To translate this I went through several steps.
- Scan the pages.
- Perform character recognition with tesseract.
- Try to detect and fix tesseract's errors.
- Paste sentences or phrases into Google translate. It sometimes did a nice job of translating to idiomatic American English, sometimes not. In fact occasionally it produced unintelligible strings of words.
- I tried to detect and fix Google's errors. I also used a regular German-English dictionary and a German-English technical dictionary. Of course neither was specific to brewing, and so had some gaps, though I was surprised to find terms related to pitch in the regular dictionary.
- As mentioned above, Andreas Krennmair kindly reviewed my translation, answered my questions about it, and fixed some of my mistakes. Remaining mistakes are, of course, my responsibility.
Wágner gives grain quantities in both Scheffel and hectoliters (Hl, 100 liters), which is good since a Scheffel varies by location and time. (I was going to translate Scheffel as bushel, but Krennmair told me this is incorrect. I suppose it's like translating “liter” as “quart,” except Scheffel and bushel are even more different. A Scheffel is roughly half a hectoliter, while a bushel is roughly a third of a hectoliter. Both vary with location and time.) In his book Krennmair says before 1818 the “old” Scheffel was 54.728 liters. This seems to be quite close to Wágner's value. For example, he gives the quantity of barley malt as 21 Scheffel and 11.54 Hl. Krennmair says a Scheffel of barley malt has a weight beteen 19.2 and 24.7 kg, which is 42.2 to 54.3 lb. So a Hl of barley malt is between 77.2 and 99.3 lb.
Wágner also uses the Eimer, a unit of volume. In Radical Brewing Mosher wrote that this is a European unit “which varied widely.” Again Wágner also gives quantities in Hectoliters (Hl). Wágner's Eimer seems to be about 68.7 liters, and this is close to the Biereimer that Krennmair mentions, which is 68.52 liters. Wágner's recipe seems to be for 26 Eimers or 17.86 Hl (472 gallons) of English beer and 40 Eimers or 27.5 Hl (726 gallons) of the ordinary beer.
For temperature Wágner uses both degrees R and degrees Centigrade. Degrees R seems to be the Réaumur scale, with 0°R at the freezing point of water and the boiling point at 80°R.
Wágner uses the word Pfanne for the vessel in which the liquids are boiled. Google translate says this is “pan.” There is one place where Wágner says Pfanne oder Kessel, which can translate to “pan or kettle.” I'll use “kettle” much of the time, but this is often for the word Pfanne.
The following contains an odd mixture of literal translation of Wágner's German idiom (he was a professor in Budapest), some of my American English idiom, and, of course, my mistakes. My comments are interjected in square brackets. I break the translation with the pages. I begin with the first paragraph that mentions Englisch-Köstritzer.
A popular type of beer in Northern Germany is English-Köstritzer2 Beer, whose preparation we present, following Muntz.
21 Scheffel (11.54 Hl) of pale yellow de-germed barley malt and 5 Scheffel (2¾ Hl) of wheat malt are coarsely crushed, the barley malt by itself and also the Wheat malt. The grist of both types of malt is then mixed well. Shortly before the malt comes out of the mill 34 Eimer (23⅓ Hl) of boiling water is moved from the pan into the mash tun so that it cools to 60 to 62½°C. (48 to 50°R). This is then mashed in the following way:
Pour the grist sack by sack into the mash tun, and — in case you have no agitator available — immediately have 4 to 5 men vigorously mash it with rakes or paddles, taking care that no part of the grist remains unmoistened, so that everything is properly permeated with water and the dissolution of the sugar is completely achieved. The tub is then covered.
Meanwhile, the pan or kettle is filled with water again and the latter is brought to a boil. When this is done 44 Eimer (30¼ Hl) of boiling water is added to the mash tun while constantly stirring. The rest of the water is drained from the pan, in order to empty it, into a small tub, then the mash is added to the pan and boiled. All of the mash can not be boiled at once, because the pan cannot hold it all, so it is boiled in two batches, with two men constantly stirring it with rakes. The first cooked mash is transferred to the rest- or lauter tun, and the remainder, when it is cooked, is added to it. [Regarding what I called a rest- or lauter tun, Krennmair commented “What exact kind of tuns are meant here is not 100% clear, but Seihbottich could either refer to a lauter tun or possibly something similar to a hop-back. Stellbottich on the other hand was a dedicated vessel just for adding yeast and waiting until fermentation starts before the beer gets transferred to the actual fermenters.”]
Now one starts the fire [? Krennmair commented that this wording, “spannt man das Feuer” is odd.] under the pan, adds some water and when it is warmed, use it to clean the pan, the mash tun and the equipment [Geschirr].
Footnotes:
2 Köstritz is located in Reuß-Schleiz on the Elster. For
decades this area has been famous for its highly developed brewing industry.)
During this time the spent grain separates from the wort, which one thus removes. All of the water is removed from the pan, in order to put 4 to 5 Eimer (2 3/4 to 3 1/3 HL) of wort in it. One now makes a small but fleeting fire, so that only the bottom of the pan is touched but not burned. [The wording is not clear to me. Krennmair suggested that brewers were very careful about applying heat to a kettle with little or no wort in it, to avoid damaging it.] Put into this wort 50 pounds (25 Kg) of pure, good hops, preferrably Falkenauer, and cook this to extract it, with mild fire under constant stirring with paddles until the wort, which in the beginning because of the extraction of the hops is a bit cloudy, is again bright and clear. The extraction of the hops requires about 1 1/2 hours. Once the hops are well cooked, a little more wort is added and the pan or kettle is covered with a suitable lid. It is best if a hole is drilled in this cover, in which one can put a funnel or a filler neck. Now the fire is strengthened, so that the wort with the hops does not come to a boil, and enough wort is added through the funnel to fill the pan. At this time add 6 pounds (3 kg) of Italian oranges crushed into small pieces1, then uncover the pan and put the hop rake2) in it, with which the hops are pushed to the rear part of the pan. The hops that are still dispersed in the beer are gathered with a small ladle to the other hops behind the rake. Let the wort boil for a small hour until it is very pale and the protein appears in flakes.
It goes without saying that at this point much malty wort remains with the spent grain and much sits in and between the spent grain, that one must now extract and use for a small beer. Since the pan is full of the first wort and the beer is boiling, in the rest tun pour over the spent grain hot water, and in the absence of that one can also use cold water, although the former is better. The addition of water determines the desired amount of small beer, that one wants to make. About 28 to 30 Eimer (19 1/4 to 20 1/2 Hl) of pure beer can be obtained from it, and indeed a very good beer of fine color and pleasant taste.
As soon as the wort is in the coolship, immediately transfer a part of it — intended for the small beer — into the pan, also take out the hop-rake and disperse the hops
Footnotes:
1 The addition of this aromatic agent should be of significant
influence on the quality of the beer. Never-the-less we believe that it could
be left out.
2 The hop rake is made of several composite, perforated boards in a
frame of good oak wood and has the height and width of the pan. One puts it in
the front of the pan, pushes back all of the hops with it, and fix it by
hooks, which are attached to the rear part of the pan. In this way it is easy
to separate most of the hops from beer. Of course this does not work for a
round kettle. But since the hops are still needed for the small beer, in such
a kettle one must try to separate them from the wort with a sieve, so that
they do not get into the coolship with the wort.
so that they can combine with the wort. Now, the wort is added and as long as it still runs sugar-rich from the grain. For 30 Eimers (20½ Hl) of beer, always 46 Eimers (31.6 Hl) wort, calculated with the hops in the pan, is necessary, namely, if one wants to have 30 Eimers (20½ Hl) of pure beer for sale after completion of fermentation. When all of the wort is in the pan, cook it for a quarter of an hour, then use the hop rake to pull the hops to one side. The wort is then boiled for 3/4 of an hour and cooled in another coolship. If you once again add cold water to the spent grain, and cook the resulting wort with the remaining hops for 10 minutes, you will still extract a good kovent. [Krennmair, and Mosher in Radical Brewing, say that a kofent or kovent was a term for small beer. In this case it's a third-runnings beer.]
From the quantity of malt and hops given above, you can therefore easily obtain 26 Eimers (17.86 Hl) of very high-sugar beer. But at least 44 Eimers (30¼ Hl) of wort, with the hops, are necessary for this purpose, so that after boiling there remains 40 Eimers (27½ Hl). Significantly less is transferred to the coolship, since the hops are known to absorb a great deal of wort, but this is recovered with the small beer.
This type of sugar-rich beer deposits more trub [Schleimtheile] in the coolship than the lighter beer, and later on more yeast, which must be taken into account if one wishes to retain a certain quantity of beer for sale after all losses. The quoted quantity of malt and hops thus yields 26 Eimers (30¼ Hl) of English and 30 Eimers (20.6 Hl) of ordinary beer according to the above procedure. [The quantity 30 ¼ Hl seems to be a mistake. The 26 Eimers matches the previous paragraph, but there it is equated to 17.86 Hl. And everywhere but here there are more Eimers than hectoliters, i.e., an Eimer is smaller than a hectoliter. In fact, given the repetition and the error it looks to me like this and the preceding paragraph were not edited well. They should have been merged.]
Handling of the wort after brewing. After the wort has been cooled to 15°C (12°R), it is allowed to drain from the chiller into at least three open fermenters [Krennmair], which are more wide than high. Take three jugs [Kannen; Krennmair said they're around 1 to 2 liters, and gave this reference] of good ale yeast [or top-cropped yeast, which therefore would be ale yeast], put this into a suitable container with 8 cans of beer, a handful of sifted malt flour, 1½ loth (22 g) crushed mace and half a crushed nutmeg, stir thoroughly, and let fermentation start, which will happen soon. As soon as fermentation has reached the point that a cover of yeast is formed on the surface, it is stirred vigorously, and distributed in equal parts into the three different fermentation vats. These are stirred vigorously and covered, and fermentation will begin.
After 8 to 9 hours, the fermentation will begin and after 30 hours, will have advanced so far that the beer can be put in barrels, where it completes the fermentation process. These barrels must not be pitch-lined, but are scalded well with boiling water and crushed juniper berries. The same barrels should always be used for the same purpose and should not hold more than 7 Eimers (4.8 Hl) [about 127 gal].
As soon as the yeast flowing out of the fermenting barrels ceases to be frothy and assumes a firmer shape, it is necessary to refill diligently so that all the yeast is expelled. The barrels are straightened out more and more so that on the seventh day, calculated from the brewing, they finally lie quite straight. One now fills all of the barrels
[Krennmair: “Just to give a bit of context here, the technique described is similar to the British technique of cleansing: the yeast is added in an open fermenter and is let to ferment to a certain extent, then filled into a barrel with a relatively small bunghole through which any yeast that would otherwise float to the top is expelled. This is mean to minimize the amount of yeast in the barrel later on. The Burton Union is a larger scale implementation of the same principle (that also requires less manual intervention).”]
once again completely, and after 12 hours you will find a fizzy and frothy mass without yeast at the bunghole. This is the sign that fermentation is complete and the beer is ready for filling from the fermentation vats.
The barrels in which this beer will be lagered must be of sound oak, not pitch-lined nor sulfurized, but only scalded with boiling water and crushed juniper berries the day before use.
When the beer is transferred to the lagering barrels one should make sure that no yeast from the bottom is transferred, otherwise the secondary fermentation will be too vigorous and the beer will not keep well.
The lager barrels must be completely filled and then stopped tight, and in a few days secondary fermentation will begin, which will be more or less noticeable. This is due to carbonic acid developing. If the first fermentation was vigorous, and the yeast has mostly separated, so that the beer in the lager barrels is fairly free of yeast, the secondary fermentation will be calmer, and you will now notice that a few drops of beer push through the joints of the barrel or through the heads here and there, which soon subsides. When examining the beer after 6 months, it's very fizzy and still very rich in sugar. That's what its durability is based on.
When selling and shipping this beer you always have to take those barrels first that had a vigorous secondary fermentation and therefore had to be vented, because then the beer barely lasts 6 months. [Krennmair: “That reads like the barrels had to be drilled into (with the venting being implied).” So a more literal translation might be “had to be drilled into” instead of “had to be vented.”]
Treatment of second runnings beer after brewing. Cool the beer to 15°C (12°R), then distribute it from the coolships into three fermenting vats, put three cans of good bottom-cropped yeast in a bucket, add 8 cans of the beer, mix in a handful of malt meal [or malt flour], and if you want to give the beer a subtle aftertaste, mix 1/2 Loth (7 g) mace and 1 Loth (14 g) coriander into it, stir everything thoroughly and let it rest. [This is where I mistakenly translated Unterhefe as lager yeast. Krennmair: “I think in this context, “Unterhefe” simply means bottom-cropped yeast. The fermentation with the cleansing in the barrel is a method typically used for top-fermented beers, and at the time would never be used for a true bottom-fermented-at-cold-temperatures lager beer.”] The fermentation will begin soon and this portion will develop a cover of yeast. Mix this thoroughly back in and divide it between the vats of beer, mix them well and cover the vats with lids of light boards.
The fermentation will begin in 9 to 10 hours, and if the yeast is in good condition, on the fourth day the beer will be clean and strong and clear. Now you fill the beer from the vats and the yeast (after removing the foamy mass from the top of the beer) into freshly pitched — but if you do not like the pitch flavor, scald with boiling water and juniper berries — barrels and store it in the cellar. Lager this beer with the bunghole open, the secondary fermentation will take place soon and the beer will expel a foam-like mass. Top it off with fresh, pure water every day and clean the bunghole of the foam-like mass. When the secondary fermentation
subsides, the beer is topped up at longer intervals, but the barrels are always kept to a high level. If the beer is to be stored for a long time, close the bungholes tightly, as soon as the secondary fermentation becomes quite weak.
This beer is transferred straight from the barrels to containers of 3, 1 ½, 1, and 1/2 Eimer (2, 1, 2/3, and 1/3 Hl [about 50 down to 9 gal]) and shipped with the bottom yeast. It ships and keeps better that way.
[Wágner changes subjects here, and discusses Dortmunder Adambier.
There follows the comment that
Dortmund “Adam”, Danzig “Joppenbier” and Braunschweiger “Mumme” must be counted among the most excellent beers in Germany.In the footnote they are said to have high extract and low alcohol.]
References
Krennmair, Andreas, Historic German and Austrian Beers for the Homebrewer, 2018, Andreas Krennmair (publisher).
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