Hopfenmuseum Tettnang - The Tettnang Hop Museum

Together with the Hallertau, Hersbruck and Spalt, Tettnang is one of the most famous and important hop-growing regions in Germany. The aromatic Tettnang hops are famous all over the world. After having visited the "Deutsches Hopfenmuseum" in Wolnzach/Hallertau in April, I decided to give it a go and visit another hop museum.
Tettnanger Hopfenmuseum is located in the hamlet of Siggenweiler, about 4km from Tettnang, inmidst of rolling countryside and hop fiels as far as the eye can see.

Welcome to the museum!

While Deutsches Hopfenmuseum in Wolnzach in the Hallertau is a modern and newly built steel, glass and wood construction, built for the purpose of a museum, Tettnang hop museum is actually located on a traditional working hop farm. This has the advantage that you can see every step of the cultivation of hops from scratch at the place where it happens. The motto of the museum is "Vom Bauer zum Brauer" (literally "from the farmer to the brewer"), so you can really see every step of hop production, from the plants to the ready-packed hop sacks.

A working hop farm

There are lots of interesting expositions inside, spread over several buildings connected by little bridges, for example about the life of hop farmers, history, old machinery, a beer bottle collection and much more. While inspecting their beer bottle collection I couldn't help overhearing a somehow funny but also sad conversation between a group of other visitors:
- "Was ist eigentlich Altbier?" ("What is Altbier?")
- "Altbier ist dunkel vergoren!" ("Altbier is fermented darkly!") - whatever that means...
- "Und das gibt's nur in Köln!" ("And it's only available in Cologne!"). No. That's Düsseldorf.

This shows that people know only very few about beer. I hope they learnt something during their educational trip to the museum.

a view from one of the upstairs windows

In the machinery room a 15 minute film about Tettnang hops is shown to the visitors (every full hour). After enjoying the museum with its beautifully decorated exhibitions you can browse the small shop or have lunch at the restaurant that offers hearty Swabian cusine. On thing I can't understand about the restaurant is that they tap Meckatzer. Meckatzer brews some very fine beers, but I think it would make sense to tap beers from the local Tettnanger Kronenbrauerei, which is situated just 4km away in the centre of historic Tettnang.

I would also have liked the shop to sell some beers made with Tettnang hops. That the shop doesn't sell any beer is not a problem, however, Tettnang's beers are widely available in the area.

a hop field next to the museum

I can definitely reccomend a trip to Tettnang hop museum. Find out more here:
http://www.hopfenmuseum-tettnang.de/

Brauerei Mellert, Steinach im Kinzigtal

One sunny day a few weeks ago I had some business to do in the Kinzig valley in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). This part of the Black Forest belongs to Baden, part of the south-German state of Baden-Württemberg. The other part (Württemberg/Schwaben, Swabia in English) of this state has got far more small independent village breweries, perhaps because of the geographical closeness to Bavaria.
But here, in heartland Baden, there are a few little family breweries hidden away deep in picturesque Black Forest valleys. One of these gems is Brauerei Mellert in Steinach im Kinzigtal.

They produce four different beers:
- an unfiltered Kellerbier called "Urbier"
- a Pils
- a Dortmunder style Export
- a Weizen
- and for the winter they even brew a Weizenbock.

As it is summer, Weizenbock was not available. The other four beers, however are all very well-crafted rural beers. They are full of flavour with good malt and lovely aromatic hops.

Finding this brewery in a vilage in Baden made me realize, that there are so many small and independent breweries in rural Swabia, but why not in Baden? This is one common county or state, but in one part of it there's so much beer from rural breweries and in the other part not!? So far I wasn't able to find out why. Perhaps Baden is a part of the country where wine is drunk on most occasions, although beer seems to be very popular, too. I'll continue to think about the reasons. In the end, Mellert didn't only supply me with good beer, but also with food for thoughts...

Ehingen an der Donau

Last week I finally took advantage of the good weather (no, this is not ironic, that day the weather really was good) and went on a long-planned trip to Ehingen an der Donau. This is a town southwest of Ulm with about 25.000 inhabitants. The remarkable thing is, that Ehingen still boasts 5 breweries (in words: Five)! This is highly unusual. Even in Franconia, the German beer paradise, such an amount of breweries concentrated in such a small area would be something very special. But this is not all. The other remarkable thing about Ehingen is, that none of these breweries is one of those fancy modern brewpubs where a computer does all the brewmaster's work. All of Ehingen's breweries have been brewing there for hundreds of years, the youngest brewery being founded in 1785, the oldest in 1466.

After an hours drive through rural Swabia I arrived at Ehingen-Berg, a small village about 3km from the centre of Ehingen. Beers from BergBrauerei (founded in 1466) can be found all over the place in various drinks market, but nevertheless this is a traditional family-run brewery. To buy the full line-up of all their beers, a visit to the brewery shop is inevitable, as most drinks market only stock their standard beers. Several buildings belong to the brewery as they also have a shop, a restaurant and a museum. The shop offers the full range of their beers (including seasonal specials, such as christmas beer and Märzen!) as well as souvenirs.

BergBrauerei Ullrich Zimmermann, Ehingen-Berg

The next stop was the town centre of Ehingen. I left the car in the central car park and started exploring the town on foot. The first brewery to be visited by quack-duck was Schwert-Brauerei on Viehmarkt 9 ("Sword-brewery", founded in 1675). They have a nice restaurant, but unfortunately no-one was there to sell me bottled beer. An hour later I was lucky and bought 5 different bottled beers (Pils, Lager, Dunkel, Hefeweizen and Dunkelweizen).

Brauerei Schwert

The next stop was Rössle (literally "little horse", founded in 1663) on Hauptstraße. Again, no-one was there and I had to wait for a while until I accidentially met the brewmaster himself. He sold me four different bottled beers and a glass. Again, this brewery has a nice restaurant attached that offers hearty dishes such as bratwurst with sauerkraut or kässpätzle, roast pork and schnitzels.

Brauerei Rössle

At Schwanen (The Swan, founded in 1697) they had Kässpätzle-Wochen (Kässpätzle: a local speciality of southern Germany) but as I was running out of time (and cash) I didn't have lunch there. They only bottle one of their beers, an unfiltered golden lager called Dominikus. Their other beers are only available draught at their place. But on request they fill souvenir bottles to take away.
They always have regular beers on tap such as Pils, Spezial, Zwickel and Jubelbier (a classic Dunkel). In addition, every month they brew a seasonal special. At the time of my visit it was their Märzen. During summer they also have Hefeweizen available. Their seasonal specials are brewed in a micro-brewery inside the restaurant. That means, the quantity of the seasonals is really limited. This micro-brewery inside the restaurant can be booked by groups for brewing courses. If you do so, for one evening you can play brewmaster and make your own beer, and while doing so enjoy a five-course menu.

Brauereigasthof Schwanen

I missed out the fifth brewery, Adlerbrauerei Föhr (founded in 1785) located at Ehingen-Rißtissen, as I had already visited it in mid-2008. Rißtissen is a small village a few kilometres from Ehingen. My last stop for the day was the Schlecker drinks market situated in an industrial estate not far from the through-road. There I was lucky to pick up the last bottles of two seasonal specials from the not far-away Zwiefalten brewery (also visited in 2008) - Schwarzer Keiler and their christmas beer.

All in all, Ehingen is really worth a trip. It is a nice rural town and the amount of breweries is stunning! If you like good, honest, hand-crafted beer from traditional family-run breweries this is the place to go! I can only recommend a visit!

Four heralds of spring

Four heralds of spring

Sometimes a visit to the local Getränkemarkt (drinks market) can be really worthwile. While looking for mineral water I stumbled across the first heralds of spring: four new seasonal beers by the region's breweries:

- SchwabenBräu Heller Bock (Stuttgart) brewed at 16,1° Plato with 6,9% ABV which seems to be an entirely new product in their range.
- Schäffler Osterfestbier (Missen, Allgäu) is the first Easter beer this year, brewed in the Oktoberfest/Märzen style. Easter beers are rather uncommon in Germany, so I am particularly glad I found this one.
- Tettnanger Coronator Dunkler Doppelbock (Tettnang) brewed each year for lent. Coronator is brewed at 18,7° Plato with 7,2% ABV. Last year's edition was really fantastic, a deep dark intensively malty and strong beer with lovely hints of chocolate, berries, dried fruit and raisins. A very complex beer to savour slowly on a cold winter's night. As the beer comes from Tettnang, it is of course made with 100% Tettnang hops.
- Königsegger WalderBräu Märzen (Königseggwald) is a Märzen-style beer brewed by another regional brewery that still operates its own maltings.

Together with the already warmer temperatures and the melting snow these new arrivals are a certain sign of the upcoming spring.

a trip to the Allgäu

One sunny day in mid-February I had some business to do in Isny im Allgäu. Having had some free time I decided to make a detour and visit two nearby breweries: Brauerei Simmerberg and Postbrauerei Weiler. Both are small traditional regional brewers whose beers are hardly available outside the Allgäu region.

Brauerei Simmerberg

After a beautiful drive though the alpine Allgäu region, covered deeply in snow, I arrived at Simmerberg. The brewery can be seen from far away, as it is a rather tall building. Next to the brewery itself are two restaurants serving regional cuisine and of course, fresh Simmerberger Bier. It wasn't easy to find a place to buy bottled beer, but after some advice from the lady in the office I managed to catch a driver of the brewery's home service. I bought their Pils, Dunkel, Hefeweizen and even their christmas special, an amber golden Märzen with a lovely malt bouquet and hints of alpine herbs.

Postbrauerei Weiler

Next on the agenda was Postbrauerei Weiler in the next village, Weiler im Allgäu. I bought their bottled beer from a nearby drinks market, as the brewery doesn't sell single bottles. However, at the brewery I bought a 2l-bottle of their Zwickelbier, the unfiltered beer directly from their cellar. This was intensively malty with a fruity and yeasty nose and some lovely floral hoppy flavours. I am already looking forward to tasting their seasonal Weizenbock, waiting in the fridge.

And if you are in the area: don't forget to buy some local cheese and butter. There are still some artisanal cheese producers around that produce some of the best cheeses in Germany.

Find out more about these two breweries:
Simmerberg: http://www.braeustatt-simmerberg.de
Weiler: http://www.post-brauerei.de

a short trip to Brauerei Lehner

In mid-December I had some work to do in Rottweil, which is a historic town near the Black Forest. The town of Rosenfeld, about 25km from Rottweil has got a small regional brewery. I used my free time to go there and buy their bottled beers. The drive was beautiful, sunny winter weather and beautiful Black Forest hills.
A the brewery they had Festbeer (christmas beer, a Märzen) and Winterbock, their Bockbier for the winter time, besides the offer they have all year round (Pils, Hefeweizen hell + dunkel etc.).
Their Festbier and Pils taste really delicious, the rest of the 8 bottles bought there still awaits their tasting.
The very special thing about this brewery is, that all their profits go to Günther-Lehner foundation to help people in need.
More information on their website: http://www.lehner-bier.de/

Welcome to quack-duck's beer blog (QDBB).
Here I will write about my beer travels through rural southern Germany, the Czech Republic etc...