Friday in Zoigl County Part 2, including Visiting a Communal Brewhouse, & the Zoigl Beer “Style” Zoigl Trip - Part 8 of 13

 This post is part of a 13 part series, if you want to start from the beginning, click here. 

Friday in Zoigl County Part 2, including Visiting a Communal Brewhouse, & the Zoigl Beer “Style”

Zoigl Trip - Part 8 of 13 

We had a little time to settle into our rooms before we were to meet Ferdl at 6pm, for a tour of the Kommunbrauhaus (sometimes translating German into English is easy) in Windischeschenbach. 

Ferdl is a lifelong resident of Upper Palatinate (aka Oberpfalz). Rich and Ferdl met when the tours they were each leading crossed paths. Ferdl, now a very vigorous 70something,  did some brewing earlier in life. Ferdl borrowed the brewhouse key from someone in town. 

The tour of the communal brewhouse was a true highlight of the trip. Sometimes it really helps to know people who know people who know people. Stepping into the brewhouse was like stepping back in time, while also being firmly in the present, and the future since they don’t fix what ain’t broke. Other than eclectic lighting, beer here is brewed just as they did it 150 years ago. 

This is brewing at its most authentic, a mix of art and science, of experienced intuition and measuring. Heat water, wait, measure temperature, add wood, wait, add malt, measure temperature, add wood, wait, measure temperature, add wood, add hops, measure temperature, wait, then cool it down. This labor intensiveness fosters (necessitates)  multi-generational participation, which keeps the tradition and know-how alive. 

Water is heated using a wood fire. Each brewer has their own (seemingly unmarked) section in the common wood storage area. Each batch takes several yards of wood. At the end of the brew day, the beer is cooled by pumping it up to a cool ship (a huge rectangular, low walled copper tub) in the attic, and letting it sit overnight. 

The next day, the brewer drains the contents into his fermentor, which he most likely drove over with his* tractor.  The fermentor is placed in the fermentation area at his* property, yeast is added, and allowed to do its work. About a month later, the beer is ready to serve, usually straight from the fermentor.  

* while the majority of the brewers are men, Ferdl confirms that there are some women brewers too.

After the tour, we walked to Binner Zoigstube (Rich's Binner page). Though busy, they were able to find us a table in their multi-room public space. This is a true family affair with at least three generations of extended family working there that night. 

To try to balance out my diet a little,I ordered a salad sort of thing. It was great. 

Somehow we got to talking to their brewer, who offered us a tour of their fermentation space.

I wish I remembered the brewer’s name (I’m still learning at this blog thing). His grandfather built the current version of their Zoiglstube. As for his day job, he is in the army. He treated us to some of their house made schnapps. 

We popped in the restaurant at our hotel for a beer, where they were closing up, but still served us a round. 

Next we headed a couple of blocks over to Zoiglwirtschaft Zum Posterer (Rich's Zum Posterer page) to finish up the evening. Zum Posterer was nearly full and very lively. I wish I had more to say about Zum Posterer, which put me in a writers block for a while. Then I realized, I don’t have more specifics because the intangibles were so wonderful, hanging out with friends enjoying fresh beer in a jolly atmosphere. And that's enough, or will have to be for now.

But What Style is Zoigl Beer?

I said in the first post that Zoigl is more of a tradition, not a style. I can’t fault anyone for saying that answer is BS. Each brewer uses their own recipe, so malt, hops, and yeast differ from beer to beer, while tending to use many of the same regionally sourced ingredients, Hallertau hops from south Bavaria and malt from Bamberg am Kulmbach (Thanks Ferdl!). That said, all the beers I drank tended to be light amber in color, malty, hoppy but not aggressively so, mellow, and extremely fresh. Some were better than others. 

(And thanks to Eric for proofreading. Any typos I made after he read it are on me).

Next Post in the Series (coming soon): Saturday in Zoigl County Part 1: Falkenberg and First Leg of the Hike