Week 12

Monday:  We woke up in Leipzig and lounged around the hostel for awhile before checking out. We decided to go back to the Gasthaus & Gosebrauerei Bayerischer Bahnhof for brunch. I had some pasta which was fantastic, and of course another Gose. We returned to the hostel and hung out until it was time to head to the train station. One thing I would recommend to anyone traveling on train in Europe is, get a reservation on the train. We were told we didn’t need them when we purchased our tickets. It turns out that if the train is full and you don’t have a seat reservation, you stand!! We were able to secure the table at the bar but there were no seatsat it. What could have been a miserable 4.5 hour train turned out to be alright though. I always feel that when traveling you have to be very flexible, and if things don’t go your way, make the best of it. We were standing right by the bar so we drank beer and played cribbage the whole way back.

Tuesday: We resumed the study tour today, this time heading to Austria. It was an early meet-up time and we managed to get all but one of the people on the bus. The guy that was left behind had to take a train an meet us there. Our first stop of the day was Stiegl Brewery. This place is massive. They really have quite the operation here. One of the interesting things is they just started doing a weisse beer, and it has been so successful that they have a giant room ready for more tanks when the time comes. After the tour they treated us to three different beers, their Martzen, their Weisse, and their Zwickle. All were very nice. We also had sausage and straight pretzels. 

Ready to add more weisse beer tanks.

After Stiegl we went a couple miles away to Augustiner Brau. This is not associated with the Augustiner in Munich, it is just owned by Augustine monks. The place was the exact opposite of Steigl. It was a pretty dated place. They still use a coolship and some old-school chilling methods. They also package most of the beer in barrels and only really sell it locally. They have their own re-pitching system for the barrels which was something I have never seen. The thing I liked was after the tour we tried their beer and it was great which shows that all the fancy equipment in the world doesn't mean the beer won't be good. It was a really neat experience. We also tried some Stecherlfisch, which is just fish cooked on a stick. Delicious.

The coolship

Wort chilling

Barrel re-pitching

After the tour we checked into our hotel room, then re-grouped an hour later to head to Gusswerk. This was a unique place. It reminded me of an American brewpub. The brewer gave us a nice tour of their little place and explained his dedication to organic brewing. They also fed us some great food. I actually had a stout too, it's been a long time. After the dinner and tour we were all supposed to take a bunch of taxi's back to our hotel. The first round left and about 20 of us had to wait about 45 minutes for the other cabs to return. It was not a very fun wait.

Wednesday: We departed heading for Eggenberg. They are most famous in the states for making Samichlaus, which is a really strong dopplebock. The tour was pretty neat. They have a nice brewery that overlooks the alps and many years ago used to be a castle, but that burned down in the 1800's. At the end we tried a few of their beers, including Samichlaus and Erbock. Both are really strong but well made.

Next it was on to Brauerei Hofstetten. This is an old family brewery in the Austrian countryside. They make some great beer, with one of the main attractions being their Granite Bock. The beer is fermented in big granite tubs, then they heat up chunks of granite and stick it in the beer to caramelize the unfermented sugars. It was really something I was just blown away by. They also have a mill from 1929 that is still in operation. They had some big port barrels and they asked us what they should put in them. We suggested stout, then the brewer said "We have a russian imperial stout we weren't sure what to do with, perfect". That will be great if they go for it. One of the beers they served us was a bucket beer, which is basically just a pilsner taken from the maturation tank and served from a bucket. They were very gracious hosts. I ended up picking up a barley wine they made, that I plan on drinking at the close of the Master Brewer program.

The old mill

Granite fermenters

Bucket beer

Next it was off to the town of Aigen-Schlagl. We were going to Schiffener which is a guest house/beer destination place. They serve all sorts of beers from around the world along with good food. The plan for us was what is called the bierkullinarium. It was a 5 course meal with beer pairings. The owner Karl Schiffner is a champion biersommelier who matches some great food with beer. We had a very filling meal and some great beer matches. The absolute topper was the heated bock. The idea is very similar to the granite bock, in that a bock beer has a really hot thing put in it to caramelize the unfermented sugars. This was different in that he stuck an iron rod in the beer. The story was that iron workers years ago would be drinking beer and it would get too cold in the winter time so they heated up iron rods to warm up their beer. The result was the heated bock. It's amazing how the beer changes. This is something I will gladly bring back to the states.

The food

The beer

Heated bock

Thursday: We got up and had breakfast at the guest house, then headed down the hill to the monastery brewery Schlagl. This was a pretty short tour, but did have some unique highlights. One being their brewhouse, which is from the 70's. The pump control panel looked like something from Star Trek. It was a great tour though. Afterwards they treated us to a beer. I had their Roggenbier, which is a rye based beer. It was a very sub-dued version of the style but nice none the less.

Pump control panel

Roggenbier

 
After the beer and a little lunch we got on the bus for the final destination Flottweg. They specialize in centrifuge and separator technology. We were running behind schedule and there were a lot of detours on the way there, so the bus driver was driving really fast on windy country roads. The whole bus was a little woozy by the time we got there. The tour itself was a good one. I can't say that I am super in to separator technology, but it was interesting none the less, and of course photo taking was not aloud. We ended up getting back into Munich at about 7:30pm. We got some dinner, hung out for a bit then went to bed.

Friday: Well friday was graduation day in that those doing the diploma program were done and headed home the next day. Earlier in the week we had found out our scores on the test for this segment. I ended up getting a 100%. That was kind of surprising to me, but hey, I'm not going to complain. For our graduation we went to a place called Wilderhirsch which is right around the corner from Doemens. It was a nice little ceremony with a nice lunch and some beer. Afterwards a group of us headed out looking for a specific beer garden that we never did find. Instead we ended up at another one that was probably equally as good. Later we headed down to the Fruhlingsfest, which is basically the spring version of Oktoberfest. It was absolute madness. There were tons of carnival rides and various foods as well. The true highlight was the Augustiner tent which literally had about a thousand people inside all drunk as hell and having a good time. It was pretty unreal. I got out of there pretty early because I needed food, but wow what an experience.

Madness

Raouf (my favorite Egyptian) and I

Saturday: I got up, had some breakfast then said goodbye to the guys who were headed home. It was a bittersweet moment. They will all be missed, but I am excited for each and everyone of the guys I have gotten to know over the past 12 weeks. I wouldn't say I really got to know everyone in the program well, but the one's that I did will be friends for life. The rest of the day was spent power lounging and it was awesome. Kyle and I ended up going down to the Euro youth hostel to watch some football (soccer) with our classmate Robbie. We are all enrolled in the Master Brewer program, hence why we are not going home yet.

Sunday: Sunday was very similar to Saturday in that we lounged for a good part of the day then went down to watch more football. Well, now it's time to get ready to do some traveling and to not be in school for awhile. This is the part that actually feels like a vacation. Now I am just waiting for Jen to get here next Wednesday, and we will be off on a new adventure, part of which will include Belgian beer as well as some exciting new Italian craft beer. I can't wait!!
Stay tuned.
Prost!!!

Week 11

Monday: We started our European Study tour by driving a little north of Munch to Feising. Our destination was Steineker. They are a manufacture of brewing equipment mostly for larger breweries. They had a pretty impressive facility though. Sadly we were not aloud to take photos inside of the plant. They did treat us very well though.

 Next we headed east into the Hallertau hop growing region to Hopsteiner. They are basically producers of hop pellets and hop extracts. They also have a huge cooled warehouse to store hop products.

Hop pellet die's

Hallertau Hops

After the tour we all piled on the bus and drove to an old brewery just down the road that is closed but the Hopsteiner folks have access to the kitchen and dining hall. They treated us to beer and dinner, which was fantastic.

After dinner we piled on the bus again and drove about half an hour away to the mid-evil town of Regensburg where our hotel was. After checking in a group of us followed Michael Eder through town on his way to his favorite beer bar. Along the way he gave us some history of the town. It was a very interesting walk. The city is along the Danube river and very old. This is where the pope is from. At the bar they had a dark bock that was absolutely mind blowing. One of the best beers I have had thus far in Germany.

The cathedral in Regensberg

Tuesday: The next day we drove just north of town to the Krones headquarters. This is a massive facility. At this particular plant they produce filling equipment. Of course we were asked not to take photos inside the buildings. They did treat us to lunch which was quite nice. 

Old bottle filler

After our tour and lunch we headed back into Regensburg to the Bischofshof brewery. This is a pretty state of the art brewery in a pretty old complex. They had new Steineker brewhouse equipment, and new Krones bottling equipment. I am pretty sure they are owned by the church or something like that. Anyway we had a really nice tour and they treated us to beer and food. They also sent us off with three crates of beer for the bus.

Pegasus lauter tun

After this we drove north for awhile to the town of Bamburg. This was pretty special for me, as I am a big fan of rauchbeer, which is a beer made with malt that has been smoked, usually with beechwood malt. Bamburg is now a days the home of the style. We checked into our hotel and went directly to Brauerei Spezial which is the oldest producer of rauchbeer in Bamburg. Their beer is a little light on the smoke flavor, but still a great beer.

After dinner and a beer we went across the street to Brauerei Fassala and tried one of their beers before moving on. We walked through the streets of Bamburg to Schlenkerla. This is the place where the Brauerei Heller serves their rauchbeer. Their beer has a far greater smoke character compared to the Spezial, but wow is it good. I also tried their smoked weisse beer, which was heavenly as well. We ended the night there and headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday: We got up, had a nice breakfast and got back on the bus for a short ride to Kaspar Schulz. They are producers of brewing equipment, that is more aimed at smaller to mid-sized breweries. They are also the creators of the Schoko gentle wort boiling system. It is a pretty neat add on that can save a whole lot of energy. After the tour we were treated to a bunch of Brauerei Spezial rachbeer and some traditional bavarian fare. Again another company that was over the top with the hospitality.

After our nice outdoor lunch we drove a couple miles away to another mecca of sorts for me, Weyermann Maltz. I have and still do use a lot of their products, and have always been very pleased with them. They had us watch a small powerpoint presentation, then split us up and gave us a tour. We weren't allowed to take photo's inside, but wow what a facility they have. One really neat part of their facility is their pilot brewhouse made by none other than Kaspar Schulz. They also have another much larger brewhouse onsite solely for the production of Sinamar.

Pilot Brewery

After the tour we headed back to their Beir Stube to try some creations from the pilot brewery. They had a Bohemian Pils made with their floor malted pilsner malt, and a nice rauchbeer. In the end they were vary gracious hosts, and I will always be glad to use their malt in the future.

That night we had some dinner in the town square then a pils and a game of cribbage in the hotel bar. I turned in early that night to re-charge the batteries.
Thursday: We rose early and headed back towards Munich. Our destination was Brauerei Schneider in the town of Kelheim which is also on the Danube river. We were given a great tour that included special access to their fermentation room to see the open fermenters. 

Open fermenter

At the end of the tour we ended up in the packaging area. They have a bunch of old equipment there includeing an old hand bottling filler. They let us all fill our own bottle with Schneider Weisse Original, and label it. This beer is bottle contitioned so it has fresh wort added back to it that will ferment in the bottle and give it the desired CO2. I am going to share it with Jen when she gets here in a few weeks.

Hand bottling

 After the bottling they took us to their wonderful beer garden for a tasting and a snack. The tasting was good it included their entire line which is all what beers and is, Meine Blond Weisse, which is a lighter wheat beer, Mein Kristall, which is a filtered wheat beer, Mein Alkoholfreies, which is non-alcoholic, Mein Grunes, which is a nice slightly hoppy wheat beer, Meine Hopfenweisse, which is a wheat beer with a ton of dry-hopping giving it a very american character, Unser Aventinus, which is their dopplebock, Unser Original, which is the original wheat beer, and finally Aventinus Eisbock, which is Aventinus which has been partially frozen, then the ice which is just water is removed leaving basically a distilled high alcohol drink. Very tasty though.

We had a nice snack of cheese and bavarian ham that had been smoked with beechwood. After this we drove to the town of Abensberg to the Brauerei Kuchlbaur. This may be the strangest place I have been in a long time. I can best describe it as a wheat beer brewery mixed with an amusment park, mixed with someone who took too much acid. The history is that it is an old brewery, and in recent years the owner decided that weisse beer was made by the weisse beer dwarves, and they needed a place to live so he commisioned by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. It's basically a 35 meter high tower paying homage to weisse beer...very strange.

They also had the largest collection of weisse beer glasses in the world at 4200.

Weisse beer dwarf

20 liter weisse beer glass

The collection

The tower

All in all it seemed like a lot of money to spend on weird stuff but to still have pretty worn brewing equipment, but it seems to work the beer garden was packed.
After leaving "beer world" we all got back on the bus and headed back to Munich. Because Easter fell right in the middle of our study tour in ended up that we were going to have four days off. Jay, Bryce and I decided awhile back that this would be a great opportunity to go explore Berlin and Leipzig, so later that night we boarded the night train bound for Berlin. They were sold out of sleeper cars which absolutly sucked. We ended up in reclining seats, but both Jay and I are taller and there was a wall in front of us that prohibited us from stretching our legs out while sleeping, and poor Bryce had to sit next to the loudest snoring guy I have ever heard. Needless to say it was not the most fun 10 hours I have ever had.

Friday: We woke up on the train to the sound of someone's alarm going off, then some train alarm going off, and people milling about, but the great thing is we were almost in Berlin. After arriving we decided to walk a few miles to our hostel. This was nice because my knees were still angry from the train ride. We got to the hostel and found out that we couldn't check in until 3:00pm, and it was 9:00am. We were able to drop off our bags and we headed towards the city center in search of breakfast and sights to behold. After a very american style breakfast buffet we wondered around for a couple of hours. Berlin is a really amazing city, with some crazy cool architecture.

Fernsehturm Tower (television tower)

After wandering around for a few hours we decided it was time to sample some of Berlin's beer. This is actually one of the main reasons for coming here. We had read about some newer
microbreweries here that were starting to buck the trend of German beer, plus we were on the hunt for Berliner Weisse, which is a wheat beer that has had a lactic acid producing bacteria added to give it a sour taste. We ended up at a place called Brauhaus Mitte. Low and behold they had Berliner Weisse. I tried the sampler tray, which consisted of a Pilsner, a Dunkel, a Weisse beer and their special of the month which was a Zwickle. This is a beer that has been taken from the conditioning tank and is unfiltered and usually a little green tasting. This one had a bit of diacytel in it, but was still a good beer.

Berliner Weisse

After wandering around a bit more we headed back to the hostel and got check in. We were all pretty pooped from the train ride so it was nap time. It also turned out that Bryce was coming down with something and had a fever going on. When we woke up Bryce was in no shape to go out so Jay and I left him to sleep and headed out in search of  food another brewery we had read about, Hausbrauerei Eschenbraeu. It was a little tricky to find but when we got there we sat in the beer garden and tried the unfiltered Pilsner and the Dunkel. We were hoping for a little more varity but they both were well made beers. We decided to seek out food elsewhere and headed down the street and found some Indian food that was supurb, a nice break from the heavy German food. After that it was off to bed.

Saturday: We got up and had some breakfast. Bryce decided he would sleep more to try to break his sickness so Jay and I went off in search of more adventure and more beer. We went to the hofbahnhof (main train station) and started walking. We were in search of  part of the Berlin wall that is still standing. We also wanted to check out Check Point Charlie. On the way we also saw the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust Memorial. When we found the wall there was a building with a bunch of information on WWII and the rise of the nazi party. It was a very depressing place, but still interesting to see these parts of history close up.

Brandenburg gate

Holocaust Memorial

Checkpoint Charlie

After seeing all this we decided it was time for a beer. We found the Brauhaus Lemke and had their Pilsner in their beer garden.

We then headed back to get Bryce and continue our beer hunting mission. We crossed town to a place in East Berlin called Hops & Barley. They weren't open yet so we got some mexican food at a place just down the street. After an awesome plate of nacho's we went and checked out Hops & Barley. I had the Pilsner which was very nice. We went back to the hostel and just hung out for the night.

Sunday: We got up, had some breakfast then went to the train station to catch a train at 12:45. Our destination was Leipzig which is south of Berlin. The main goal for going here was more beer hunting. We were seeking out Gose. We checked into our hostel, then set out for the Gasthaus & Gosebrauerei Bayerischer Bahnhof which is in an old train station. After a short walk we has a seat in the beer garden and got to enjoy this wonderful beer in some very wonderful weather.

We then walked through town in search of more Gose. Leipzig didn't get the bombing that other German cities did in WWII so there is still some really old and beautiful buildings standing. Johann Sebastian Bach is also buried here.

We finally arrived at Ohne Bedenken which was the first place to revive the Gose beer in the 80"s after it was nearly extinct. We had a nice meal and tried the third type of Gose available in Leipzig, Rittergut Gose. All the examples we tried were fairly sour, didn't have the strong salt character some american craft breweries give it, and didn't really have too strong a coriander taste. They were all very good beers though.

After we got back to the hostel, I talked to Jen for about an hour, tried and Alt beer that I had purchased in Berlin, then went to bed. 

What a week it's been. I have a feeling next week will be as eventful, as well as the coming weeks. I can't wait.