Simplicity in German Brewing

[Owenbräu]

I read people post a lot about simplicity in German brewing. Keep it simple. Then, I see 4, 5 sometimes 7 malts in recipes. Reading the Ayinger website, it would appear they have few beers that use less than 5 malts (e.g., Altbairisch Dunkel). I am curious, is 'keep it simple' an American myth about German brewing, like "Germans don't use caramel malts"?

If not, then what does keep it simple really mean? In concise terms, I would think it means using as few malts as possible; don't muddle the flavors. From that interpretation, it would seem to me that keeping is simple would mean getting most of your color and flavor from base malts, then using one, maybe two, malts for adjustments. Can a recipe have 5-7 malts and still be considered keeping simple?

[Kit_B]

If I ever use more than 7 malts in a recipe that I design, I hope someone reins me in.
I can understand 5, in something like the Altbairisch Dunkel, because they're basically starting with a simple, base recipe...
Then, they are darkening it & adding different flavors.
I can even see 4 malts, in something light that has been dialed in, correctly.

But, I would definitely steer anyone toward simplicity, to begin experimentation with a style.
Then, add later tweaks, to make it their own.
There's no reason to throw in the kitchen sink, before you're sure you have succeeded with the fundamentals.

[Bryan R]

I dunno..... Is it American single infusion brewing a SMASH simple? No. Its all about the formulas, and executing the process flawlessly. One can't take a haphazard approach to the formula, the formula is always completely with the end goal in mind. I see a lot of people say well I have this plus this, I hope it turns out. It's not this way at all here.

The problem(or more so the solution) lies in the foundation. If the foundation is wrong, nothing you will ever do can fix or change the beer, it just "won't be right". That foundation is what separates German beer, from most of the rest of the world. Nothing we could ever do here will allow you to side step or augment the foundation. The result of lack of foundation is what got you all here... The production of beers that can't hold a candle to the real thing. It's one thing to produce a beer that is "good", it's another to pour one aside the real thing and say yours is as good, but most likely better(as we can't get reliably fresh beer here).

That's the difference between us and the other guys. They are all out to make homebrewed beer that is "good", but will never be even close to being able to be compared with the real thing, and quite frankly I challenge anyone who says it is. Its a mis-truth, a straight up lie and I can say it with 110% certainty. No one, and I repeat no one, none of the beloved homebrew leaders know about the foundation(trust me they would have tried to cash in on it long ago, as they do with everything else). So that is how I can say that. It's all invalid, all the literature, all the "experiments" all flawed and broken. The foundation is not there, so therefore nothing you could ever do will fix it or make it.

We are different, we set out to beat our beloved beers, "good" beer is not acceptable for us.

Aim small, miss small.

[Owenbräu]

Wide a broad brush, it seems like American recipes are complex and the process is simple, and German recipes are simple but the process is intensive. The two methods produce beers of essentially the same parameters (color, gravity, etc), but they just taste different.

[Bryan R]

Indeed, the Americans always think they can augment lack of foundation with complex recipes but simple and lacking process..

[Beersk]

[Bryan R]

[Beersk]

[Brandon]

[Bryan R]

As does Narziß.