The brewhouse was a 5 vessel brewhouse which allows them to brew upward of 11 brews per day. If I remember correctly they use a traditional decoction method (part of the mash is removed and boiled then added back to the mash to increase the temperature and activate a different set of enzymes) which is pretty impressive that it is being done on such a large scale still.
Above is an automatic dosing machine for hop extracts. Hop extracts are allowed in Austria under their version of the purity law and they come in these massive barrels. First time we have seen one of these before.
They also use hop pellets with an automatic dosing system. This thing cuts open the boxes of hops and empties them into the hopper in which they can be dosed.
This whole room is one big refrigerator. The moveable yellow claw is used to pick up the hops and put them onto the conveyor pictured above. This allows for the whole dosing procedure to be automized.
They do have a pretty awesome little test batch brewery that gives the master brewer a lot of opportunity to make some cool weird beers.
Some open fermenters for potential product development purposes. It is good to see that this kind of elaborate R&D facilities available.
Next stop was to the Augustiner Brewery in Austria. There is no relationship between the Augustiner in Munich and the one in Austria. This was an interesting brewery to visit because it was the first time we were getting to see some of the old practices actually being used. There are some very interesting things going on at this brewery with methods that are dubbed by some as archaic and crazy. Knock it if you want, but they still make amazing beer.
The inside of a traditional copper vessel. Notice, it is all copper.
Above is a coolship. Basically coolships are used to settle out hot trub. If you notice, it is open to plain air.
They also use a traditional method of heat exchange to drop the temperature of the wort from 95 C to 8 C. Many modern brewers would scoff at the oxygen pickup with this process.
An open fermenter is being filled. Again, lots of oxygen pickup. Again, their beer tastes great.
Classic old school lagering tanks.
This amazing machine is used to coat the inside of barrels with a tar of sorts to make them water tight. This is the only one which we saw on the trip. Tradition to the max! Awesome.
Classic cask filler. After we were finished with the tour we went to the greatest beer garden I've been to. We sat around and chatted with the brewmaster for awhile, who we learned was an avid homebrewer and would actually host homebrewing parties. He was a really nice guy and loved to talk beer. We had one last stop on the day but he would have talked to us for hours and hours.
Our last stop was a small brewpub in Salzburg called Gusswerk.
Above is a picture from the balcony. I think that we rented the whole place out. We had some appetizers and a delicious meal with pork, wings, and you got it, potatoes. After some delicious beer, we got a tour from the brewmaster and listened to his story. I think his tune was in sync with many dreams of my classmates and myself. One day opening your own place and through your hard work, succeeding.
There is a lot of cool stuff going on and I really like the way they have their bar setup. I am sure I am going to be borrowing some of these ideas someday.
That is about the size of the whole brewery. It is in the same building as the brewpub and the only visible part is the copper clad brewing setup.
After dinner, many of us exhausted and extremely full, called it a night and crashed hard.
Location:Austria
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