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!

The Power Pils Round

Now that we've eased into the Pils with some Beck's and Bavarian Pils, we dive into Germany's big players in the Pils market.

We call this the Power Pils round, as it contains German's top 2 producers and

From the March Madness comparison, Warsteiner and Krombacher are UConn and Syracuse

Warsteiner is enjoyed in over 60 countries and is Germany's largest beer exporter. Far more, however, is drunk in Germany - it's considered one of the top Pilsners. It's not as old as some of the Bavarian breweries, but it's been around long enough (250 years) to be considered a real German player. Interestingly, Warsteiner is an investor in König Lüdwig. Beer is almost a strategic industry in Germany, and the decline in beer consumption has been major news for a few years. According to its annual report, Warsteiner was able to slightly increase its domestic sales last year despite a 2.4% overall decline in the German beer market. Not bad! Among their new marketing efforts is using the Klitschko brothers (both are World Heavyweight Champions and Wladimir is Hayden Pannettiere's boyfriend) to promote their alcohol-free beer to athletes and health-conscious beer lovers. For many tourists, this was their first German beer - I'll let Herr J tell his story later, but I remember this was the beer served in our hostel in Marbella on my first trip abroad!

With all the different measurements (by brand, by brewery, by brewery holding company, etc), it's not easy to say which are the largest breweries in Germany. Warsteiner, Krombacher, and Radeberger are easily in the top 10. The Radeberger Group is often named the largest German brewery group due to its ownership of so many German breweries. It's likely a very close race between Radeberger's and InBev's production in Germany.

Radeberger was founded in 1872 in Radeberg (near Dresden) and claims to be "the first brewery in Germany to brew beer in the traditional Pilsner manner." It also was designated by the Royal Court of Saxony as their beer provider. So perhaps Radeberge was the original German pilsner...it's definitely one of the most popular. You can see exactly how popular their pilsner is from the fact that the Binding Group renamed its entire holding company The Radeberger Group after it purchased Radeberger.

However, the Jever brand is also part The Radeberger Group. Similar to Beck's they use green glass (not as protective as the brown used by most) and 0.33mL bottles. The Jever brewery was founded in the mid-1800s and remained a relatively small brewery. It was hard hit by both wars - in the first war losing its leader on the front and by shortages of hops and barley; after the second, fuel shortages limited them to selling only for self-pickup and the head going from farm to farm trying to buy or barter for barley. But the brewery was able to stay in operation and grow into a modern brewery well-known for its pilsner and exportbiers. The formal name "Friesisches Brauhaus zu Jever" alludes to its location in the city of Jever and its pride in the region Friesland. Friesland is on the North Sea coast, including parts of both Germany and the Netherlands that were settled since the first century. It's also known for its natural beauty, fresh air, and beaches - something you'll see reflected when you open the Jever site to find beaches and seagull sounds! Interestingly, Jever has aligned itself with Harley-Davidson, sponsoring HarleyDay in Hamburg and offering custom Jever Harleys and dune buggies. I'm pretty amused that their alcohol-free version is called "Jever Fun."

And then we have Krombacher, which was founded in 1803 in Krombach (between Frankfurt and Würzburg). They initially brewed only traditional lagers, but began making a pils in 1890 that quickly became popular in the Sauerland and southern Ruhr areas. Part of their high quality is supposed to come from their water source, as many breweries claim. Krombacher has always been on the forefront of marketing - making a major push to win over former East Germans after Reunification, and sponsoring several Bundesliga and handball teams. In 2002, they had an interesting campaing with the WWF, whereby Krombacher would save 1 square meter of rainforest in the Central African Republic for every case sold. Sales jumped 8% that year and other German companies followed suit using charitable campaigns as marketing tools.  After a lawsuit (and successful appeal stating that Krombacher was not misleading consumers), they've changed and relaunched the campaign again. I guess you'd have to be a pretty big beer drinker to make a noticeable impact, but it is an appealing concept to drink beer for the environment! Their Facebook page claims that they have invested over €3 million in conservation efforts.  

 

For this tasting, we had my parents as special guests. During their visit, we took advantage of having an extra pair of votes, as well as giving my dad a chance to taste some new beers. He prefers a Pils, so this was a fun one for him.

We wanted something that wouldn't overpower the beers, so made my favorite paella with chicken, asparagus, and manchego cheese. Really, it's closer to a Spanish risotto, but it's really tasty and easy to make. And Herr J made his famous feta-stuffed red peppers. A good match for the pils!

First up was the Warsteiner-Krombacher matchup. Looking at the beers, the Warsteinger was lighter in color and more carbonated than the Krombacher. It was almost "spritzy," if that's a word. Despite it having a slightly flatter feel, the Krombacher had more taste than the Warsteiner and we chose it as the winner.  We had expected the Warsteiner to prevail, but that's exactly why we've been doing blind tastings.

Next up were Jever and Radeberger. Both were good, standard Pilsners. The Jever, however, had a slight odd aftertaste. Not bad exactly, but enough that the Radeberger clearly won. We will try the Jever again, in case we just had a couple bad bottles.  

We end the night with Krombacher vs Radeberger. Again, we find ourselves changing our minds....thought we normally choose the less hoppy beer, we chose Krombacher over Radeberger because Radeberger tastes a little flat and tasteless when compared to the Krombacher. Though the Krombacher was slightly more hoppy, it was still a smooth and non-bitter, very drinkable beer.