Susanne Weber
Hobbies | spend pleasant evenings with friends and enjoying a good beer. |
Favourite beer | Münchner Hell |
For me, the art of brewing means... | ...traditional craftsmanship combined with state of the art technology. |
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Hobbies | spend pleasant evenings with friends and enjoying a good beer. |
Favourite beer | Münchner Hell |
For me, the art of brewing means... | ...traditional craftsmanship combined with state of the art technology. |
» Back to the top |
For master brewer Susanne Weber, this is not just another working day at Paulaner. While her co-workers at the brewery rinse out the lauter tun, she is on her way to the office today. Minutes later, she is holding a book of Paulaner recipes in her hand. The leather binding is worn because it has already been in the hands of so many brewers. The old typeface reveals the secrets of the Paulaner Salvator recipe. "We have been brewing Salvator for over 375 years now using recipes that have been handed down and refined from year to year," Susanne Weber says proudly.
In the brewery, Susanne Weber stands next to Peter Winter at the brewing copper and watches as the master brewer adds the hops to the boiling wort. Wort boiling is an important step in producing beer because during this process, the bitter compounds separate from the hops and the water evaporates, among other things. Here too, time plays a key part. "There's no hurry," says Susanne Weber. It pays off.
As a skilled brewer as well as a beverage technologist, Susanne Weber knows that the hops are added to the copper twice during wort boiling. The master brewer explains: "The first time the hops are added for bitterness, while the second pass gives the beer taste and aroma." Certain varieties even call for a third addition of hops to achieve a really special flavour. The variety of hops also matters because it determines the type of beer.
After master brewer Winter has added the hops to the wort, he fetches a beer spindle. This is used to determine the density of the wort, which acts as the basis for the original gravity and the strength of the beer. That is crucial, because steaming off the water concentrates the wort. Again and again, Susanne Weber measures the original gravity. So what's Susanne Weber's final measurement? "18.3 percent, just right for our double bock," says the master brewer.