Pabst

Speaking of Pabst brewing company:

Raw materials

The brewery produces, like most American companies, mainly so called adjunct beers, that is, such for which besides malt a greater or lower percentage of adjuncts, particularly corn or rice are used- in addition to this they also produce pure malt beers. The purchasing of the barley takes place almost entirely at the Exchange, where demand and supply much more than quality and provenance decides the price. Since large barley farms are rare, it is impossible for a large brewery under such circumstances, to get its supply from one state and they are therefor relying on barleys of varying provenance.

A system of scoring and valuating is of little importance due to the mostly inferior quality of the wares, and even then, if the farmer were to join in the efforts of the leading agricultural circles in lifting barley growing and improving the seeds, the nature of the barley trade would place some obstacles in the way of this in and of itself praiseworthy undertaking. The barleys which are malted in the Pabst brewery come from the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, Iowa, Montana, Washington and California. They encompass among them the by many highly regarded six rowed varieties of the middle states, as well as the (due to their lower protein content) somewhat discredited types of western origin. It is obvious, that the malting of these two, if one may say so, "sphere genera", cannot be run both over the same comb, and that even barleys from the same state often require very different processes."

Barley soaking vats in Pabst's Malthouse

The Pabst brewery has three kilns, which are placed next to one another, the two on the sides are used for drying the malt, the middle one for kilning the malt at higher temperatures. They are Töpferian Kipp kilns using direct heating. For fuel they use the best anthracite, the resulting fumes of which are almost odorless."

The temperatures are of course decided in accordance with the type of malt to be produced.

The malt is dried off at a temperature according to the type of malt, generally at 65 degrees reaumur.

The brewhouse.

The four story brewhouse is built in accordance with the gravitational system. The current brewhouse allows for both infusion and decoction beers of each type to be produced. With 3 vats, consisting of 2 adjunct vats and one malt mash vat on the third floor, 1 collecting vat and 6 lautertuns on the second floor and 6 brewing kettles on the first floor can 100 brews per week be produced comfortably. The brewing procedure is typically the following: the adjunct (quantity shifting) is with about 5% of the total malt grist (naturally also varying) by low temperatures mashed in. With direct steam it is brought to a boil and cooked for half an hour. In the meantime the malt is mashed in in the maltmash vat, hereupon the adjunct and maltmash is transported to the collection vat placed beneath, then pumped to the lautertuns and here it is mashed off. After half an hour's rest the lautering process is started and the wort is lead to the brewing kettle (below).

The sparging takes place with water of 60 degrees reaumur and the last of the run off is concentrated in a Yaryan condenser. The hop addition of ½-1 pound per barrel is added in three portions: the first after the kettle is full, the second in the middle of the boil and the last shortly before the wort is drawn off. It is boiled "auf bruch" and the boil time consists of circa 2 hours. The wort runs from the kettle to the hop strainer below and is transported by pumps to the wort collection vats which are located on the third floor. From here they fall down the five wort coolers (system of Theurer) which are placed in an adjacent room.

For further clarification it should also be mentioned that in the upper story 2 Seck-mills, 2 hop-shredding machines (system of Müller) and an airfilter is placed. Additionally apart from the already mentioned adjunct and malt mash vats various hot water vats as well as three wort collecting vats are placed below. In the second and third story, which form one room, are placed, along the northern wall, in half the hight, the collection and 6 lautertuns, and below those somewhat protruding, 6 brew kettles with 350 barrels capacity each.

The cellars

The wort which has been cooled to 5 degrees is lead from the cooler through pipes in a tunnel to the so called fermentation cellar. It is pumped to the 6th story and recieves the necessary quantity of pitching yeast along the way. When it arrives it stays in a pithcing vat which holds an entire brew until the start of the kräusen formation and after this it is transferred to the fermentation vessels below. They are these sealed, upright standing vats made from oak, spruce or redwood and lacquered. For cleaning and yeast removal purposes these same vessels are equipped with a manhole in the bottom. For observing the kräusen formation and the process of fermentation as well as for retrieving samples there is an opening at the top with an hermetically sealable glass pane.

The carbon dioxide formed through fermentation is, as soon as it is free of air, collected, washed and compressed and is later used for carbonating the beers from the ruh vats. After 10 days it is transferred and cooled via a countercurrent cooler to ½ degrees reaumur and put in ruh vats, 3 weeks later it is fined and stored until complete maturation in the upright wooden vats (image 4) of between 600 and 1400 barrels capacity at low temperatures. Neither kräusen nor wood chips are used, it is also not bunged. Comparatively little carbonated the beer is shortly prior to use carbonated, filtered and filled into casks.

Similar to most of the large American breweries, the Pabst brewery also has the principle, of producing the most important materials of necessity themselves as much as possible. So instead of using "grits", that is corn in dehusked and degermed form, which is received from factories engaged in its production, this brewery produces its own grits from the raw material. Additionally all of the casks are produced in a modern cask factory etc.

Interesting was a test of different beers, which the Pabst company produces, undertaken together with Mr. superintendent Bock and the laboratory director Mr. Schädler. I was to identify the pure malt beers out of half a dozen different beer types. I was not successful at this, that is to say I identified both types, which to me tasted the best, as malt beers, both of them were however not malt beer, but adjunct beers instead. For Mr. Bock this was greatly satisfactory, since he is of the viewpoint (not at all untrue in my view), which many American brewery managers hold, that considering the barley which is generally available to the American breweries the mixed, that is to say the beers made from malt with the addition of adjuncts are better than the pure malt beers produced (in America).

I made the same observation in the Ruppert brewery in New York, and only in one American brewery - the Piel Brewing company in New York - I found pure malt beers which in flavor and character somewhat matches that of our own products. Furthermore I can only express my deepest appreciation for the beers of the Pabst brewing company and would like to particularly highlight that of all the American beers the force-brand of the brewery, the so called Blue Ribbon, was the most sympathetic to me personally. This beer, in my subjective opinion of course - can be placed next to the finest European quality beers as an equal.