Archive for October, 2010

Dortmund Brewery Museum

Sunday, October 24th, 2010

This is the last post I took notes for while in Germany, and it seems an appropriate retrospective. Look forward to my forthcoming first post back in the United States, a cross-section of the newest and weirdest stuff coming out of New Glarus.

It was entirely by accident that I ended up spending the summer in Dortmund, onetime brewery capital of the world. I wasn’t even planning on going abroad, until my German teacher told our class about a summer program through her alma mater, the Technische Universität Dortmund, and I cannot thank her enough for encouraging me to apply.2010-10-24-cask So perhaps it is appropriate that it was only my very last day in Germany that I finally got around to visiting the Dortmund Brewery Museum.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the international popularity of Dortmund’s stronger version of the originally-southern pale lager, combined with the relative accessibility of its port, caused it to grow into the biggest beer producing city in Germany. Beer and Dortmund were synonymous (and still are, literally, in some parts of the Netherlands). Dortmund had more breweries per capita than anywhere else in the world, an erstwhile Portland.

2010-10-24-union-truckYou’ve almost certainly heard of at least one of the Dortmund brewers, among them Dortmunder Actien-Brauerei (DAB), Dortmunder Union, Dortmunder Kronen, Thier, Hansa, Brinkhoff’s, Stifts, Ritter, Hövel’s. In 1900 the city had thirty of them, fifteen of which were among the largest in the country. By the 1950s more beer was made in Dortmund than in anywhere else in the world, save good old Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Now all but one are brands owned by the Dortmund brewery, all produced in the same plant on the same equipment. But I digress.

On an unassuming side street in the north side of Dortmund sits one of the biggest breweries in northeastern Germany, Dortmunder Actien-Brauerei. Walking by it you might not even notice, save the smell of barley in the air.2010-10-24-equip But there is one welcoming stucco building with large windows on the south end of the complex that was once called the Hansa Brewery, and later the Kronen Brewery. Here is the home of the Brauerei-Museum Dortmund.

The museum is located in a former machine house, so while there are no big tanks or kettles to see, there is a big steam engine, and they’ve moved in a period bottling line as well as one of the original Union delivery trucks.2010-10-24-bottling-line There is a large collection of memorabilia of the various Dortmund breweries: mugs and glassware, beer mats, bottles, labels, signs, and advertisements. This last bit especially allows the visitor to immerse oneself in another era. There is a fair amount of equipment, and numerous placards that explain the process of the production of beer. Unfortunately the signs are only in German, so an English speaker might wish to arrange for a guide.

The Museum may very well be a bit slanted towards the brands currently owned by the museum’s owner. That point notwithstanding, it provides a valuable look at the history of the beverage that made the city great. It would be all too easy to lose the stories of the people and places that drove Dortmund’s breweries’ growth, and with it the growth of export beer, especially given today’s high-speed merger-happy international beer market. Fortunately the existence of the Dortmund Brewery Museum ensures that won’t happen anytime soon.

A delightful antique.  Every day each brewery worker was given a token that this machine would redeem for a free shift drink.

A delightful antique. Every day each brewery worker was given a token that this machine would redeem for a free shift drink.

The large, shallow vessel is called a kuhlschip, at one time used to cool hot wort to fermenting temperatures (and it is still used for lambic).  The device in back is a convoluted-flow chiller.  The hot wort runs back and forth through the tubes, and cold water cascades down the outside.

The large, shallow vessel is called a kuhlschip, at one time used to cool hot wort to fermenting temperatures (and it is still used for lambic). The device in back is a convoluted-flow chiller. The hot wort runs back and forth through the tubes, and cold water cascades down the outside.

A photograph of open fermenters at the former Hansa Brewery, proof that even high lager brewers have humble origins.

A photograph of open fermenters at the former Hansa Brewery, proof that even high lager brewers have humble origins.

There is no better brand.

There is no better brand.

Strubbes Chocolat

Sunday, October 24th, 2010

This is yet another entry I wrote notes for while in Germany that I am just now getting around to posting. Enjoy.

In the giftshop of the Chocolate Museum in Köln I picked up a bottle of Strubbes Chocolat, a beer brewed with cocoa. It’s made by Brouwerij Strubbe, who also produce Ichtegem’s Flemish beers and a few others.

The Chocolat pours a deep golden color bordering on amber, brilliantly clear. The white head is thick, creamy, and dense. The aroma is sweetly malty, with caramel and bread notes. The hints of cocoa and wheat have the sense of a breakfast cereal.

The flavor continues the cereal theme, lightly chocolatey and wheaty. It is a bit sweet with caramel and malt. The carbonation is a bit flat, making the sweetness more prominent and the body seem fuller than it would be otherwise. The Chocolat would be much better if it were livelier.

+/-Strubbes Chocolat

3.3 (3-7-6-3-14)