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We
all know about yeast, - it's in the air,- it causes fallen fruit to ferment, it
causes bread dough to rise, and it produces alcohol from the fermentation
process. Natural yeast (in the air), is known as "Wild Yeast," and it is
totally uncontrolled. As a matter of fact, before yeast was biologically
"discovered," the beer was left in open vats to ferment, and because this
critical, yet unknown element, yeast, appeared on the surface of the beer as it
was fermenting, the British brewers simply called it "God is Good," and brewed
happily on. Yeast, the vital ingredient to the fermentation of beer and the
rising of bread had been a baffling and elusive ingredient for many centuries.
It is a living organism, and acts to convert the natural sugars in the brew
into alcohol, a biological transformation of the sugar, thus producing alcohol.
Although to-day it is understood and fairly well controlled, cultivated,
guarded, and carefully preserved, it still has the potential to undermine the
brewing of any given batch of beer, even though the yeast is raised under
laboratory conditions. In past centuries the beer sometimes went sour,
especially in the warmth of the summer days, and the Swiss blamed "beer
witches" for the phenomenon. The brewers in the Alps (Bavaria, Austria, and
Switzerland) found that if they could store their beer in caves, preferably
packed in natural ice, it would age slower, but would not go sour, and with
this process, the beer did not have to be carefully skimmed off the top,
avoiding the sediment on the bottom. This information was firstly documented in
writings preserved in the Munich archives, dating from 1420. The particular
strain of yeast, as the particular type of barley and hops, as well as the
water, all act to influence the flavor of the beer. Top-fermented beers such as
Weizenbier and Ales use a weaker type of yeast strain, not strong enough to
swim to the bottom of the barrel, influencing the flavor. Weizenbier also has
the additional flavoring of the wheat in the malt, unique to this type of beer,
and is one of the most difficult beers to brew since it produces a very
volatile brew. Before the Second World War, the Germans were elated with the
clear form of Weizenbier, the beer with the yeast filtered out. They called it
"Crystal clear," as the mountain streams, or "Champagne Gold," referring both
to the clarity as well as the sparkling quality of the beer. To-day the
affluent Germans have realized that this modern filtering process has
eliminated many of the original, natural qualities from the beer, and have
reverted to the traditional form, the Weizenbier with the yeast remaining in
the beer, and in the bottle. Some breweries even add an additional unit of
yeast in each bottle, producing a secondary fermentation to the extent that one
may find a huge "gob" of yeast in the bottom of the bottle, definitely not
unhealthy, although initially also not attractive. A few years ago, a shipment
of Edelweiss Hefetrüb (with the yeast in the bottle) was stopped at the Italian
border, and the customs officials refused its entry into Italy because of its
cloudiness; they determined that it was "bad" beer. By the same token , many
Americans are hesitant to drink this yeasty beer, not willing to taste it, try
it, and enjoy the full body and flavor of an Edelweiss Hefetrüb, or Edelweiss
Dunkel. Well, there's still the Edelweiss Kristallklar (crystal clear with the
yeast filtered out), the modern, yet now out-dated version for an authentic
Edelweiss.
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