Flanders is History

We're going strong in Belgium. Yesterday (Monday) we went on two brewery tours. On the drive to the first brewery our enthusiastic tour guide Christa talked about the history of the Flanders (Flemish speaking) region of Belgium. Flanders has a long, eventful and slightly depressing history. It is depressing in the sense that the region has constantly been invaded and attacked throughout its history. Along with the constant invasions has come multiple leaders from multiple countries. It is an understatement to say that Flanders struggles with its identity as a region. However, it seems to me that people from Flanders see themselves as a different breed of Belgians. In other words, they are united in their separation from (geographically and culturally) the rest of Belgium. Based on what Christa told us yesterday and from what I have observed, Flanders seems to have something in common with Bavaria. That is, Flanders, like Bavaria, is a region defined by its differences from the rest of the country. One particular characteristic of people from Flanders is their individuality, at least in terms of the architecture of their homes. As we were driving to our first brewery, Christa pointed out how different every house looked. Throughout Germany, houses in a certain area tend to look similar, if not exactly alike. In Flanders, though, houses are in all shapes, sizes, colors, and designs. Christa told us these drastic differences come from people in Flanders choosing their own plot of land and then hiring an architect to design their house to their own personal taste. While driving past the rows of these individually designed houses I could not help but think of how similar it was to many suburban neighborhoods in the United States. The individualism of people in Flanders seems to be at least somewhat similar to the individualism of Americans, however the source of the individualism is different in each country. In Flanders, it seems that the search for an individual identity after centuries of invasion has led to these eccentric houses.

After about an hour of driving through the Flanders countryside we arrived at Bosteels brewery. Bosteels is a family run brewery in Flanders. When we showed up we were surprised to see that the brewery had an American flag hanging from the roof of one of the brewery buildings. To our further excitement we found out that the brewery had put the flag up in anticipation of our visit. It was great to experience firsthand what Christa called "the Flanders hospitality." We were then led through the brewery, which was relatively small and had beautiful copper kettles. The most striking part of the tour was seeing how Bosteels clearly puts importance in preserving the history of the brewery. There was a display of old beer transport vehicles, which was something I had never seen before. Also, the brewery building itself retains its classic architectural style. After the tour we tasted all three of the Bosteels beers. Each beer was outstanding, however one beer stood out from the rest. This beer is called Deus and is a strong golden belgian ale. What makes this beer special, though, is that after it is brewed it is sent to France where it receives the same treatment that Champagne receives. This treatment gives the beer amazing effervescence and impeccable clarity. The aroma of the beer was special. A mix of malt sweetness with a slight note of spiciness. The flavor was also a combination of sweet and savory. Overall it was an smooth, interesting and unforgettable beer. During our tasting we got the opportunity to meet the former owner of the Brewery. He was a passionate and knowledgeable man who obviously brought a tremendous amount of joy to the brewery. He also seemed to take a liking to our group so he brought us to the house where former owners used to live. He showed us paintings of former owners as well as the founder of the brewery. He also described to us his philosophy of owning a brewery. He made it clear that money cannot be the main objective and that quality must be the number one goal. He said that his job has always been like a vacation every day and that a person does not need much money in life to live comfortably. I left Bosteels brewery with an optimistic outlook. This was an inspirational man we had just met and I doubt I will ever forget the morning I spent at Bosteels brewery.

After Bosteels we went to Ghent which is a college town in Flanders. Ghent is full of beautiful historical architecture and even has a medieval castle in the middle of town (pictured above). Apart from being a deeply historical city, Ghent is also very much alive because of the constant flow of students through the streets of the city. Ghent seems like an ideal student city. It is not too big or too small and has enough history to keep any history buff busy for a few years. The city also seems to have a good mix of old and new architecture, and does not seem to be stuck in past, so to say. After Ghent we went to Liefmanns brewery, which is mostly a display of old brewing technology. It was fascinating to see how breweries were run before automation. The cleaning of brewing equipment clearly must have been extremely difficult work, requiring exponentially more manpower than breweries employ today. While most of the brewery was industrial archaeology, one section is still in use today. The open air fermentation tanks are used to ferment all four of the beers at Liefmanns. These tanks are used because the location of Liefmanns in that section of Flanders has a particular strain of wild yeast in the air. So the beer that is made at Liefmanns has a distinct sourness, which comes from lactic acid bacteria, which are a result of the open air fermentation. This form of fermentation is much like the fermentation at Cantillon brewery, and is a method historically used by many breweries in the Flanders region. However, only a select few breweries use the open fermentation method today. So breweries such as Liefmanns are keeping the traditional beers of Flanders alive. Overall, the day gave me a glimpse of the history of Flanders and how that history has influenced the region today.

Gesundheid!

Dubuisson and Het Anker

Yesterday was a bit of a crazy day. Our bus driver was supposed to meet us at a road near our hotel. He went to a road with the exact same name as the road near our hotel, the problem was that it was in a city 45 minutes away. So, the day got off to a late start. After finally catching our bus we went to our first brewery tour at Dubuisson, which was an hour and half drive away. The tour was slightly disappointing because, well, it wasn't a tour. They showed us a video and a gave us a few tastings of their beer. Regardless, it was interesting to see a brewery operating in such a rural area. The brewery was basically surrounded by farmland and there weren't any traces of a city anywhere nearby.

After Dubuisson we drove another hour and a half to Het Anker brewery, which was a much cooler experience. The first step of the brewery tour was a quick history lesson. Our tour guide told us that the brewery was started by women during the Crusades who brewed beer to use as a pain reliever in their hospital. The hospital still exists today and is directly across from the current brewery. The brewery itself is a mix of old and new. The brew tank and mash tun both looked weathered and older than most of the breweries we have seen, with the exception, of course, of Cantillon. We also got to see the old cool ship, which is no longer used in the brewing process, but was nonetheless very cool to see. The cool ship is what was formerly used to cool the beer after the boil in order to prepare it for fermentation. The cool ship worked because it was outside in open air, much like at Cantillon. Our tour guide did not mention anything about wild strains of yeast entering the beer, which one would expect when beer is exposed to the open air. I would expect that the beer at Het Anker probably had a sour taste, much like at Cantillon. After the brewery tour we got to taste a couple of their beers, which were powerful in aroma, flavor and alcohol content. So that is a brief synopsis of our day yesterday. Expect a blog about the differences in pub culture between here and Germany soon.

Salut Brussels!

We're off to a strong start in Brussels. Today we toured the Cantillon brewery, which is probably the tour I looked forward to most. It exceeded every one of my expectations. When we arrived at the brewery we entered into a rustic old building, which had an amazing, indescribable but unforgettable musty aroma. We then began our tour of the brewery. Our tour guide led us through each stage of the brewing process. She was extremely knowledgeable and nearly everything she said was something we had not heard before, which was surprising and refreshing considering how many brewery tours we have gone on so far. The reason for this was that there were some significant differences between this brewery and every other brewery we have visited up to this point. First of all, they boil the wort and hops for up to four hours, as opposed to the one hour that is typical in Germany. They boil for so long in order to evaporate some of the water from the wort which makes it more concentrated and results in a higher alcohol content in the final beer. Another fascinating aspect of the brewing process is that the brewer does not have the process set in stone. In other words, one day they might boil for three hours, while another day they boil for four, it all depends on how the brewer feels about the beer. In this sense, the brewers at Cantillon are much more in touch with their product than many of the brewers we met in Germany. Another major difference is the fermentation process. According to our tour guide, only about two percent of breweries in the world ferment their beer the same way as Cantillon. The process they use is called spontaneous fermentation, during which the beer is exposed to open air where the yeast live. Basically the only part of this process that the brewer can control is ensuring that he brews on days when the temperature outside is suitable for the yeast. Other than that he makes sure to use only natural paint throughout the brewery and steam is essentially the only cleaning agent used throughout the brewery. The lack of deep cleaning gives the brewery a beautiful rustic look and smell. Cobwebs are pervasive and the floors are sticky from beer that had overflowed. This tour was really an amazing experience and has changed my perspective of brewing as an art-form.

Santé

Tschüss Deutschland

So our time in Munich has unfortunately come to an end. We are now on train towards our next destination, Brussels. Munich was great, and now is a good time to reflect on some observations I made about the differences between Munich and Berlin. I did not have the chance to spend any substantial time with anybody who lived in either city. So I can only make observations about the people of Berlin and Munich based on what I saw throughout the cities as well as our short time with tour guides from each city. I also believe that the history of each city has a significant impact on the mentality of the people now. In Berlin, the history of wars and the division of the city have defined not only the layout of the city, but also the mentality of Berliners. Throughout Berlin there are reminders of its division as well as its Nazi past. For example, pieces of the Berlin wall are scattered throughout the city and serve as an obvious reminder of the city's division. The same is true in Munich. However, in Munich the evidence of its Nazi past is confined to museums.

People in Munich seem to base their identity partly on the idea that Bavaria is separate from the rest of Germany. Our tour guides in Munich made it clear, albeit in a slightly sarcastic way, that Bavarians see themselves as different from other Germans. An interesting side-note is that I, and I think along with many other Americans, see Bavarian culture (or at least what I observed in Munich) as typical German culture. The lederhosen, big beer halls with communal tables, and old-style architecture are all stereotypes associated with Germany. However, it seems that these aspects of Bavarian culture have largely been imported into the USA through our obsession with Oktoberfest and do not represent German culture as a whole. The idea that my former idea of German culture was based on a culture that does not necessarily see itself as German is definitely worth thinking about for awhile. Along with seeing themselves as different from the rest of Germany, Bavarians are a very proud group of people. This pride, again, was evident in our time with the tour guides (as well as the brewers who spoke at the VLB) who seemed genuinely proud to be Bavarians. The pride in being Bavarian extends, I think, to a pride in the history of the region. This pride in the history of the region is apparent in the buildings seen in the city center and throughout Munich. People in Munich have obviously made a concerted effort to retain an image of the past in the architecture of the city. This renovation of the past is not a new development in Munich. I visited the Müncher Stadtmuseum a couple days ago and one display showed how, even in the early 19th century, people in Munich were concerned about the modernization of the city and wanted to make sure to retain the image of "Old Munich." The desire to return to an earlier, romanticized era (at least in the architecture throughout the city) seems to be a persistent trait of people in Munich.

Berliners, on the other hand, seem to be much more fixated on the future. In general, reconstruction of the bombed buildings after WWII focused on creating a more modern city. The focus on modernity seems to be somewhat mirrored in the mentality of the people. Berliners seem to move at a faster pace than people in Munich. Its hard to point to any concrete examples of this besides people in Munich sitting at restaurants longer. However, the general feel of Berlin while walking through the city is that it moves faster and more energetically than Munich. The pub culture is also entirely different in Berlin as opposed to Munich. You do not find beer halls with big communal tables anywhere in Berlin and it was actually difficult for us to find a pub at all while in Berlin.

As I said, the histories of both cities seem to have had a significant impact on the mentality of the people living in them. Some of the impact of the history can be seen today in the layout of each city. Berlin was divided in half by the Wall for half a century, and you can still see differences between the two sections of the city. Berlin also does not have as defined of a city center as Munich. Rather, Berlin has multiple centers of activity throughout the city. Munich, on the other hand, extends out from the Altstadt (old city). The altstadt is the area of the city that used to be surrounded by the city wall. When looking at the map it is easy to see where the city wall previously stood. It is clear that Munich has been at a prime location for trade throughout its history and city fortifications were vital for its survival. Speaking of trade, access to water in both cities has had a tremendous impact on trade. In Munich, for example, the salt trade was an important income source because the salt was able to travel from the southeast to the northeast over water through Munich. However, a city that is located near a large body of water would have a distinct advantage over cities such as Berlin and Munich, which are located on rivers. So, there are some observations about Berlin and Munich, and now its time for a complete change of pace in Brussels. I'll keep the blog posted on how I handle the complete shock to my taste buds I will encounter with Belgian beers.

Prost

Beer and Robots

Today was a fun day. We woke up early this morning to go visit the BMW production plant, something I had been looking forward to ever since we got the itinerary. The BMW plant was impressive because of the unbelievable amount of automation involved in the production of the cars. In other words, robots do almost all the work at this BMW plant. We learned that this particular production plant is one of the only inter-city plants in the world. Because of its inner-city location, the plant cannot expand its facilities. Therefore, the engineers at this plant had to get really creative with the layout of the plant. This creativity was evident in the way all of the production equipment was arranged in a way that wasted absolutely zero space. I could not help but think back to the robots at Widmere that worked on the kegging line. These robots do work that no human could conceivably do and reduce the amount of error to almost zero.

After our tour of the BMW plant we visited the Ayinger Brewery. Ayinger resembled the BMW plant in the sense that it is one of the only fully-automated breweries in Germany. It is interesting to consider the effect that automation could have on the employment opportunities in the future. It is clear that jobs in manufacturing are going to continue to decline, and we saw some concrete evidence of that today. Ayinger only employs three people to watch over the brewing process. An fun sidenote is that the brewers at Ayinger are constantly in contact with the brewery through their cell phones. If something goes wrong at the brewery, then they get a notification on their phone. The fully-automated brewery was really cool to see, but it was the rest of the experience at Ayinger that captivated me. First of all, Ayinger is an independent, family-owned brewery, which is something that is rare these days in Germany. Second, our tour guide poured us samples of beer straight from the fermentation tanks. This was something that I had never experienced, and I have really been missing out. The beer was their Jahrhundert, which is a medium strength light lager. The beer is normally filtered but the beer straight from the fermentation tank was completely unfiltered. It had a fresh, full taste which was unlike anything I had tasted before. Third, there was awesome beer artwork throughout the brewery. And last but absolutely not least, we got to taste some beers after the tour. Ayinger is definitely a brewery I will support in the future and I will forever dream of my next vacation to Aying to visit the Ayinger brewery.

The Brewing Process

Here is a general outline of the brewing process. We have toured several breweries up to this point so we all have a good idea of the process of making beer. The brewing process consists of three main phases: the mash, the boil and fermentation.

In order to start the mashing process, the brewer needs malted barley. Brewers typically receive barley that has already been malted from an outside source. Here in Germany almost every brewery receives their malted barley from a malting plant in Bamberg. The malting process begins by soaking barley in water, which initiates the process of germinating the barley grains. Once the germination gets to the necessary stage, the barley is heated via hot air, which stops the germination process. The malted barley is then kilned for a amount of time that is dependent on the type of malt being produced. Light malts (such as pilsner malts) are not kilned nearly as long or as hot as darker malts (such as roast malt).

So the brewer receives his malted and kilned barley from his outside source and proceeds to begin his/her part in brewing process. The first step is to grind the malted barley into a powder, which is called the grist. The purpose of this step is to expose the fermentable sugars that are in the malted barley. The grist is then put into water that has already been heated to a certain temperature and left in the water for a certain amount of time. This step can vary a lot depending on the style of beer being brewed or the equipment available to the brewer. The most common variation is changing the temperature of the water, which influences the type of fermentable sugars created. A lower number of fermentable sugars essentially results in a thicker bodied beer.

After the mashing stage is completed, the hot sugary liquid is somehow filtered in order to remove the husks from the grain. The brewer can use a lauter tun, which filters out the husks using a false bottom. He/she could also simply use a filter. The resulting liquid is then transferred to the brew kettle, and the boil begins. At this point, the brewer adds hops at previously determined times during the boil. The hop addition times depend on whether the brewer intends to add bitterness or hop aroma. For bitterness hops are added at the beginning of the boil. For hop aroma the hops are added towards the end of the boil.

After boiling, the liquid is cooled and transferred to a fermentation tank where it undergoes two stages of fermentation, which I will cover more in depth later.

A Few Days in Munich

I've been neglecting the blog for the last few days, so now is a good time to get back on track. The first few days in Munich have been a blur, so hopefully writing out some of the things I've done will help to clear it up a bit. I will get deeper into the differences between Berlin and Munich in a later post and reserve this post for ramblings about what we've done over the last few days.
On Thursday we arrived in Munich and after wandering around the city we stumbled upon a classic "Stube" called Schneider-Weißbrauhaus where I had my first weißbier (which I wrote about a couple posts ago) as well as a couple of the best sausages I've ever had in my life. The atmosphere in this restaurant was entirely different from any restaurant we went to in Berlin. The waitresses wore dirndls, the woodwork just seemed "German," and nearly everybody in the restaurant was drinking a beer. This was a place where I felt very comfortable and happy. After I devoured my sausages and washed them down with my weißbier we moved on to another stube called Hacker-Pschorr where we all had another beer. This stube also had the feel of a typical Bavarian tavern, albeit with a slightly more modern feel. The night left me with a warm feeling inside, which was not just from the beers and sausages, but rather from the feeling of experiencing some authentic german culture.

The next day we leisurely woke up and went into the Altstadt (the old section of the city) where I got some homemade glühwein, which is the ultimate cold weather drink. We then decided to do some outdoor ice skating, which coincidently turned out to be the ultimate outdoor activity. As if we had somehow planned it, snow started to fall almost as soon as we started ice skating. If that isn't the epitome of the perfect way to spend an afternoon in Germany, then your crazy. That night we had dinner at one of the premier restaurants in Munich, Augustiner Braustuben. Now, this is not premier in the sense that you have to dress up and talk in low voices at the table. Nope, not at all. Augustiner typifies the German Bier Hall; big communal tables, waitresses clad in dirndls, and most importantly, beer served in one liter glasses. So we spent a raucous evening drinking beer and eating copious amounts of traditional German food.

On Saturday, we went on a walking tour of Munich and saw some of the main sights that are worth seeing in the city. More importantly, though, were the funny and interesting stories that the tour guide told us. One story involved the devil's footprint in a gothic style cathedral. The legend goes that people did not believe a cathedral of such magnificence could not have been constructed in such a short amount of time (20 years) so the architect must have had a contract with the devil. Apparently, the contract required the architect to build the cathedral without windows because, according to the devil's thinking, people would not worship in a place without light. However, the architect was clever and constructed the columns in a way that they hid the tall stained glass windows. When the devil went into the cathedral to make sure the architect had fulfilled his contract he could not see any windows but there was natural light inside, which caused him to stomp his foot in disgust/confusion, and created what will forever be known as the "devil's footprint."

Sunday (today) has been relaxing and exciting all at once. I woke up slowly and went into the city with Lindsey and our friend Mallory who was visiting from the Netherlands. We went back to Schneider-Weißbrauhaus and I had a Weißbeer and two Weißwürste (white sausages), otherwise known as the perfect food combo. The effervescent, crisp sweetness of the Weißbeer complemented the subtle richness of the Weißwürste in a way that brought both the beer and the sausages to a transcendent level of taste. To make the moment even better, a old style German band started playing while we were eating. After lunch we all went to the Englischer Garten, which is one of the biggest inner-city parks in Europe and is bigger than Central Park in New York. The main attraction, for me at least, of the park was the man made wave, which a few guys were surfing on. Yeah, you read that right, I watched surfing in Munich, in January. Awesome. After the park, Lindsey and I went to an art Museum, which was only one euro because it is Sunday, and the German government recognizes the value of subsidizing art and culture. It was an expansive art museum but was not difficult to see the entire thing in a couple of hours. My favorite part of the museum was the room which displayed early 17th century paintings by two Flemish painters of life in taverns. The paintings depicted rowdy farmers drinking beer, well-dressed merchants drinking in a civilized manner, and showed how a tavern may have looked during that time period in a Flemish country. It was interesting to see the difference in the paintings between the two artists. One artist, Adriaen Brouwer, seemed to always depicted alcohol in a negative light. The drunk farmers in his paintings were almost always fighting or getting in trouble somehow. He had a painting which showed a monk drinking as part of a group of down and out drunks (pictured below). I found this fascinating because my thesis last semester was on monastic brewing and I found that part of what caused the downfall of monastic brewing was the idea that it went against the religious ideal of rejecting worldly goods. It seems as if Adriaen Brouwer put that sentiment into his painting. He may have also been protesting against that lavish lifestyle of Catholic monks, which would make sense considering his paintings were done in the midst of the thirty-years war. Regardless, these paintings show how important beer has been in peoples lives, whether it be for good or bad, and it has become clear over the last couple weeks that beer and culture are inextricably linked to each other.

Tasting - Tagernseer Hell & Paulaner Original Müncher Hell

Here is a comparison between two beers of a very popular beer style here in Munich. Helles beers are omnipresent throughout the city, which is great because, usually, they are a great session beer. I tasted these beers in a decently lit room without any strong smells or other distractions that would disrupt my tasting experience.

Style tasted: Munich Helles - bottom fermented

Tagernseer Hell

Appearance:

Moderately sized creamy, white head. Clear straw color, probably 3-4 degrees SRM. Appearance fits in with the style well.

Aroma:

Grainy, slightly sweet aroma. The malt dominates the aroma, but there is a very slight spicy hop aroma. More than a slight aroma of DMS. The BJCP says that DMS may be present as a slight background note, but in this case I think there is an almost overwhelming amount of DMS.

Taste:

Moderate carbonation, light to medium bo

died. Slightly metallic mouthfeel, which is a little offsetting. Mouthfeel fits in with the style in all aspects outside of the metallic taste. Slightly sweet taste, and seems like the hop bitterness is strong for the style. Regardless, this beer is still driven by the malt, but it is offset with hop bitterness. Very slight DMS taste. Slight astringent aftertaste.

Overall impressions:

A decent beer. It is refreshing but seems to be slightly out of balance for the style. Also, the DMS aroma and metallic taste disrupt what would be a good tasting, easy drinking beer.

Paulaner Original Müncher Hell

Appearance:

Large creamy white head, which is noticeably larger than Tagernseer. Also, consider that the glass used for this beer is the same as for the last beer so the head retention, which was not very good, was probably caused by a slightly dirty glass. Same straw color, and probably 3-4 degrees SRM. Appearance fits

into style.

Aroma:

Clean, malt aroma. More of a grainy aroma than bready. Slightly caramel aroma, which is not an expected aroma for this style. Little to no hop aroma. No DMS detected at all. Aroma fits in relatively well. However, I would expect more hop aroma and less sweet caramel aroma. In comparison to Tagernseer, this beer's aroma is more malt driven and does not have any DMS.

Taste:

Moderate carbonation. Light bodied, almost watered down mouthfeel. Slight metallic taste, but not as pronounced as Tagernseer. Slightly sweet malt taste with very little hop bitterness. Aftertaste is astringent and almost grassy, not a pleasing combination. Again, this beer is more malt driven in the taste than Tagernseer. It also has a much more unpleasant aftertaste and seems to be less fitting to the style.

Overall Impressions:

Not my favorite beer. It does not fit in with the style and has some strange tastes that should never be in any style of beer. The astringency, lack of hop bitterness, and metallic taste all go against the style.

Tasting - Schneider Aventinus

I had been waiting for this moment. To sit down in a Munich Gastätte (the word used for pub in Munich) and have half of a liter of liquid gold straight from the source. Okay, I'm talking about a Bavarian Weißbier, which may be my favorite style of beer, and I finally got the chance to not only go to Bavaria but have my Weißbier too! The one that I had is not your typical Weißbier style, but rather a Weizenbock. The BJCP describes the style as "A strong, malty, fruity, wheat-based ale combining the best flavors of a dunkelweizen and the rich strength and body of a bock." The Schneider Aventinus was all these things and more.

Appearance:
A hazy ruby color with a substantial white foamy head that has great retention. We are talking about beer color in class right now and Brian wanted us to try to guess the color of the beer on the SRM scale, which seemed to be somewhere between an amber ale and a doppelbock.

Aroma:
Fruity aromas are most prevalent in this beer. However, along with the expected banana and clove aromas are dried fruits, possibly fig. Both the banana and clove aromas are light. There is also a caramel maltiness evident in the beer. Overall, a very complex aroma.

Taste:

Medium to full bodied with moderate carbonation. Mouthfeel is creamy and somewhat syrupy. Definitely a rich mouthfeel. The taste is sweet and has no hop bitterness whatsoever. I could detect a banana taste as well as light breadiness from the yeast.

Overall Impressions:

A very well balanced beer that does not assault you with its high alcohol content. Its smooth and drinkable and went perfectly with my Bauernseufzer sausages.

Berlin: Ein Überblick

Well its early Friday morning and it doesn't seem like I'll be going back to sleep any time soon so I might as well write about some observations I had of Berlin as a whole. Like I've talked about before, Berlin is defined by World War II and the resulting division of the city. Because Berlin was bombed so thoroughly during the war nearly all the buildings in the city were built sometime during the 20th century. The plethora of modern architecture gives Berlin a different feel from a city like Vienna or Munich. Berlin is a city that clearly is interested in looking to the future and not staying stuck in the past. However, all of the museums in Berlin make it clear that the city does not want to forget the past. The Jewish Museum, which I visited Tuesday, shows how modern architecture can be used to convey vital information about the history of Jewish people in Berlin and across the world. The museum of German resistance (pictured on the right), which we were able to walk through for only about thirty minutes Wednesday night, also shows the importance of educating people about a painful era in German history. For a city that so clearly wishes to advance past the horrors of a previous time, Berlin obviously recognizes the value of teaching about the past in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

On another note, it has been interesting to see the role beer plays in the culture of Berlin. Currently there is only one major brewery in Berlin, which seems to be something that Berliners aren't necessarily ecstatic about. On more than one of our brewery tours the tour guide conveyed a feeling of disappointment that Berlin is home to only one major brewery. Perhaps this disappointment stems from a perpetual competition with Bavaria, where there are many more breweries. It seems that the Berlin brewing community will always be under the shadow of those from Bavaria. Examples are numerous of this feeling among Berlin breweries. For one, at the VLB we attended a panel discussion, which was led by three keynote speakers, each of which was born in Bavaria. The moderator, on the other hand, was not from Bavaria, and made sure to jokingly ensure the audience that one does not have to be from Bavaria in order to be a brewer in Germany. Granted it was a joke, but I think there was more than a grain of truth to the sentiment felt in his statement. Another example is that almost anywhere you get a beer in Berlin the beer menu will be dominated by Bavarian style beers such as weiß beers or münchen helles. I think that if brewers in Berlin wish to climb out from under the shadow of Bavaria they need to take risks and experiment with different styles. German brewers are notorious for being intensely stubborn in the styles of beer they produce, and if brewers in Berlin could branch out from the limited assortment of beers offered, then perhaps they could bring beer in Berlin up to the level (in terms of quality, creativity, and quantity produced) of Bavarian beer. We saw an example of a brewery that was prospering while experimenting with different styles of beer in Leipzig at the Bayrishe Banhof (the brewer was making an IPA with Cascade Hops! And a Gose Doppelbock aged in tequila barrels). Hopefully small breweries in Berlin will follow suit and create a brewing identity in Berlin that is all its own.

Old and New, Big and Small

I have not had a chance to post since early Monday because our days have been jam packed with brewery tours. Tough life here in Berlin... It has been really interesting to see Breweries of all sizes. It has also been fascinating to see the role of science and technology in the Brewing industry, which brings me to my favorite part of the last couple days, maybe even of our whole time here in Berlin, which was our visit to the Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei (VLB) in Berlin. The VLB is a private brewing school and Monday was their first day of classes for the English brewing program. We were able to tour their pilot brewery and laboratory. In the lab we saw the incredible number of tests that the laboratory could do on one bottle of beer. It was really unbelievable how much scientific observation and experimentation is put into beer and other beverages at this laboratory.

These scientific processes that the beer goes through is something that the average consumer, including me up until Monday afternoon, is completely unaware of. Seeing all of the laboratory equipment dedicated to examining beverages such as beer made me think about the role of science in brewing. Does all of this shiny equipment really lead to better beer? People brewed for thousands of years without even knowing yeast existed, let alone knowing how to use a chromatography machine to test beer for DMS (an off-flavor sometimes found in beer). However, when beer is produced on as huge of a scale as it is in some breweries today, those scientific tests are absolutely necessary to ensuring the highest quality beer at the lowest possible price. Smaller breweries, on the other hand, don't necessarily need to use the same scientific tests because the cost of the tests relative to the revenue produced by a small brewery are too high. Over the last couple days we have seen this difference, as well as many others, between small and large breweries.

On Tuesday we toured Reudnitzer Braurie. Reudnitzer could bottle 100,000 bottles per hour. Each bottle is a half liter, which means that this brewery could pump out 50,000 liters of beer per hour. This is a huge number, and in order to maintain high quality beer when producing such a high quantity, the brewery is ran much differently than a smaller brewery. We saw this first hand when we visited a brewery called Bayerischer Bahnhof (picture below with the brewer with the beard). This brewery was much smaller than Reudnitzer. It had 7 fermentation tanks at 3,000 liters apiece, whereas Reudnitzer had 37 at 300,000 liters apiece. Naturally, these two breweries are operated very differently. Reudnitzer produces only bottom-fermented beer (lagers) and does not have much variety among their beers. Bayerischer Bahnhof, on the other hand, produces both ales and lagers and has many experimental styles of beer. They also never filter their beer (with the exception of the gose, if I remember correctly...). These two breweries stand in stark contrast to each other and I am absolutely sure there are strong supporters of both. Whereas the Reudnitzer brewery attracts young people looking for a cheap, refreshing beverage, Bayerischer Bahnhof attracts those seeking authenticity and creativity.

It is impossible to say which brewery is "better", but I do think it brings up an interesting topic of conversation about modern Germany: the interplay between old and new, traditional and advanced, and static versus dynamic. Throughout Berlin, it is impossible to ignore the influence of modern technology and architecture. However, it is apparent that Berliners make sure to hold on to their history through the restoration of churches and other historical buildings. This can also be seen in breweries. Many breweries have embraced modern technology and used it to improve the efficiency of the brewing process, to the point where breweries basically become huge industrial factories. Others, however, refuse to abandon classic brewing traditions and, consequently, remain small. The decisions made by breweries to remain anchored in the past or to reach for the future seems to be a defining feature of the brewing industry in Germany. I think there is evidence for both philosophies throughout the city, and it absolutely not confined to the brewing industry. That is just one example of how the study of brewing can really illustrate larger trends in society and shouldn't be frowned upon as a subject area "unfit" for serious study. But I will get off my soap box and sign off for today, I have another brewpub to visit tonight.

Historical Brews in Berlin

I didn't get a chance to post a blog the last couple of days so this is going to cover a few days worth of stuff. On Saturday we visited the German Technical Museum, which was a sprawling museum that had exhibits for trains, jewelry making, wind power, textile machines, and much more. Far too big of a museum to really experience in the couple of hours that we were there. However, the highlight of this museum was the brewery. It is not a working brewery, but rather an exhibit of the museum. The brewery was formerly fully functioning from 1909 until 1990 until it was moved to its current location in the German technical museum. The security guard was nice enough to give us a tour of the entire brewery and explain the function of each part of the brewery. It was striking how much physical labor must have gone into brewing at this brewery. For example, the malting room was on the top floor of the brewery, which meant that in order to bring the bags of grain to that floor, the brewer had use a crank to hoist the bags up three stories. On the other hand it was impressive how creative many of the machines used in the brewing process were. One example of this was the "tool" the brewer used to test the fermenting beer. This tool was actually a candle, which the brewer put in the fermentation tank and looked at the color of the flame. If it burnt a light blue then the fermenting beer was giving off hydrogen gas, which must have indicated that the beer was in the aerobic stage of fermentation. However, if the candle went out, then carbon dioxide was present, which would have indicated that the beer had moved on to anaerobic fermentation. Overall this was a fascinating learning experience. This brewery was very different from the breweries I visited when I took this class in the U.S. last January (as well as the brewery we visited yesterday which I will talk about later). However, the basic aspects such as the mash tun and lauter tun were very similar.

After the museum we went to a Bier Stube to have some beer and listen to one of our classmates, Emma's, presentation on the beer style Berliner Weiße (Theres a picture below of a few Berliner Weißes served in their traditional glassware. Also, the red one has raspberry syrup added which is traditional). It was a enlightening presentation about an under-appreciated style of beer. We learned that it is a light wheat beer which is "contaminated" with lacto bascillus, which gives the beer it's trademark sourness. It was really interesting to learn that the beer may have originated in the Flanders region of Belgium, which is famous for sour beers. I was also disappointed to learn that the market share of the beer is declining rapidly, with only two major breweries producing it in Germany. Hopefully the trend among some craft breweries in Oregon to brew Berliner Weiße will continue.

Yesterday (Sunday) we had two more presentations. One was about brewing behind the iron curtain. I was not surprised to learn that the USSR was strict when it came to restrictions on brewing and only allowed the production of a light pilsner style lager. I would be interested to see how the frequent grain shortages in the USSR affected brewing. Where breweries still allowed to produce beer or would the government begin using barley to make bread? I also learned that some breweries behind the iron curtain were allowed to make a fuller flavored pilsner and export it to Western Europe, which was solely a money making venture for the government. The other presentation of the day was on the beer style Göse, which comes from the German city Goslar and is a top-fermented beer seasoned with corriander and which is slightly salty and also slightly sour. It is now popular in the city of Leipzig, which we will be visiting on Tuesday. It is hard to put into words how great it is to learn about a obscure style of beer that is only brewed in a few places in the world and then get the opportunity to go to one of the original places where it was brewed. This is really the way to learn. But back to the presentation, we learned that historically once hops were added to beer, beer styles such as Göse lost their signature sourness because the hops killed the bacteria responsible for the sourness. Hopefully the style will stay alive, and I have a feeling that craft brewers in the Northwest will do their part brew this historical beer.

After the presentations we went to an area of Berlin called Spandau, which is an old city with cobblestone streets and old buildings. This is an area you might say is very "European," which on the surface really just means it has narrow streets, a cathedral in the center of town, and vines climbing up many of the old buildings. I won't go into a longer discussion about what being "European" really means (I'll save that for another blog post). Our main destination in Spandau was a brewery. We were led on a tour by the brewmaster and he showed us each part of the brewing process. The brewer was a very interesting and funny guy with a great Berliner Dialect. The brewery itself was a much more of a modern brewery than what we saw at the museum but contained many of the same parts. Much like the museum brewery this brewery had open fermentation tanks, which I had never seen before in a brewery. We then got the chance to taste a couple of beers. One was a Helles, which was light, bready and delicious. The other was Plotz-Blitz Bier which was dark and had a coffee aroma. It was surprisingly light bodied and had great drinkability. Well this post is getting long so I will save some of my other observations for the next couple of days. I am really looking forward to going to Munich in a few days and seeing the cultural differences between Bavaria and Berlin, so expect some ramblings about the American idea of "German-ness" sometime next week.

Day Two in Berlin

Well its about seven at night on our second day in Berlin and we've already packed so much into the day that I feel the need to write it all down. To start things off for the day we had a really great breakfast that reminded me why I love staying in hotels in Europe. I don't know if I've just been lucky but it seems to me like European hotels have really mastered the art of the continental breakfast. Instead of the choices of day-old danishes, cereal and bananas you would expect at a hotel in the U.S. this hotel boasted a spread of rolls (not just any rolls; seedy, dense, delicious rolls), cheese, cold cuts of meat, sandwich spreads, German yogurt (can't even compare yogurt in the U.S. to this yogurt) and eggs. So in a nutshell I enjoyed the start of the day.

Things got better from there. After breakfast we climbed into a black mercedes bus and started our three hour tour of Berlin. Our tour guide rattled off interesting backstories in great German accent about a seemingly endless amount of historical sights over those three hours. We saw the building that the Berliners have named "The Pregnant Oyster" which is a museum displaying contemporary non-European art. It did, in fact, look like what I think a pregnant oyster would probably look like (look at the picture to the left and try to disagree). He also took us through both west and east Berlin. I had wondered in my post yesterday about the differences in architecture between east and west berlin, and this tour was a perfect opportunity to do some comparing and contrasting between the two sections of the city. From the areas I saw, the eastern part of the city seems to have much more high-rise appartment buildings, which appear to be public housing or former public housing units. The buildings in the east seem to be much more spread out than in the western parts of the city that we drove through. In the western parts everything was extremely compact. I will have to explore the city more to get some more specific observations. Throughout this tour, though, I began to realize how unfathomable it is to imagine what the city must have been like in the years of the Berlin wall. I have learned the history of all the factors that went into the decision to erect that wall as well as the factors that lead to its destruction. However, these history lessons do not approach the level of emotional involvement that people in east and west Berlin had with the wall. Being in the city and seeing places like Checkpoint Charlie (that's me at Checkpoint Charlie on the right) puts it in perspective somewhat, but I know I will never truly understand how it must have felt to Berliners and Germans when the wall fell.

To move on to a lighter subject, I tried a style of beer today that I did not even know existed. The beer is called Aecht Shlenkerla Rauchbier Weizen. For those of you who speak German you'll notice that this is a smoked wheat beer. Not a style you see everyday but one that I suggest for you to seek out. This was a surprisingly good beer. It poured a deep amber color with a big frothy head (check it out right there -->). The aroma was bacon and banana (seriously). The bacon smell comes from the smoked malts and the banana smell comes from the hefeweizen yeast. It took me awhile to get used to the interplay between the smoky flavors and the flavors of banana and cloves you would expect from a wheat beer. But after a few sips I noticed myself wanting to come back for more after each taste. It ended up being a really well-balanced beer, albeit a unusual one. Overall, a great day so far, and we plan on going to Kreuzberg tonight, which is where most of the Turkish Berliners live and is apparently known for its nightlife. Sounds like there is probably a Döner in my future.

Prost

First day in Berlin

Well we finally made it to Berlin after a long day of traveling. So far our first day has been great. We had a short bus ride from the airport to our hotel and along the way we got a glimpse of some of the architecture around Berlin. It will be interesting over the next few days to look for differences between east and west Berlin. Even though the wall fell over twenty years ago, I'm sure we'll be able to see some substantial differences in the way buildings look in west and east Berlin. After we got back to our hotel and took a much needed nap we stopped in at the thai restaurant next to our hotel, which ended up being good and, more importantly, having Berliner Weisse. I had wanted to try a Berliner Weisse for a while and finally got my chance today. I wasn't sure what to expect and was caught off guard when the beer arrived with a straw. I could not get myself to drink a beer out of a straw so I quickly took it out and took a sip of my green tinted beer. It had slightly sour taste, but the syrup definitely dominated the beer. I really want to try a Berliner Weisse without any syrup at some point in the next few days. Lunch was great, and it was especially great that it was Gudrun's treat! We were also reminded of an important cultural custom at restaurants in Germany. If you don't flag down the waiter or waitress, then you could potentially spend all day at the restaurant. Its refreshing to be able to sit down in a restaurant and not be forced out by the waiter. After our lunch we meandered over to an imbiss stand and Brian was nice enough to buy all of us some glühwein, which we drank as we walked along one the main shopping streets in Berlin. This is obviously something you must do if you ever come to Berlin during December or January. I am excited for the days to come!

Prost from Deutschland

Brew Day!

Today we brewed our beer! Lindsey and I randomly chose the french saison recipe, which coincidentally was the same style of beer I brewed in this class last year. But this beer will be far from the same as my beer last year. This one had some sauer acid malt, which we steeped as a specialty grain. This sauer malt should give the beer some sourness, which should be interesting. I honestly don't know what to expect, but I'm looking forward to tasting this beer. I'm especially looking forward to trying some saisons in Belgium. It is one of my favorite styles of beer and I'm sure there will be some really good saisons at some of the breweries we visit in Belgium.

All in all the brewing went well (except for a few burnt fingers for Lindsey) so hopefully the beer will turn out well. The process went much easier for me this year compared to last year. First of all our burner worked this year, which helped a lot. But also it was nice to have some experience going into the brew day this year.