the bed.

Batz

 

[AndrewQLD]

I don't mind XXXX either Zwickel, I drink it when I go to the hotel, Coopers Pale as well but I find that's a bit heavy and I soon get tired of it.

V.B. I'm afraid I can't drink, but then I never have liked it. Australian beers have there place,but I'm a 4th generation Australian so I perhaps that's why.
You are a German living in Germany, perhaps you like it because it's not a bad beer at all.

I think home brewers can get a little narrow minded in this country.

Ok off to hide under the bed.

Batz

Ha Ha, Zwickel I missed your post. Sure your not just sucking up to us Qlders so you have a bed and a few brewdays next time your over :lol:

Have to agree though Batz, I've spent many a Sunday morning at the bowls club having a pot of Gold each end, and I'm talking 21 ends of Bowls here :huh: .

Andrew

 

[Zwickel]

howdy mates,

yes, you Aussies have a lot of good beers in your country, I wouldnt miss anything if I live there.

Just another few words to the purity law:

I think thats just a matter of marketing. There are so many good beers all over the world and if you want to get a bigger piece of the market cake, your beer has to be something special. The beer should be distinguishable to other beers, so hopefully you can satisfy a certain target group.
Thats all.

Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[Gulpa]

It's a constant source of amazement that NZ produces hops to die for (I have just had a sneaky taste of my Kiwi Blonde showcasing Green Bullet and NZ Cascade in a blonde maize ale :icon_drool2: ) and I wonder why the mainstream Kiwi brews are so bland, does it arise from a time when they had to import all their hops or is there a nanny society thing happening here - I believe that the Temperance movements were far more active in good old Protestant NZ. Porridge and John Knox. aye.

I think its just that mainstream brews everywhere are pretty bland. NZ craft beer is excellent and from what I have tasted makes good use of those hops.

cheers
andrew.

 

[brendanos]

I subscribe to the notion that the Reinheitsgebot was introduced during hard times to prevent wheat, an essential and limited foodstuff, from being used to make booze.

 

[barfridge]

Chuck Hahn a true ANZAC hero, taking down Germans one at a time h34r:

PoMo will be able to give more info, but apprently Chuck Hahn is on a crusade to turn tooheys new into a classic german pilsenser, bit by bit.

has anyone else heard of this ambition?

 

[Screwtop]

Dunno about bagging Chuck Hahn. I'm sure we've all had a malt shovel drink or two and their Porter is one of my faves at the moment. So yeah, I'll agree that some of what he's said is odd and not well thought out but can't bag a lot of his beers.

No disrespect to you quoting Chuck HM, and none to Chuck either for that matter either. It's all about marketing, did Chuck happen to mention that JS Porter is a lager :lol:

 

[HoppingMad]

No disrespect to you quoting Chuck HM, and none to Chuck either for that matter either. It's all about marketing, did Chuck happen to mention that JS Porter is a lager :lol:

Whoah, really, or am I missing a gag? What qualifies it as a lager? There's plenty of darker beers that use pils as a base malt - or are you saying lager yeast is used? Or have I completely missed something (which wouldn't be unusual :blink: )

Hopper.