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.