Franconian Beer Message Board

OT: Eschawo update 5

Posted by barry on 2012-06-12 01:43:54

Very sadly, our sojourn in Eschawo is rapidly coming to an end, as we must leave on Friday - a day early due to Ryanair moving the departure time. We spent last weekend in Erzgebirge, as I had agreed to play in my friend's 'Folk Pub' in Baerenwalde (incidentally, a very nice evening). This region is a relative beer desert compared to the Oberpfalz, with one or two small independents but very few bars/pubs - presumably, a 'hangover' from the old regime. Fiedler produce quite nice beer and quite a range for a small brewery (their schwarzbier is very drinkable). Managed to fit in a visit to the Meissen Porcelain factory, interesting but a bit of a rip-off - given the price of their stuff, I reckon they make more from the visitor centre than from sales of ceramics. Also had a quick trip round Dresden - the 'old' city centre looks fantastic but the rest of the city seems fairly drab. Back to Eschawo: last night was one of the highlights of the vist, a visit to a house brewer in Neuhaus. Josef is one of five house brewers who work together. They brew 2,300 litres once a year, usually in February. Each house receives an equal share of the wort, which is taken back to the house to add yeast (bought from Brauerei Wurth) and complete lagering in the cellar. Hopping takes place only in the brewery. The group decides to experiment a little this year (just for variety, said Josef) and used a mixture of Hallentauer and Spalt hops - I don't know the exact split but most was Hallentauer. In total, they used 12 kilos of hop pellets, which Josef said was more than in previous years and more than the Neuhaus stube brewers. They also added a small quantity of Munchener malt to improve the colour and this resulted in a slightly darker beer than the normal Neuhaus pale yellow. Certainly the zoigl was much hoppier than anything else tasted in Eschawo and all the better for it - I'm sure that you would have liked it, Nick! Having had this conversation with Josef, I'm revising my report on Gloser's hopping. I think that I misunderstood Martin Popp, who probably said that he used 24 German pounds of hops, which I believe would be around 12 kilos. This makes for a similar hopping regime to the Neuhaus house brewers and makes much more sense. We finished the evening with a seidla in Schafferhof, before reaching Gloser at around 11 pm. As it was the final evening the place was still quite crowded, with the Monday stamtisch out in full force. We managed a couple more seidlas before staggering home to bed! A really lovely evening.

OT: Eschawo update 5 by Edo on 2012-06-12 04:09:20

OT: Eschawo update 5 by barry on 2012-06-12 04:51:24

OT: Eschawo update 5 by DonS on 2012-06-12 08:01:20

OT: Eschawo update 5 by barry on 2012-06-13 02:38:07