Study Tour Day 4: Stauder, Potts, and Zwiebel

 Day 4!

 Started out going to Stauder Brewery, which is known for their Pils

 More beautiful copper kettles. Most of the copper kettles are just for show and have stainless inside of them, including these.

 Packaging area with the filler in the center, impressive to see it in action

 Beer time!

 Pretty cool tasting room with intricate carvings on barrels

 From a more classic producer, to a more forward looking brewery, Potts!

 Their brewer spent time brewing in the US and is more open to craft beer styles. Here he has barrels that he ages special releases in. More on this later...

 

They also have made a brewing museum as part of their new facility. The story is that the caretaker had a ton of historical items that he had been collecting. As part of the deal, he actually lives in the museum inside the barrel pictured above. Apparently there is another room with shower and more private area, but there is actually a bed inside of that barrel.

 

 On to the tasting! Their beers were very solid all around, but the highlight was their barrel aged Barleywine. It was aged in the barrels mentioned above. At this point it was a relief to have more interesting and intensely flavored beer, no disrespect to Helles, Pils, and Weissbier.

 

 Then it was on to Soest to stay overnight. We found a great local brewery, Brauhaus Zwiebel. It literally means the Onion Brewery.

This is their Maibock, it did not taste like onions. Quite delicious.

After an after dinner whiskey at an Irish bar across from the brewery, we called it a night.