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 Current Favorite:  Shiner Fröst Shiner Fröst - Dortmunder Style |
Home brewed using the  micro brewing system.
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Current Favorite: Shiner Fröst Shiner Fröst - Dortmunder Style |
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Home brewed using the micro brewing system.
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| WHO ARE WE | HISTORY | VIDEOS | ENCYCLOPAEDIA | BREWS | LINKS | UTILITIES | HOLY GRAIL | CURRENT FAV | COMMERCIAL BEERS |
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KIRCHDORFER BRÄU - Who Are We?
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 (click picture to see original heraldry listing.) |
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| BEER | |
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Beer contains important vitamins and minerals, including magnesium, potassium, Vitamin B and Niacin. It contributes to hair health, giving it shine and volume. Its high carbohydrate content makes it easily digestible and a quick source of energy (though not too many at once!). Beer also contains less calories than other drinks - the average 12oz. bottle of beer counts in at 145 calories, compared with fruit juice (213 calories for 12 oz.), skimmed milk (260 calories for 12oz.) and red wine (480 calories for 12oz).
Best of all, beer is an entirely natural drink, made from malt, hops, yeast and water - that's it! German beer, up until 1987 was subject to the Reinheitsgebot Beer Purity Law which dated back to 1516. This law didn't allow any artificial ingredients or preservatives to be used in their beer. Most traditional German breweries still use this protocol in making their beer.This built in an ingenuity and integrity into beer brewing that survives to this day in Germany. Over the centuries, German brewers have succeeded in crafting the finest beers, in a wide range of styles, some of which are listed below, just from those four basic ingredients. For anyone wishing to know what they’re ordering at a pub or bar, the information on this web page might help. Although Germans are predominately associated with crisp, bright, yellow, lager-style beers, ales are the true roots of German beer making. Ales (top fermenting beers), have been brewed by Germans for around three thousand years, but only brewing lagers (bottom fermenting beers) for only about five centuries. Blond-colored, crisp, clean lagers, with which Germans are usually associated, have only been around for a mere 150 years. And even the beloved hoppy Pils only got its start about 30 (yes, just thirty!) years ago. As the Romans expanded into the Germanic regions of central Europe during the first few centuries A.D., they encountered the primative beer making arts performed by the natives. At first the Romans turned their noses up at the brew and the Emperor Claudius even wrote a poem about how Roman wine was better than the German beer, which he describes as smelling like a billy goat. Eventually through long exposure to Germanic culture, Romans began to aquire a taste for beer, even building their own breweries. The Romans' ultimate embrace of the barbaric beverage is also reflected in their language. They came to regard beer as a gift from Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, and treasured it as a strength-giving potion (vis = strength). Hence their term for beer: cerevisia. The Latin origins of the Spanish word for beer, cerveza are seen today. Germany is the third-largest beer producer in the world, after the U.S. and China. Germany's breweries make about 100 million hectoliters of beer a year (about 2.6 billion U.S. gallons or 85 million U.S. barrels). U.S. breweries by comparison make a tad more than twice that much beer (about 180 million barrels a year), but for a population more than three times that of Germany. Almost 90% of the German beer production is consumed within the country, which means that, purely statistically, every German, including babies and seniors, drinks about 117 liters (about 31 gallons) of beer per year. German beer consumption is about 60% higher than the average for all of Western Europe. The Czechs, incidentally, are the world record holders in beer-drinking. They down about 160 liters (about 42 gallons) per person per year. Americans by comparison drink about 65 liters (17 gallons) a year, roughly half as much as the Germans. |
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Click here to go to HULU.COM and watch more episodes! |
Beer Appétit is a program about cooking with beer, and pairing beer with food. |
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Encyclopaedia of German BeersDunkel ("doonn-kel" ) - dark lagers, generally associated with Bavaria, their region of origin. Like all Bavarian-style beers, Dunkel tends to be very malty with only a gentle hop accent for very little hop bitterness. Hefeweizen (“hay-fuh-veyt-zzenn") - "Hefe" means yeast, and "Weizen" means wheat, so Hefeweizen is "yeast wheat." The beer is yeast turbid (cloudy), because it is unfiltered. The unique flavor and aroma of this cloudy style comes from the special yeast used to ferment the blend of malted barley and wheat. Pils ("pills") - Pils is a very blond, brilliantly clear, moderately effervescent lager. Pils is often strongly hopped with an assertive up-front bitterness bite. Russ ("Rooss", as in "rooster") - A 50/50 mixture of pale filtered or unfiltered wheat ale (Weissbier) and lemon soda or lemonade. Weissbier ("vice-beer") - Weissbier means “white beer” in German. The name derives from the yellowish-white tinge that is imparted by the pale malted wheat from which the brew is made. There are also dark wheat beers, which are called Dunkelweizen ("dark wheat"). The flavor and character comes from deliberately soured grains. It is tart and tangy and very refreshing. Many fans of this style like to add fruit or herb flavored syrups. Radler ("Rahd-luh") – A 50/50 mix of blond lager (usually Pils or Helles) and lemonade., which originated in Bavaria. By the way, “Radler” means “cyclist” in German. Oktoberfest, or Maerzen ("maer-tzen") - A sweet, brown style beer. Traditionally brewed in March and served in autumn, although some breweries sever it year round. Pilsner ("pillz-ner" or just "pilss") - Crisp, refreshing, and a delightful hoppy bite. Bock ("bock") - A dark, malty style beer. Doppell Bock ("doppel-bock") - Doppel bocks are darker and richer than bocks. Helles or Maibock ("hell-ess" or "my-bock") - Helles or maibock is a pale colored bock. Despite its color it is still quite malty in flavor but it's generally hoppier than other bocks. It was originally developed as the Bavarian answer to Pilsner. Kölsch ("koulsh") - An unusual beer because it is brewed with ale yeast but it is aged like a lager. It is pale and refreshing with moderate hopping. (The word "Kölsch" comes from the name for the city of Cologne in Germany, pronounced Köln.) Alt ("alt") - Alt is subtler than you would expect from it's brown or amber color. It is slightly malty with hardly any hops aroma. It is usually rather bitter but not aggressively so. Rauchbier ("rowkh-beer") - Literally "smoke beer". The beer itself is a lot like Oktoberfest, sweet and malty. But the smoke flavoring adds a completely unexpected element to the profile. Some drinkers describe the flavor to be like beef jerky or even leather. The after taste is very much like the aroma of sitting around a campfire. |
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KIRCHDORFER BRÄU - BREW BATCHESThese batches are specialy brewed for limited times and in limited amounts. They are shared with family and friends only and are not for sale.On rare occassions if a batch is especially well received, a second brewing may be undertaken. |
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| (click on the thumbnails to view larger picture) (background colors represent the SRM color based on the Lovibond color scale) |
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RIP West Coast Pale Ale* (with Honey and Brown Sugar added)  Recipe Link |
Flavor: Balanced Alc/Vol: 5.0% SRM (Color): 5 IBU (Bitterness): 9 |
RIP Otto's Oktoberfest  Recipe Link |
Flavor: Balanced Alc/Vol: 4.9% SRM (Color): 13 IBU (Bitterness): 13 |
RIP Cowgirl Honey Light  Recipe Link |
Flavor: Balanced Alc/Vol: 4.9% SRM (Color): 5 IBU (Bitterness): 14 |
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RIP Kupfer Spezial No.1* My first attempt at recreating a clone of Winkler Brau's Kupfer.  Recipe Link |
Flavor: Malty Alc/Vol: 6.8% SRM (Color): 15 IBU (Bitterness): 7 |
RIP Texquiza* WCPA Tequiza Clone  Recipe Link |
Flavor: Balanced Alc/Vol: 5.2% SRM (Color): 6 IBU (Bitterness): 3 |
RIP Basic Brown Ale  Recipe Link |
Flavor: Balanced Alc/Vol: 3.9% SRM (Color): 14 IBU (Bitterness): 14 |
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RIP Midlands Mild Ale  Recipe Link |
Flavor: Malty Alc/Vol: 4.0% SRM (Color): 11 IBU (Bitterness): 6 |
RIP Toutle River Tart Hard Cider  Recipe Link |
Flavor: Hard Cider Alc/Vol: 5.0% SRM (Color): 3 IBU (Bitterness): 0 |
Coming Next Kirchdorfer Brown Ale (Newcastle Clone)  Recipe Link |
Flavor: Balanced Alc/Vol: 4.7% SRM (Color): 23 IBU (Bitterness): 26 |
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Flavor: _ Alc/Vol: 0.0% SRM (Color): 0 IBU (Bitterness): 0 |
Recipe Link |
Flavor: _ Alc/Vol: 0.0% SRM (Color): 0 IBU (Bitterness): 0 |
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Flavor: _ Alc/Vol: 0.0% SRM (Color): 0 IBU (Bitterness): 0 |
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| Commercial Beer's I've drunk | This is a graphic display and list of beers of which I have personally tasted. |
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| Beer Calculations (MS Excel) |
Here is an MS Excel Spreadsheet which will determine OG, FG, ABV, Calories, Carbs, Fermentation Dates, Carbing Dates, Condition Dates, and several more. (JavaScript version coming soon) |
| Beer SRM Color Chart | This chart shows the SRM number and the corresponding color. You can use this to determine the SRM of your favorite beer to compare to other beers. |
| Bottle & Bulk Priming Calculator | Calculates bulk amounts for bottle priming. (I use this one often.) |
| The Beer Recipator - Another Beer Priming (carbonation) Calculator | This one allows for the control of carbonation to match the style of beer being brewed. |
| Alcohol Content Widget | This widget will help you determine Alcohol Content/Bottle Priming/Extract Weight/etc. |
| Beer Data | Alcohol, Calorie, and Attenuation Levels of Beer |
| Weight to Volume Cooking Converter | Converts all standard cooking weights and volumes between themselves. |
| Convert Ounces to Teaspoons | It does what it says. |
| HUMOR - Random Beer Name Generator | Will randomly generate a name for your beer brew. It does not let you choose beer type. |
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| This was MY beer while living over in Southern German for three years. It is brewed by the Winkler Brauerei in Lengenfeld, Germany. The flavor was like no other beer I have ever tasted before or since. It is a deep, dark red-colored beer with a chocolatey after taste with a very mild hoppiness and a smooth flavor. It is my goal to either find it to buy or the brew a clone of it myself. |
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| Here is the product description of the beer's flavor characteristics and the alcohol content. This text can be translated (loosely) at the AltaVista Babelfish website. Winkler Bräu Kupfer Spezial - 9 Flaschen Das berühmte Bierschmankerl wurde 1975 zum ersten Mal eingebraut. Seidig glänzend wie altes Kupfer, feinherb-malzig im Aroma und harmonisch ausgeglichen im Trunk, überzeugt es seither auch die verwöhnten Biertrinker. Durch die lange, kalte Reifung vereinen sich der intensive Geschmack des Röstmalzes, die Süße des Wiener Malzes, die Weiche des Brauwassers sowie die zarte Bittere des Spalter Hopfens mit der Rezenz der Gärungskohlensäure und der ausgleichenden Finesse der Bierhefe zu einem exzellenten Trinkgenuss. Stammwürze: 13,8 %Alkoholgehalt: 5,4 % |
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Kirchdorfer Bräu is the name of our home brewery which represents my family heritage and my personal beer brewing hobby. We are not a commercial business. Our family origins are rooted deep in the Black Forrest region of Germany, but we are also true blue Texans born and/or bred. It was only natural that with the ties to the beer capital of the world, one of the largest beer brewing states in the US, and my home brewing interests, that I would honor my family by naming my "brewery" KIRCHDORFER BRÄU. - Eins, Zwei, G'suffa!
The shield with the red church on a green field is the 