Bavaria Brewing and La Trappe

We stayed in Tilburg, Netherlands for a few nights. During the day we toured the Malting facility at Bavaria Brewing in the Netherlands. It was the first large-scale malthouse that I've been to. However, no pictures were allowed there.

After a nice lunch we headed up to La Trappe for the last monastery tour of our trip. Unlike Orval, the beer made at La Trappe doesn't separate their brewhouse and their monastery. It wasn't uncommon to see Kenyan monks walking around with bundles of house made cheese. Profits from the beer sales go to charity in Africa, and the monastery serves as a refuge for monks during the war in Africa.

La Trappe is the only "Trappist" brewery located outside of Belgium. Originally located in France, the monastery was re-located during anti-religious movements under Napoleon. It's also known as Koningshoven.

That night was spent in downtown Tilburg gorging ourselves over the 200+ beer menu at Cafe Kadinsky. We also were in the Netherlands...nuff said?

Next day we were off to Dusseldorf. I've seen quite a few Altbier breweries. It's funny but I thought that Alt and Kolsch were just styles that came out a certain region. In truth, Alt is the only beer you can purchase at most places with the exception of Pils. Don't even think about ordering a Kolsch in Dusseldorf! Not if you want to get a punch in the face. The opposite is true about Koln. We travel there tomorrow after touring the Uerige brewery. We met one of the new brewers for Uerige, John, who happens to be an American graduate of Siebel. John took us to a football game to watch Fortuna Dusseldorf lose to FC Union Berlin.

Tonight I'm having a Dortmunder Union Export and catching up on some computer time. I was always curious about the Dortmunder style of beer. The only import I can find in the states is DAB. DAB tastes more like a Pilsner/Helles than how the style guidelines dictate. Great Lakes makes an award winning Dortmunder, but after the three kegs of it at Siebel I thought the beer was terrible. It tasted bitter with no hop aroma or flavor and sweet. Definitely not a sessionable beer for me. It seems that the Dort I'm having tonight is my first real Dort. Well, I'm not wowed. I get the hard water thing, and it's tasty, but boring. Oh well, maybe my love affair with this style is over. If anyone can email me a brand of Dort I should try I would appreciate it.

Cantillion and Heineken

Cantillion is located in the ghetto end of Brussels. The Brewery is actually a museum although they still brew there once a week only in the winter. Beer is produced only in the coldest parts of the year because they employ an coolship in the attic to cool their wort. After cooling, the wort is sent to a open fermenter for fermentation. You can guess that many bacteria can become present with a week of open and spontaneous fermentation. After a week of fermentation, the beer is moved to used wine barrels where it's stored for a year at the very least. The barrels are used until they fall apart. Refermetation occurs in the barrels sending foam out of the bung. Spiders are welcome in the brewhouse because of the excess of fruit flies. Aside from the spiders, the house cat shown here takes care of other pests. We call her the CIP or CAT system.

The whole place smells dank with the exception of the barrel storage and fermentation room that smells of yeast. The smell of yeast is so strong that it's no wonder that spontaneous fermentations occurs so rapidly. The fruit is added to the lambic in the summer months when brewing is not held but fruit crops are matured. The fruit is added directly to the barrels, stored for six months and bottled. The brewers here suggest not storing the fruit lambics because the flavor is best at bottling. However, the geuze can be stored with excellent results.

The Heineken brewery in Tilburg was easily the largest brewery I've been in. They used a double-decker bus to show us the facility. Every part of the brewing process was automatized. The workers never come close to touching the product as it's being made. We were not permitted to take pictures. The contrast between Cantillion and Heineken was staggering. I would personally brew at a dirty museum than an immaculate, computerized factory. Cantillion produces 3,300hl of beer per year while the Tilburg brewery (one of many Heineken breweries) produces over 8 million hl.

Oh yeah, check out a video of Cantillion at my friend Geoff's page:
http://seattlebeernews.com/?p=300

Bofferding and Orval

On the second day we went to Bofferding in Luxembourg and Orval in Belgium.

Orval is a small monastery in Belgium making only one beer. The beer is produced once a week. We got to see all the new equipment next to all the old. In 2007 the monastery purchased new equipment. So next to the old copper kettles are new stainless kettles covered in copper for appearance. Also, their beer is dry hopped! This was quite exciting for our American brewers.

First day of the study tour

It's the first day of the study tour through Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Our first stop was the OeTtinger Brewery to see the largest brewery in Germany. These guys produce 8 million hectoliters of beer per year and sell their beer at a near loss to take advantage of the frugal market. When on sale, some of their beer will sell for 4euro a case (ten liters!).

Well, cheap beer is cheap beer if you ask me. After a fantastic lunch, we were off to the original KHS plant where they manufacture filling stations. It was incredibly huge for a plant that doesn't supply washers or labelers. The kind folks at KHS fed us and gave us beer (see a trend with the Germans?). They showed us where the anti-aircraft guns were stationed during the war when their plant was leveled to the ground. Tune in tomorrow; I'll be at Orval.

Garmisch

Easter Sunday Gordon, Craig, Nick and I went hiking up the Bavarian Alps in the small skiing city of Garmisch. Although the hike was only 1,000 feet in elevation, we were worn out from following nearly every other trail before finding the trailhead. It does help to learn some German before you travel.

It was a clear 70 degree day and as we approched the top we were dreaming of biergartens again. Jokingly, we said it would be great if their were a biergarten at the top.

Well, to our suprise, there was one. We had some Weissbier and hung out in the sun before heading back into town.

Gearing up for the study tour

Yup, like I've been saying, our class is starting a rock band and have chosen this picture of us with bikes as the first cover. Our internet has been off and on so I've had a hard time keeping up the blog. That and I've been having too much fun to play on the computer.

Last week at Doeman's is finally over. We've just finished the final exam and I feel confident that I passed.

Last Wednesday, Matt from Firestone Walker brewing flew out here to give a day seminar on hops. He also shipped sample beer from California. Most everyone was excited to taste the overly hopped US beers, except the Brazilian students. We had a liter of Augustiner at the Kellerhall and talked shop after class.

The weekend before a few of us traveled to Nuremberg. We traveled through the Coliseum and Zeppelin field where Hitler held his massive Nazi rallies. Walking into the Coliseum was chilling. It was run down, full of shrubs and birds. A haunting thunder rolled in on rain clouds when we entered. There is a museum inside and a small platform to view the massive enclosure. The coliseum is mainly used for storage.

More updates from Bayern!

This week was spent using a DE filter on our beer and in the bottling plant packaging. Working on the filling side of the beer industry is not very interesting to blog about.

On Thursday we got a chance to brew again. Our teacher Eder nabbed some American hops from HopUnion while in the States so that we could show these German students how IPAs are made. Eder's expression while we added large handfuls of Centennial every five minutes was priceless.

I also found my favorite beer: Augustiner Lagerbier Hell. Liters of this delicious lager cost only 5.20euro at the Braustube. Half of the Munchiners prefer this beer and the other half prefer the export version Edelstoff.

Export lager is another style worthy of consideration.

There are basically two types of export beer: type 1 is very pale(7-9 ebc) and dry. Final attenuations of up to 86%(Augustiner Edelstoff) and a bitterness of up to 30BUs. The increase of alcohol and bitterness balance the dryness. Type 2 is higher in color (12ebc) and lower in final attenuation (80%). Because this beer is slightly sweeter, the bitterness is also lower (18-26BUs). If Dortmunder were still being brewed, it would fit into this category. However, most Dortmunder beers being made are moving toward the Bavarian Pils style which is more acceptable to a large audience.

Another point I would like to make: Bavarian Pils is not really "Pilsner". Sure it's stronger, dryer and made with soft treated water, but the brewers in Bavaria have been lowering the bitterness for the south German palate and calling it Pils. BUs on this sub-category dip dangerously down to 18-20. The trend for more boring beer is here in Germany just like in the States. Northern German and Bohemian styles have anywhere from 35-50. Flensburger Pils I know from experience is 44BUs. That's quite hoppy for a dry lager!