Study Tour: Final day

Getting to the end of the trip, started with a nice bus ride with some old castle ruins.

 

 First stop was Riedenburger Brauhaus. It is a smaller, more "craft" brewery.

 

They still had a really nice newer packaging line.

 

 However, a lot of their brewing equipment was more old school. Like their control panel above. Not to be mistaken for a cold war era nuclear control panel. 

They even used some pretty sweet open fermenters. The picture on the right you can see the yeast krausening and spilling onto the floor.

This is the owner's son and current brewmaster. He also attended Doemens and is something like a 4th generation brewer.

The beers were a welcome change of pace. They included a solid IPA, a porter, and some lighter beers that used ancient grains such as einkorn and emmer. We were very impressed and it gave me hope for craft beer in Germany. They also were very focused on using organic products and supporting local farmers.

Then our final stop of the trip, Hopsteiner!

They are one of the top hop suppliers in the world. They are located in Hallertau, which is one of the legendary hop growing regions.

They process a variety of products including pellets (left), whole leaf (right), and extracts (below). The building with the bales of fresh hops was an aromatic heaven. Life goals: Do the Scrooge McDuck dive with hops.

They do a lot of breeding to make new experimental hops. The process takes about 10 years from start to finish, but they have new varieties every year that hit the market. Here is a greenhouse when some plants are being analyzed to see if they will be planted in the field next year.

 

This is the head of the breeding program right before he expressed his love of hops through the media of interpretive dance. No, not really. Just good timing on my part.

We did a hop rub of some traditional hops and a few experimental hops that have not been released yet. Huell Melon, Eureka and Calypso were great, but the Hopsteiner experimental hop 09410 was my favorite.

We even got to taste the experimental hop 09410 in a single hop pale ale. It has an absolutely delicious strawberry character. Ask your hop supplier for samples or to be in their trial program, you will thank me later.

We finished off the trip with a dinner at a restaurant called Schossbrauerei Sandelzhausen Gaststatte, which was opened in 1623! What a marathon of an amazing trip. Next up we have some celebrations for our Diploma Students and then finally Emilia arrives!