Sunday, July 13, 2008

Reinheistgebot: Brauerei Messhofen, Part 1

Reinheistgebot – German Brewing Purity Law dating from 1516 that says German beer must be made with only four ingredients: Water, Hops, Barley and Yeast.

One of the highlights of our visit with the Meders was our trip to nearby Messhofen for a tour of an authentic Braeurei. It’s not a micro-brewery. It’s a mini-brewery. Not exactly sure what the difference is, but for a humble home-brewer it was a little slice of heaven no matter how you defined it. Here are some pictures and my vocabulary list so I’d know what Braumeister Clemens was talking about:

Hefe – yeast
Hopfen – hops
Gerste – barley
Malz – malt
Pils – pilsner
Dunkel – dark
Hell – light
Schwartz – black
Gährung – fermentation
Fass – tap
Flache - bottle
Alkohol Gehalt – alcohol content
Stammwürtze – specific gravity
Lecker – delicious


(Brauerei Messhofen: Since 1841)


(Mmm. Smells like Bananas)


(After this I climbed in)


(Bottle washing and filling machines... beats the heck out of using the bathtub)


(Clemens - 2nd from left - wore the lederhosen just for us, I'm sure)


(What a spread... nothing goes better with beer than processed meat. Except bacon fat smeared on bread. Good thing we had both.)


(Beer makes Matt crazy. Or is that his happy face?)

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