Improving beer brewing technologies and traditions, the Cēsu alus brewery creates a new type of beer – slow beer. Lenalus is a long-aged beer with a name according to the specifics of beer brewing.
The beer variety and its name lenalus is a new creation. It is basically applicable to lager-type beer or hybrid beer varieties (fermented with top yeasts, but the maturation phase is similar to lager beer). The uniqueness of Lenalus lies in the long-term aging of the beer – this is a process that begins after the beer has been fermented. Brewing beer, depending on the recipe, the desired nuances of taste and aroma, can last from a few weeks to several years.
Such a particularly long-brewed beer variety is new in Latvia, therefore the first beer brand to which the long-brewing technology is adapted at the Cēsu alus brewery is experimentally Cēsu Nefilterėtais alus. The new beer variety Cēsu Unfiltered Lenalus is a particularly long, at least 60 days, brewed beer. It is the long maturation that gives Cēsu Unfiltered Lenal particularly nuanced taste notes, it has a distinct aroma of hops and barley malt and a mature, round flavor bouquet. This beer has been naturally clarified through the slow brewing process.
“It is important to understand that in the initial stage of beer brewing (mashing, fermentation) the biochemical processes between the raw materials of beer – hops, yeast, malt and water – proceed very quickly, while the final stage is more leisurely, slower. Every brewer knows that when brewing beer, one must observe peace – minimal vibrations in the brewing equipment, correct temperature and good thoughts. According to the recipe – Cēsu Unfiltered Lenalus is ready for bottling after 60 days of brewing,” says Cēsu alus head brewer Māris Grambergs.
Cēsu Unfiltered beer is a well-known and very popular beer brand in Latvia, it was created in 2011 and was the first unfiltered beer in a bottle with a short, 30-day shelf life. According to market research company Nielsen, Cēsu Unfiltered was awarded as the best newly introduced product in the beer category in Latvia in 2011. Cēsu unfiltered is what is often called “live” beer in the vernacular – beer that has not experienced technological processing, which is unfiltered, so it has not been cleaned from the yeasts in the beer during the production process. This is a distinctly Latvian beer, as evidenced by both the bouquet of flavors and aromas and the color of the beer. The development of this brand is also related to innovations in beer production, which combines the development of technology with the preservation of Latvian beer brewing traditions. In 2012, the Cēsu Unfiltered beer brand was supplemented by Baltalus – a wheat and barley malt beer from the white beer family, in 2013 – Buckwheat beer, in the brewing of which buckwheat is used alongside barley malt. In 2014, a new, unique beer variety – Lenalus – was created within the Cēsu Unfiltered beer brand.
The total investment in creating the brand and introducing the new technology is 70,000 euros. The first batch of the new beer variety Cēsu Nefiltētais Lenalus has been started in the first days of 2014, so it will be on sale in March 2014. It is planned to sell one million bottles this year.
