New Glarus Brewing Company (2)

My next stop at New Glarus Brewing Company was the 'Brewhouse'. Here, no expense was spared, and the complete Krones package was purchased: Variomill wet malt mill, Pegasus lauter tun, and Stromboli wort kettle. A truly beautiful brewhouse!

In addition, the brewery owner showed me the Riverside Brewery. Unfortunately, no brewing is currently taking place here due to renovation work. He bought the copper brewhouse from around 1955 from the closing private brewery Rauh & Ploss in Selb (Upper Franconia) in 1998. 25,000 DM for the brewhouse and the same amount three times more for transportation and assembly. Initially, everything was operated by hand, but later automation was added. The malt is crushed with a 60-year-old 6-roll mill from Gebrüder Seck in Dresden. The fermentation cellar for the 'regular' specialty beers has been expanded several times. In addition, there is a separate fermentation cellar with a cooling ship in an additional building. Here, all sour beers are produced (e.g. fruit beers, Lambic 'Sour Blonde'). The cooling ship intentionally has a wooden roof truss so that the rising steam drips the yeasts and bacteria growing in the roof truss into the beer, thus promoting spontaneous fermentation/wild fermentation. Therefore, no yeast needs to be added. For these beers, he uses aged, browned, and cheesy hops, but in large quantities. As a result, the alpha acid has already broken down, and there are few hop bitterness but many polyphenols ('tannins') in the beer, which allow the yeasts and bacteria to grow and create a more wine-like taste. He also believes that the cheesy flavors of the aged hops change into fruity flavors during maturation. For this purpose, he has various sizes of wooden barrels, most of which come from the wine industry. These are only rinsed with water to keep the yeasts, bacteria, and flavors in the wood. They are always filled to the top to prevent aerobic acetic acid bacteria from growing. If it does occur, it is cleaned with an oxidatively weak alkaline solution, which is also used in leather processing. After the 1/2 to 1 year maturation, the barrels are blended according to his taste. I was consistently impressed with the flavors. A perfect acidity, a very balanced body result in a very pleasant, drinkable, and wine-like taste.