With the German influence in central TX, has anyone come across old German beer recipes they decided to take a shot at? I understand these could be family recipes so limited availability in such places like libraries, but would be curious to see what what on tap in old San Antonio.

The only way to ensure authenticity is to strictly follow Reinheitsgebot. I insist on it and certainly hope other enthusiasts would as well.

Do you have the equipment to lager? Lager yeast requires fermenting for at least 6 weeks at around 40 degrees, depending on your yeast or style. If you can't lager, you will probably need to stick to a hefeweizen or a bock. A traditional, German bock is an ale that is carmely and lightly hopped. St. Arnold's Spring Bock is a good example of the style. Shiner Bock is not a true bock, it is a flavored lager (not that there is anything wrong with that, I drink tons of Shiner Bock).

You will be able to find some nice recipes here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/#homebrewtalk-com-recipe-database.54

Just look for recipes that stick with malt, hops, water, yeast, or drop all of the other ingrediants (irish moss, etc)

BTW, I would not consider water conditioners to be cheating. You can't import water from Bavaria, so if you have to add some 5.2 or carbonates to your RO'd water, I would consider that to be staying true to the German style.

If you provide some hints on what kind of beer you are looking to brew, I can provide more specific direction.

Here are a list of German style beers: https://www.kegworks.com/blog/kegworks-field-guide-german-beers/

I don't think there's a need to go searching through old libraries for recipes (German recipes, in particular) that haven't changed much in the past few hundred years. If anything, any old recipes that you come across that are passed down through families will produce a beer of substandard quality as they won't take into account modern advances in technique and technology, that can produce consistency. I'm sure some of the beers made in Central, TX by German immigrants (my ancestors being in that camp in Cuero) were good, but without the advent of packaged yeast and adequate hop storage, it's doubtful that they were good or even the SAME every time.

I would definitely search the Homebrewtalk forums already linked, find a recipe you are interested in, snatch up some basic equipment and knowledge, and jump in! You may find that you never quit!

BusterAg said:

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Do you have the equipment to lager? Lager yeast requires fermenting for at least 6 weeks at around 40 degrees, depending on your yeast or style.

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You mean 50 deg? I don't know of any yeasts that include 40 in the recommended range.