Written by: GijsBimmel
Written on: 16 March 2018
Top Secret Alfa Beer Yeast!
Reading time approx. -3 minute
Our yeast is stored safely in a yeast bank
Stored in a vault in Cologne, Germany, lies one of Alfa Beer’s secrets: Meens stock yeast. Unique to each beer is the yeast used. In order to keep the characteristic taste of a beer the same for decades, and in our case for almost 150 years, it must always be brewed with this specific yeast as a starting point.
To prevent that anything can happen to the yeast, it is stored safely in a special location, a so-called yeast bank. The Netherlands does not have a yeast bank, so we have our yeasts stored and monitored in Germany. Brewing beer has a number of stages including the fermentation process, during which yeast is added. This takes care of a rather crucial part of the brewing process, namely the conversion of sugars into alcohol, among other things.
Alfa Bier does not make lemonade but real beers and the fermentation process is therefore of great importance. For our Edel Pils this is done at a temperature between 4 and 12 ° C. Yeast drops over a period of 7 to 10 days to the bottom of the fermentation vessel, which is why you speak of low fermentation. High fermentation uses a different type of yeast that has the special property to float at the top. It is therefore not illogical that the name high fermentation has been given. The temperature during the fermentation process is also considerably higher: between 15 and 25 ° C.
Beers from low fermentation are usually fresh thirst-quenching beers with a pronounced hop flavor and a somewhat lower alcohol percentage. Pils, brewed from the middle of the 19th century in the Czech town of Pilzen, belongs to the low fermentation beers. And our Alfa Edel Pils is a beautiful exponent of a low fermentation beer. Beers of high fermentation are regarded as tasting beers, have a fairly high alcohol percentage and possess more complex aromas and less carbon dioxide than low fermentation beers. They are also usually drunk at a slightly higher temperature.
But yeast is therefore important for the constant quality and taste of a beer. That is why it is so important that it is stored carefully and safely. In a kind of Fort Knox for beer yeast! Top Secret!
