Berliner Braunbier

Berliner Braunbier is a top-fermented, bottle conditioned wheat beer made with both traditional warm-fermenting yeasts and Lactobacillus culture. This beer is similar to Berliner Weissbier, but dark and sweet.

The origins of Berliner Braunbier are unclear, but it dates back to at least the 18th century, and probably much further. In the early 19th century brewers used a special type of barley malt, dried with a heat so intense that the corns were scorched brown to their core. It produced an equally intense color and beer brewed from it could be heavily watered without becoming noticeably paler.

“Braunbier represents an inexpensive thirst-quenching household drink, which in summer has a good market. It represents the last vestige of the widespread practice in centuries past of home brewing, where the individual household manufactures its beer itself.” “Die Herstellung obergäriger Bier und die Malzbrauerei Groterjan AG in Berlin”, by A Dörfel, 1947, page 13.

Recipe Suggestion

Daft Eejit came up with the following suggestion:

OG 15-16 °P (1.061-1.065)
96-97 % dark malt (e.g. Munich malt)
3-4 % black malt
Any German noble hop variety, with a hopping rate of e.g. 1.4 g/l, 4.4 g/l or 11 g/l.
Dough in malt with hot water into a very thick mash at 61 °C, then rest for 30 minutes. Add boiling water while stirring to raise temperature to 76 °C, then rest 120 minutes. When lautering, add another 9 liters of boiling water. Boil for 90 minutes, add all hops at the beginning of the boil. Ferment with a top-fermenting yeast strain at 23 °C.

Another quote from Daft Eejit: "The Braunbier itself was brewed from a high-dried malt, some sources even claim it was four-row barley malt. Because of relatively simple smoke kilns at that time, the malt was smokey, but the malt was left to mature for several months in order to lose some of that smokiness. The resulting beer was described as very dark, and hopped differently, at rates ranging from 1.4 g/l to 11 g/l."

BeerAdvocate states the following: This was the 1930s grist of the Braunbier from Groterjan, a specialist top-fermenting brewery in Berlin:

Munich malt 50%
Pale malt 20%
Caramelmalz (crystal malt) 19%
Farbmalz (a type of black malt) 6%

Commercial Examples

Braunbier is rarely made commercially, but some brewers brew or have brewed this style:

Freigeist Bierkultur, Germany
- Berliner Scheisse Wildstrawberry
- Plastic Jug Band
Steel City Brewing, England (the ABV for these beers would historically be too high)
- Mein Herz Brennt
- Reise Reise
- Blitzkriek
Plague Brew, Russia
- Wandlitz
Brouwerij Het Veem, Netherlands
- Rusty Pretzel

External History Resources

Book: Historic German and Austrian Beers for the Home Brewer