Hopfenland - Kuchlbauer midsize brewery tour

In a prior post about our weekend in "Hopfenland Hallertau" we toured the Lamplbräu microbrewery.
Now, we'll share our walk through a mid-size weissbier brewer called Kuchlbauer, in the town of Abensberg.
The entire experience here is called Kuchlbauer's Bierwelt (beer world) with a brewery, biergarten, art and info.

Like Lamplbräu, Kuchlbauer is privately owned. The same family has run it for seven generations (since 1904).
Whereas Lamplbräu was basically in the country (bordered a farm), Kuchlbauer is near a town center.

Also, unlike our "tour" at Lamplbräu (where I just called the owner, set a time, and he ushered us around personally), you have to purchase tickets for a Kuchlbauer tour at a specific time, with a guide & 40 other people.

We arrived early and had some time to kill before our tour started.  Kuchlbauer has a biergarten too, so we went there.  From outside its brick walls, you immediately see something quite different -- a strange, tall tower looms:

Next photo (below) is the biergarten entrance... what exactly is that thing, and why is it here?  Stay tuned:

The inside of the biergarten is decorated much like the tower.  They have a colorful, unique personality:

The tower is fenced-off and not accessible from the public area / biergarten - only through the tour.

The first biergarten customers we saw:  nuns!  A good sign for things to come?  Absolutely.

After getting a snack, we went back to the "corporate" front entrance to find the tour's starting point.

The tour takes a couple of hours to complete and costs €11 for adults, €5 per child, and €7 per teen.
The intro video (in German) told us that we'll see the fusion of "beer and art" at Kuchlbauer.  (Art??)

We followed our guide into the brewery for the start of the tour.  First stop: the copper brewing kettles.
It's easy to see the size difference now between this operation and the Lamplbräu "Sudhaus":

Then, as at Lamplbräu, we saw the next step in the brewing process - nearby cooling and storage tanks:

Moving on through the tour (& brewing process) we saw antique equipment like this bottling machine...

... then their larger, modern bottling facilities (they were not active - the current batch was not yet ready):

From the tower (hang on, info coming soon...) you could see the shipping yard and one of their trucks.
It's not InBev of course, but Kuchlbauer is clearly more commercial than a classic Bavarian microbrewer:

Unlike Lamplbräu - which cycles batches between helles (a lager), pilsner (another lager), and weissbier (an ale) -
Kuchlbauer brews exclusively weissbier.  The have six varieties available today (five are pictured below):

The varieties are, from left to right in the graphic above:
- "Sportsfreund" (sports friend)... basically a 'lite' dunkel weissbier, 40% less alcohol, 40% fewer calories
- "Alte Liebe" (old love)... a dunkel (dark) weissbier
- "Turmweisse" (turm = tower)... richer, uses a special malt, and has a higher 5.9% ABV (alcohol by volume)
- "Weisse" or "Helle Weisse"... a traditional Bavarian weisse, described as round and mild (vs. the Turm)
- "Aloysius"... named after a mythical Bavarian character, it's a dunkel bock weisse with a high 7.2% ABV
- [Not pictured] "Alkoholfrei"... alcohol free and low calorie weissbier

Note: Our friends at Regensblog told us Kuchlbauer *does* brew a helles (and they love it).  We found it on Google, but no link to it on KB's web site.  It must be brewed at another site and considered non-core to their brand.

The traditional weisse and the Turmweisse account for the vast majority of their output and branding.
The Turmweisse has the crazy tower on the label, and is available packaged with a unique weissbier glass:

           

(Keep reading -- we'll get to the "beer and art" explanation and tell the story behind the tower...)

This effectively ended the first part of the tour about the brewing process.  Next came some data and history.

You may have noticed, in the very first photo, that their logo on the side of the building said:  "since 1300".
Kuchlbauer is one of the oldest breweries in Germany.  They have a list (below) with the 15 oldest continuously operating breweries in Bavaria.  Kuchlbauer is 700+ years old (Munich's Weihenstephan is the oldest at 970).

They also had a map of all breweries in Bavaria (notice the bias towards Bavaria, and not Germany)...

... plus their wiessbier output (upper glass) relative to total Bavarian weissbier production (lower glass):

The lower glass made for quite a photo op by itself - Frau A could probably fit her head in the top of it: 

Between the weissbier output comparison and the long list of Bavarian weissbier brewers, you realize just how many local microbreweries Bavaria must have (and how many more visits, tours, and tastings Frau A and I need to do).

Now the tour shifted focus again, concentrating on the topic of "beer and art".  Getting closer to the tower...

Next, the guide led us down to a basement room in the main building, to a replica of Da Vinci's "Last Supper".
Yes, you read that correctly -- it's a half-scale reproduction of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting:

This replica is 8 meters wide and 3 meters high - the mounted television shows a short video to the group: 

The video and then the guide tried to pull symbolism from the Last Supper and link it to beer, brewing, etc..
We didn't understand the details of how they claimed to link the two, sorry.   But:  the head of the brewery and developer of the tower, Leonhard Salleck, has such a strong interest in Da Vinci and this specific work that he wrote a book on it titled Der Schlüssel (The Key), available on Amazon.de.  (No English translation available though.)

The next "beer and art" rooms/hallways were inspired by the artist who designed the tower. (Can you guess who?)  They weren't designed by him, but in his style, and done in the main building during the tower's construction:

The decor of the room above is unique enough, but one specific feature is important to our story:  dwarves.
The brewery owner likes dwarves, and uses them to tell visitors about the brewing ingredients, process, etc.
(Video below is about 3 minutes long, and a little dark, but gives you an idea of the Disney-esque feel.)
The dwarves will play an important role later in this post, about how the unique tower came into being:

The interesting designs continued into the next hallways & rooms, with beer bottler built into the walls:

Finally, we left the central building and went to the base of the tower (freestanding next to the brewery).
This is what everyone was waiting for -- the Kuchelbauer Tower  (plaque below:  "beer art tower"):

The tower has its own live webcam -- the latest photo is always available here.

As far as we could understand, here's the story behind the Kuchlbauer Turm:

Leonhard Salleck, head of the Kuchlbauer brewery, also has a strong personal interest in art.  In the late 1990s, he dreamed of erecting a beer+art tower (it'd be a tourist draw and marketing tool).  In 1998, Salleck contacted Austrian architect and painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser, asking him to design such a tower.
Hundertwasser initially declined.

But in 1999 Salleck sent another request.  He wrote a short märchen (fairy tale) about the "weissbeer dwarves of Abensberg".  The work, life, and mindset of the dwarves in his fairy tale communicted themes of brewing as art, and how brewing aligns closely with nature.  (Hundertwasser was a nature lover; his buildings - like this tower - have trees growing in and through them).  Finally, Salleck said that the Abensberg dwarves need a home.

Fortunately, Hundertwasser had some affinity towards dwarves (maybe why his designs are so childishly playful?) and his new response to Salleck's request was something like:  "You guys in Abensberg are crazy... I'll do it".

Hundertwasser created the initial concept for the tower, but his apprentice Peter Pelikan handled the planning
(and eventual implementation).

Along the way, Salleck had trouble getting Abensberg to approve.  First, German tradition (and often law) holds that nothing can stand taller than the town's church steeple.  Second, local leaders thought it would be a blight on the town's aesthetics and history, and not a future landmark.  To overcome the strong opposition, Salleck & Pelikan cut the tower's originally planned height in half.  This was eventually approved.  (It was ultimately a stroke of luck, because after the experience Salleck said that the larger version might have bankrupted the brewery.)

Hundertwasser died in 2000, at 71 years old, during the planning phase and before construction even started.  Construction eventually began with the laying of the cornerstone in 2007.  The 12-ton "onion" dome was mounted on the top in 2008, and the tower was opened to visitors in January 2010, just 20 months before our visit.

The tower stands 35m (114ft) tall, is 10m (33ft) in diameter, with the curves and colors of classic Hundertwasser.
(Further interesting information about the German engineering firms and software involved can be found here.)

The biergarten was later implemented at the foot of the tower and its grounds designed in a similar style.
Every December, Kuchlbauer erects a typical German Christmas Market in the biergarten space as well.

We entered the tower at ground level and immediately went down the stairs to the lower level.
Here, the tour guide gave a final speech and left the group to explore the tower independently.

On the other side of the "basement" is a wall of weissbier glasses from brewers around the globe. 
With more than 4200 on display, it is the (claimed) largest collection of weissbier glasses in the world.
We took a short (24 second) video walking past the glasses, to give you an idea of exactly how many there are:

From this lower level, then you climb the stair to the top of the tower.  Each level has another mosaic area, depicting important aspects in beer brewing. We'll cover those in a separate post. And then you descend to the beer garden and turn in your ticket for a Kuchelbauer beer of your choosing.

What is there left to say?  This was one of the most, um, unique tours Frau A and I have experienced.

Of course, the last activity was heading to the gift shop and getting a six-pack (one of each kind)!
For a million+1 reasons, this is a great destination on any trip to non-Munich, non-Alpine Bavaria.

Privacy with your Pilsner

Probably has something to do with the fact that it's the season of Christmas parties, but we've discussed several times recently how we're glad we didn't have smart phones when we were younger and less wise.

These days anyone can snap an embarrassing photo of themselves - or another person - and immediately upload it to Facebook or Twitter or any number of other sites. Kind of scary - at least in "the old days," there was a time lag of developing or downloading the photos the next day and usually realizing that sharing them was not a nice idea.

South American beer brand Cerveza Norte has come out with a solution: A beer cooler that keeps your beer cold and blocks photos of your party by responding to photo flashes with its own light that blurs our the photos.  According to Fast Company, it's a device for anyone "who values privacy along with their pilsner."

And of course it comes with another fun foreign commercial.

via FastCompany

Hofbräuhaus Traunstein

A couple of new beers popped up in our local grocery store, so we had to try them. We have seen a few restaurants around here with the Hofbräuhaus Traunstein logo on display, so we guessed it was a smaller local beer.

Upon further investigation, we discovered this was a private brewery from southern Bavaria (Traunstein is not too far from Chiemsee) and has been around since Elector Maximilian I founded it in 1612. See, the royalty had declared a monopoly over weißbier, so Maximilian started this brewery in order to help pay off debts he'd inherited.  Traunstein survived the Thirty Years War with relatively little damage. Through the years, the brewery survived wars and fires, passing through different hands until being acquired by the Sailer family at the end of the 19th century.  In fact the beer saved the brewery at least twice - they extinguished the fires with buckets of beer!

Today, Hofbrähaus Traunstein is a medium-sized brewery (10M liters per year), focusing on a mix of beer and hospitality (guesthouses and restaurants). They use Hollerdau hops, local malt and are the last brewery to transport their beer with horse-drawn carriages.

The Weißbier was quite good. It had hints of the standard banana and clove weißbier flavor, but was not overwhelming. It was nicely carbonated and unfiltered. Overall, we recommend it, especially to someone who enjoys a subtle weißbier rather than a sweet, strong one.

We also tried their helles.

 

The helles was OK...not bad but also nothing special. Not hoppy, not malty, not really much distinctive at all. It's definitely a decent beer and totally drinkable, but nothing exceptional.

We're looking forward to seeing what else might turn up on the shelves soon! 

The Ultimate NCAA Tournament Bracket of German Beers

About one year ago, to launch the Schnitzelbahn blog, we took 64 German beers (available in Munich, our home) and arranged them into a bracket like the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  The "regions" were loosely defined as:

16 helles
16 weissbier  (although the "selection committee" had to send a few Oktoberfest beers here)
16 pilsner
16 dunkel & other styles

The starting bracket looked like this (click for larger version):

Some beers were from large firms and are available all over Germany (and beyond).  Others were local.
Some beers were expensive, but one Munich helles costs just € 0.39 a bottle - much cheaper than water! 

For a little background, we wrote posts to introduce some of the styles and specific beers in the bracket:
- This was the very first post to kick things off
- Here we explain the differences between a Munich helles (a lager) and weissbier (an ale)
- In this post and this post we match beers with well-known universities/teams in NCAA basketball

So, with our faithful friends, we would test four beers per evening.  Each of the two pairs was tasted blindly.
The two winners were then pitted against each other -- basically Round 1 and Round 2 run back-to-back.
(In this case, "winner" simply meant "the beer I liked the best" - a subjective voting, but good enough.)

And yes, this tournament also had strong favorites, underdogs, and upsets along the way.
You can relive the action in our posts below:

Rounds 1 and 2

Helles Region                                                                       Weissbier Region

Day 1                                                                                          Day 1

Day 2   (featuring Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr)       Day 2  ("kristall" weissbiers)

Day 3   (featuring Andechs monastery beers)               Day 3  ("naturtrub" style beers)

Day 4                                                                                          Day 4  (weissbier vs. Oktoberfest)

Pilsner Region                                                                     Dunkel / other Region

Day 1                                                                                          Day 1

Day 2  (the "Power Pils")                                                       Day 2

Day 3  (featuring "export"-style beers)                            Day 3  (featuring the higher-alcohol "starkbiers")

Day 4                                                                                          Day 4  (also includes Oktoberfest style beers)

Sweet Sixteen round

Helles  and  Pilsner regions

Weissbier  and  Dunkel/other regions

The Elite Eight, Final Four, and the Final

This is what the final bracket looked like (again, click for full size version):

We had a blast doing this "beer tournament" and hope you enjoyed reading about it.

For more interesting posts about Germany & beer, click our Navigation categories on this page's top/right side.

Thanks for visiting!

Lamplbräu Beer

At the end of our tour of the Lamplbräu brewery, Herr Stanglmayr kindly gave us a 6 pack with three of his pils and three of his weißbier to try, and we picked up some helles at the Deutsches Hopfenmuseum.

The helles was quite good. A smooth, classic helles style beer. Easy to drink, but with a good light hoppiness (from Hallertau hops, of course!) and just the right carbonation. When we visited the brewery, he had already sold his last batch of helles (apparently it goes quickly!), but we were able to pick up a six-pack at the Hopfenmuseum.

We'll have to try it up against Tegernseer and some of the better Munich helles, but we think it would stand up quite well in another beer tournament!

The pils was also much to our liking, not surprising for a southern Bavarian pilsner-style beer. It was a more hoppy beer, but not at all bitter. Very enjoyable.

Note the different bottle style - he had had some trouble with the bottles he normally used for pils and ended up having to use a different one. So it may be that this batch will be in a different bottle than ones we would get at another time.  

As you can probably tell from the lights, rides, and people passed out on the hill, we tried these at Oktoberfest (as part of our engagement picnic).

On a later day, we tried the Weißbier.

We are big fans! This is a great weißbier, and one that will please both weißbier lovers and those who find it too sweet. While it does have hints of the weißbier flavors, it is not at all sweet and is very subtle (but complex) in the flavoring. No one aroma or taste overpowers the others - it's quite a nice balance. Also an unfiltered weißbier, and one that is not too fizzy. We'll have to get some more of this!

Hopfenland - Lamplbräu microbrewery tour

As described in an earlier blog post, Frau A and I spent a weekend in Bavaria's "Hopfenland", Hallertau, which produces 80% of Germany's hops and accounts for 25% of worldwide output.  As part of the experience, we wanted to tour a brewery.  One option was a microbrewery about 10 minutes from our hotel, in a town called Larsbach.

I telephoned Lamplbräu and the owner, Mr. Stanglmayr, picked up.  He said that he would meet us basically any time, so we asked for Saturday 09.00 in the morning so we could fit more in that day.  No problem!

(Above:  sign outside Lamplbräu, "Bavarian Beer, unique in the world"; see the hops flowers in the crest?)

We arrived a few minutes early to a small, plain building that sits next to a hops farm (on the other side):

Note: a "Sudhaus" is the place in a brewery where the mashing process occurs and the wort is extracted.

Mr. Stanglmayr heard the car doors and came out right away.  We explained about our "hops weekend" and he showed us, right inside the door, a basket of fresh hops he just received from his neighbors.  That's fresh!
(We're guessing he extracts the resin/powder himself - no pre-packaged hops pellets for Lampl Bräurei.)

He started the tour right away.  Satisfyingly, we spoke only German with him, without major issues!

First, on the ground floor, the copper brew kettles where the wort and hops are boiled.

After boiling, the mixture is piped up to the second level and through the cooling apparatus (photo, left side).
When cool, the liquid is moved into the tank (right side) and yeast is added to start the fermentation process: 

After fermentation, the beer is transferred back to the ground floor for "racking" (lagering).  In this process it sits in "conditioning tanks" to age -- 4 to 12 weeks depending on the type of beer being brewed (less for weissbier, an ale):

The beer is held in those stainless steel tanks until bottled or kegged:

  

Mr. Stanglmayr is a certified Meisterbrauer (master brewer).  He rotates batches between weissbier, helles, and "bier nach Pilsner art" (beer in the pilsner style).  Local hops are used for the helles and weissbier of course.  Not sure about the pilsner though -- he might get Czech (Pilsen) hops for that, but we didn't ask specifically. 

Interestingly, 100% of the output is consumed "locally" (+/- 20 miles?) - you can't even get this in Munich!

He has an old Mercedes truck for deliveries!  Very cool:

 

His house is literally right next door to the brewery building - a perfect small-town artisian German lifestyle.

He took us into his back yard and showed us his charcoal grill, made by a neighbor from an old beer keg!

Who wouldn't want one of these?

At the end (about an hour) Mr. Stanglmayr offered us a six-pack of beer he had fresh:  3 weissbier, 3 pils:

Later, at the Hops Museum, we picked up his last batch of helles too.  Back in Munich we chilled and tasted them.
It's neat to try beer made by a German master brewer that is simply NOT available outside this small town area!

The helles was very similar (which is a good thing) to the Munich offerings... same sweetness and subtle hops.
The pilsner was also very good -- quite hoppy, but so much fresher and more complex than the big brands.
The most outstanding offering was his weissbier.  Incredibly crisp, a little less banana/clove than a typical weissbier, but with different spice notes that we really liked.  It would have been a Tournament contender!

A hearty thanks to Mr. Stanglmayr for his time, friendly conversation, and great gift of Lamplbräu beer!

Travels in Beer - Spain

We ended our recent hiking trip through the Pyrennees with some tapas and Spanish beer at our hotel in Barcelona.

Since our hotel was located around the corner from the Damm brewery, it was only fitting that we tried two of their offerings.

We had seen Estrella Damm often (on all of the umbrellas and chairs at many cafes!) but had never heard of the AK Damm.  Since our waitress couldn't tell us anything about the differences, we decided to try one of each. 

Herr J had the standard Estrella Damm, which is pretty similar to other mass-produced lagers.  While it was a notch above Budweiser in taste, it's pretty much Spain's Bud (or Budvar, if we want to stay in Europe).  A reliably decent beer that you can get everywhere.

Interesting we make the comparison...Damm actually is Spain's licensed producer of Budweiser.  While they are not owned by InBev, they are in a partnership (to produce Bud). 

The S.A. Damm brewery has been in Barcelona for around 130 years, and is one of Spain's largest producers.  They have a pretty wide variety in the beer assortment.  We definitely see some German influence, as they include Märzen, Kellerbier, weissbier, and Bock styles, as well as a Radler! Given that Spain is the land of tinto de verano (red wine + sprite as a summer drink), it's only fitting that they have radlers....

The A.K. Damm, on the other hand, was a bit more interesting. We had no idea what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised by its smooth, light taste and almost a tingle on the tongue. While it was light and crisp, it also had some of the caramel notes of a darker, maltier beer. And it was not clear, but had no sediment.  We really weren't sure where to classify this beer, but it's probably closest to a helles, with a little more malt.  Part of me felt it leaned toward a weissbier, but it clearly was not one.   

The bottle describes the beer as being brewed according to the Alsatian method, and combining German character with French refinement.  Named after the Damm founder August Kuentzmann Damm, it was released in 2001 to celebrate the brewery's 125th anniversary.  It uses the original beer recipe that he brought with him when he moved from Strasbourg to Barcelona in 1876.

We're not quite sure what the Alsatian method is, but it appears to be brewed according to reinheitsgebot standards and is called a "pure malt beer" that uses the barley and hops from the Alsace.  Alsace is France's main beer brewing and hops-growing region, with a strong German influence. We could definitely enjoy this beer with a nice flammkuchen!

While we quite enjoyed its light and unique taste, this beer does not get good reviews on most beer rating sites.  We suspect that this is driven by one of two factors:

1) Preference - it seems the typical person who rates beers on these sites prefers a strong hoppy or dark or bitter beer.  The smoother, sweeter beers generally are not well-rated.

2) The Hofbräu Effect - We coined this term during our beer tournament.  When asked what they think about Hofbräu beer, most Munich residents gave a thumbs down. But in blind tastings, it was well-liked. (The same was true for Löwenbräu).  So, we suspect this beer lost several points just for being a Spanish beer and would have fared better in blind tastings.

While we're the first to admit that we're biased towards Helles and less hoppy beers, we really enjoyed this one and will definitely order it again next time we're in Spain.  

And as a bonus, we're now inspired to go visit the Alsace and check out their beers!