Brewhouse

The Andechs Monastery brewery buys its malt from midsize Bavarian malthouses. By mixing various types of malt, the brewers maintain the consistent taste of the beers.

The malt is ground in the malt mill and then the malt grist is mixed with brewing water in the mash tun to make the mash. Substances of content such as protein, sugar, minerals and vitamins are thereby dissolved. For the bottom-fermented dark beers, the monastery brewery uses the traditional multiple mashing process. This gives the beer its unmistakable, aromatic malt flavour, the “malt body”.

The solid and liquid components of the mash are separated in the lauter tun. The solid residues (spent grains) contain husks, fibre, minerals and vitamins. Andechs bread baked by the Hofpfisterei in Munich always contains spent grains from the Andechs Monastery brewery. The liquid component is called the wort. It among other things contains the dissolved malt sugar, minerals and vitamins. In the wort kettle, the wort is boiled and the hops are added. The monastery brewery uses only the female umbels of aroma hops from Hallertau.

Finally in the whirlpool, the turbidities such as protein and hop leaves are separated from the wort and the original wort content is determined. The proportion of the original wort to alcohol content of the beer is about 3 to 1. Subsequently the wort is cooled in the wort cooler. The brewer now speaks of the “cast wort” – insofar as the temperature for fermentation is reached.

Andechs Monastery Emblem