On Guinness, Whisky and Dublin in General

So, the family and I just completed day three of a six-day sojourn to the Emerald Isle.

We flew in last Thursday afternoon, caught the shuttle to our hotel, grabbed some dinner and a handful of tourist brochures and decided what we were going to do.  Once we got to the room, there was only a king sized bed, though our reservation was for two doubles.  A quick check of my wife's "Gold Club" status netted us a two bedroom suite on the top floor for no extra charge.  Bonus!

We've had good luck with the hop-on/hop-off bus tours that many major cities offer, so we opted for Dublin's.  Also, we booked a tour of Dublin's South Coast which we're seeing Sunday morning.

So, between yesterday and today, we've toured Guinness, seen the Book of Kells at Trinity College, toured St. Patrick's Cathedral and have eaten at The Porterhouse and Mssr. McGuires--two brewpubs that were recommended to me by a former Irish Brewmaster boss.  I also tried my first authentic Shepherd's Pie and Jameson Whisky.

Here are some observations:

1.  I don't really like Guinness.  I didn't like Guinness back in the States.  Everyone always said, "you have to try it in Ireland--it is so much different."  Well, they're right.  It is different.  And, I still don't like it.  However, the brewery tour is the bomb, if for nothing else than the display on cooperage.  I highly recommend it.

2.  I'm not much of a spirits drinker, but Jameson whisky is absolutely delicious.  Reminds me a lot of the Basil Hayden bourbon I enjoy from time to time back home.

3.  On an individual basis, the Irish are a wonderful and friendly people.  On a crowded street, however, it's every person for themself.

4.  When the sun is out, the weather is warm.  As soon as it clouds up, the temp drops like a rock and you may be subject to short, sporadic bursts of rain.  Thankfully, they have all been short-lived.

5.  There are Seventeen Centuries of history here, but a lot of it has been forgotten or ignored, as Ireland was not a part of the Roman Empire.  The pagans were washed from history and the Vikings replaced a lot of the history with their own. 

6.  St. Patrick and Johnathan Swift are two interesting fellows about whom I will be investigating further.

Anyway, here is my largely superficial synopsis of Dublin.  More to follow.

A Pretty Good Day

I met Bernhard at 6:00 this morning for a chance to visit the Bischoff brewery.  However, all play and no work makes Scott a lazy brewer so we set off first for Best Malz in Kreimbach-Kaulbach to pick up Bernhard's monthly grain purchase.

I learned I have it pretty easy in St. Francis.  I call Briess Malt.  They deliver a truckload.  The truck has a liftgate which drops a pallet of malt to the floor, and I pallet-jack it where it needs to go.

Not so in Germany.

We pick up the malt, bag by bag.  These are not the easy 50 pounders that Briess carries.  These are 50 kg which equal about 110#.  We wheel them into the truck and take them to the brewpub.  From there, I off-loaded the bags while Bernhard wheeled them, two at a time, into the brewpub basement.
 

As I mentioned before, Bernhard doesn't brew with a huge variety of grain.  It was basically Pilsener, Wheat and Munich.  Nothing like the 30+ varieties that I keep on hand, but the Germans like to keep things simple.  During the trip, we chatted about craft brewing in Germany.  The city where Bernhard's main brewpub is is Kaiserslautern.  It's about the size of Green Bay, and they do have a soccer team.  In fact, "K-Town" was one of the host cities during the 2006 World Cup.  Bernhard said that there used to be over 30 brewpubs in K-Town, and now there's only one.  I asked why there was such a decline, and the answer was a familiar one.  There was much consolidation as the brewpubs and craft breweries were bought out by mega-brewers.  Then they started shutting them down, one-by-one.  This is exactly what happened in America's brewing history.  With any luck, Germany will experience the craft brewing Renaissance that America is seeing now.

Once the grain was in place, it was time to head on out to Winnweiler to visit the Bischoff Brewery, which owns the brewpub where Bernhard brews.  Unfortunately, their Brewmaster--as well as much of their staff--is on holiday, so I didn't get a chance to meet him.  However, I did get to tour the brewery.

They brew 95 hectoliter batches, roughly 2500 gallons or 80 barrels--More than 10 times the amount we brew at a time.  Here are a few photos of the "sudhaus":

Here is the mash tun, lauter tun and brewkettle.  I was impressed with the amount of copper.

The insides were immaculate, and that says a lot about the brewery operations here.

From there, we headed to the fermentation area but along the way I saw the "Hefereinzucht" or yeast banking area shown in the photo below.  This is where they propogate huge amounts of yeast for brewing.  Several vessels prop and store the different strains they use.

Next, I saw the "business end" of the fermenters.  In the next picture you will see a series of cones coming through the ceiling above.  The fermentation tanks, about 15 in all, protrude through the ceiling and attach to the piping to take the finished beer to the filter room and then to the bright tanks where the beer is either sent to the bottling line or kegging line.

When we were through at Bischoff, we headed back to K-Town to the brewpub because I had brought some St. Francis beer to share with Bernhard.  When several of the Pub staff saw that I was bringing bottles out, they flocked, so a bunch of us tried out the Kolsch, Weisse, E.S.B. and Scotch Strong Ale.  Now I get nervous bringing beer from the States.  When I am doing some informal bottling of single bottles, I just fill them from the taps into sanitized bottles and cap them off.  Then I wrap them in bubble wrap and store them in my checked baggage on my travel day.  This is probably not legal, but the TSA has inspected my bags in the past and has not seemed to mind the 2-4 bottles that I bring along.  However, quality control is out of my hands as soon as I close my suitcase.  Of the four, three made the trip just fine.  I did taste a bit of diacetyl in the Weisse, so this was not the best representation of that beer.  However, the staff and Bernhard didn't seem to mind.  The general consensus was very favorable.  Bernhard prides himself on his Weisse, and he said that if he doesn't taste banana, it's scheiss!  Thankfully, SFB's weisse is not short on banana esters!

On that note, my day with Bernhard had ended.  On Thursday, my family and I head to Dublin until the 17th, and then I leave from Dublin to head back to the States.  I look forward to trying Guinness the way it was meant to be tasted, and perhaps a nip of whiskey.

Until then.....