Jubiläums Mölmsch

Jubiläums Mölmsch is a very dark variety of a German Ale, very malty character with loads of noble hops in the finish and medium alcohol content, about 5% abv. This is a beer that was brewed at the last remaining brewery of my home town, Mülheim/Ruhr. It was kind of a unique beer, as this brewery had specialized in German Ales, vs. main stream lager type Pilsener or Alt beers which are most commonly found in Germany. The style is very similar, at least with respect to the brewing process with "Kölsch" (hallmark beer style of Cologne, 50km to the south). The difference was that those beers brewed at Mölmsch brewery were darker, and also were using an abundance of noble hops, quite ahead of their time. Sadly, the brewery closed in 1991, and with it a long standing tradition in my home town. Fast forward a couple of years ago: 2 young guys from Mülheim restarted the brewery and re-created some of the recipes. It is now brewed under commission in Hagen, a town close by, under the same brand name, Mölmsch. They haven't gotten to this variety yet in their repertoire, so here is my version of creating this "vollmundig" classic!  

BREW DATE: 05-30-2015

BOTTLING DATE: 

GRAIN BILL: 12lbs total

-4lbs Rahr Brewers Malt

-2lbs Bohemian Dark Malt

-2lbs Franco-Belges Vienna Malt
-1lb Weyermann Caramunich I Malt
-1lb Franco-Belges Kiln Coffee Malt 

MASH-IN: 1 hr at 158F, no mash-out. Fly sparked with 175F water. I wanted to experiment with the mash out, having it sit at a slightly  higher mash temp and forgo the mash-out to avoid getting tannins. But as you see below, it really makes a difference in OG. Even though I had 12lbs of malt I only got enough sugars extracted to get 16l of beer, usually that should be 23l at a good alcohol content. Lesson learned: 153F mash temperature for 60min with 10min 175F high temp mash out is the way to get those sugars rolling.

HOP SCHEDULE:

-60min 1oz German Perle

-30min 1oz German Tettnang

-5min 1oz Czech Saaz

OG: 11.2 brix for 13l wort filled up to 16l => alcohol content should come out at 4.8%.

YEAST: Wyeast 1007 German Ale

TASTE NOTES: Not too bad, but also not quite on the spot for the beer I was trying to brew. A little bit too heavy on the dark malts, also too much hops. Next time probably will take out the coffee malt and the Perle hops. 

Jubiläums Mölmsch!