Jopen

 Interview with Erwin and Michel of the Jopen brewery -- Part 1 of 2 
 Interview with Erwin and Michel of the Jopen brewery -- Part 2 of 2 

 Non-Flash ENTIRE podcast (Part 1 and 2)

The Jopen brewery in Haarlem, Netherlands began simply as one component of many festivities celebrating the 750th anniversary of the founding of the historic city of Haarlem, the namesake of another historic district, if not quite as established, in old New Amsterdam. Brewery manager Erwin and brewer Michel explained that, along with ideas of a jousting contest, culinary exhibitions, and other cultural events, a group of about 10 Haarlemers thought that brewing an old beer recipe was an excellent idea to honor the town.

Brewer Michel and B.R.

After all, beer and the taxes raised from its sale were a significant source of revenue for the city dating back to its founding. Popular Haarlem gruit beer, transported in 112L wooden barrels called Jopen, was sold all throughout the Lowlands. So, after some digging in the city archives, recipes for two beers were unearthed -- one from 1407 name Koyt which was in the gruit style, and another from 1501 called Hoppenbier, which was one of the earliest documentations of hops being used in beer brewing in Holland!

Lydian and her husband Michel at Spuyten Duyvil.

Though it was only meant to exist for the year long celebration, the people of Haarlem loved the beer and the demand justified the establishment of an ongoing commercial enterprise. The initial project began in 1992, and by 1996 Jopen became a regularly functioning brewing company. They started as a contract brewer and bounced around a few breweries, including Halve Maan (Half Moon) and La Trappe in the Netherlands, and De Proef in Belgium. Eventually, in 2010, they took over a decomissioned church and built their own brewhouse there, right in Haarlem.

Michel and Andy of Spuyten Duyvil.

The brewery has a wide range of ales in the portfolio, and continues to brew its original two beers. They try to work in some historic angle to all the beers that they produce. One thing that do is brew a lot of beers with oats, in addition to wheat malt and barley malt, which was a traditional Dutch brewing technique, giving the beer a nice, round, full body and mouthfeel.

Erwin at a foodtruck in East Williamsburg.

Jopen will be available in the United States beginning in March of 2016, starting with the Koyt (1407 recipe), Hoppenbier (which will be labeled "Haarlem 1501" in the US), Doubting Thomas, a 10% quad hopped with American hops, and the Adriaan Wit, which was created as a benefit to help renovate an old historic windmill of the same name. We don't know about you, but we're "jopen" to trying them all!

The brewhouse in Haarlem.

Glasses filled with Jopen collaboration Disco Bitch.

Jopen Librije's Bier.

Pivovar Kout na Šumavě

WFMU Podcast: interview in English and Czech with Kout's owner

  Kout podcast (non-Flash)
 
The Kout Brewery, or Pivovar Kout na Šumavě, is located in the south-western corner of the Czech Replublic, an area well known for launching the Pilsner style in 1842. The influence of the creation of Pilsner continues to drive the beer world, with Pilsner style light lagers dominating breweries the world over.

The first written record of beer being brewed by Kout was in 1736, though it's thought that the brewery originates from at least 100 years earlier. From its official founding Kout was run by the Stadion family, then in 1924 it passed to the Schönborn family. The brewery was nationalized by the communist government after WWII and was operated by Pilsner Urquell. It ceased operations in 1969, but before it closed, Kout's current owner, Mr. Jan Skala, worked summer jobs as a teenager at the brewery in 1967-68. From that point forward the brewery and the beer would be forever in his heart.
In 2002 Mr. Skala learned that the idle brewery was for sale and set out to acquire it with the intention of restoring Kout to its former glory and resurrecting its unique version of classic, traditional Czech beer. In 2006 the brewery was once again up and running! Incredibly, one of the former brewers of Kout, Mr. Bohuslav Hlavsa who was brewing there in 1969, was found and retained to bring Kout's beers back to life. After Kout closed in '69, Mr. Hlavsa continued brewing at the nearby Domazlice Brewery.

Adrian and Mr. Skala of Kout with Jimmy Carbone.

Kout strictly adheres to a traditional Czech recipe and technique from over 200 years ago. They get their brewing water from a "secret well", according to Mr. Skala, and use only Czech Pilsner malts, some specialty malts from Germany, and Czech grown Saaz hops. All the beers are double-decoction mashed, except for Kout 12° which uses triple-decoction. The beers undergo open primary fermentation -- a distinct rarity in modern brewing -- using the same yeast strain as České Budějovice (Budvar), and then are carefully lagered. The Koutská 10° blonde beer (4% ABV) is aged for about 5 weeks, while their Koutský tmavý speciál 18° (9% ABV) is aged for up to 5 months! The beers are kegged, unpasturized and unfiltered.

Mr. Jan Skala.

This summer Kout 10°, 12° and 18° are being brought into the USA for the first time on a very limited basis, available only in kegs.

Koutská 10° Pilsner (4% ABV) lagered for 5 weeksKoutská 12° Blonde lager (5% ABV) lagered for 3 months
Koutská 14° Schwartzbier  (6% ABV) lagered for 4 months
Koutský 18° Dopplebock (9% ABV) lagered for 5 months
   

Kout Brewery.

The 18° Spuyten Duyvil.

L-R: B.R., Paul of Ale Street News, Joe of Spuyten, Alexander of Andechs, Sebastian of Freigeist.

  Kout podcast

Andechs In New York

Interview with Alexander, the brewer of Andechs podcast

In late June we met with Alexander Reiss, the Brewmaster of Andechs Klosterbrauerei (Monastery Brewery) and Lars Dahlhaus of St. Killian, the importer of the beer. Alexander was in town to participate in two Andechs launch parties, one at Zum Schneider in the East Village, and the other at Z.S. Montauk. Sylvester, the proprietor of Zum Schneider, who grew up near Andechs in southern Bavaria south of Munich, has been trying to get the beer imported to New York for over ten years -- and it's finally happening! For now it's being offered on draught exclusively at both Zum Schneiders. In a few months time it'll begin to appear in New York shops and bars in bottles.

Alexander, Lars and Bob.

Andechs is the German equivalent of Chimay, Orval, et al -- a functioning commercial brewery owned and managed by a monastic order of Benedictine monks. Alexander, the Betriebsleiter/brewer, is a layman, but the monks control the brewery and make all the decisions, as they have since its founding in 1455. That's the earliest record of the brewery, though it's well established that brewing there took place as early as the 12th century.

Weißbier Hell, Doppelbock Dunkel, Vollbier Hell, Weißbier Dunkel.

The current modern brewery has a brewhouse of approximately 200 bbl, with annual capacity of 150,000hl (127,000 bbl). Alexander explained that they could probably increase capacity to more than double that, but only at the expense of their traditional, time consuming, quality producing brewing techniques. And it's quite clear -- that's not going to happen!

Andechs uses Hallertau hops for all their beers, for both aroma and bittering. Hallertau is a nobel hop used primarily as a flavor and aroma hop. It has less alpha acids than most commonly used bittering hops, and thus is more expensive to use for bittering (less alpha acids means more hops needed to achieve bitterness). But the Brewmaster explained that it's one of the things that sets Andechs apart from other breweries -- that and their use of the time-, heat- and labor-intensive traditional technique of decoction mashing. While they are distributed throughout the whole of Deutschland, 20% of their sales are from exporting. Brewer Alexander, a 23-year brewing veteran, has been with Andechs for 8 years, and he learned the trade at the famed Weihenstephan Staatsbrauerei, one of the oldest, most established, most respected brewing institutes in the world.

The monastery on the "holy hill".

We sampled four of the Andechs beers which are soon to be imported to the U.S. for the first time ever, while sitting beneath the shady trees in the backyard of Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg.

Pouring Doppelbock Dunkel.

The Doppelbock Dunkel is a strong, dark, sweet, rich malty lager, historically brewed to help the fasting monks get through lent. It's mashed utilizing triple-decoction, while the other clean, traditional, rustic beers of Andechs are single-decoction mashed. 

Doppelbock Dunkel.

Weißbier Hell.

Their unfiltered Weißbier Hell is a classic Bavarian wheatbeer, with almost no banana esters, but a healthy dose of pleasant clove aroma, and a yeasty tang.

Pouring the Weißbier Hell.

The Weißbier Dunkel uses 30% dark malts in addition to wheat malt and some cara (crystal) malt. The dark malts really dominate the aroma and flavor of this very sturdy yet complex beer.

Pouring Weißbier Dunkel.

And lastly, the Vollbier Hell -- one of the most thirst quenching, elegant, beautiful beers on earth. It's got that classic Bavarian lager bready malt aroma, clean malt flavor, and a perfect medium body which satisfies without leaving a heavy feeling.

Vollbier Hell.

For now they're only bringing in Andechs draft exclusively for the Zum Schneider restaurants, but later this summer they'll be importing bottles of the four above described Andechs beers, in the same 500ml bottles that they use for the German market. Finally, you won't have to travel abroad to enjoy this extremely sought after, highly regarded, traditional yet unique German classic!

The Braumeister.

  [link to podcast page]

Andechs Vollbier Hell vom Faß at Zum Schneider.

Full line of bottles.

Freigeist In Brooklyn

35 tumblers of beer on the tray, 35 tumblers of beer...

Freigeist's Sebastian at Bierkraft in Park Slope podcast

One of the side benefits of having a large international beerfest in our (general) area which features brewers is that they tend to make the most of their trip abroad, and end up doing some events in our little town. Such was the case following The Festival, and one such brewer was Sebastian Sauer of Freigeist from Cologne/Köln, Germany, who is also the brewer of another upstart brewery, The Monarchy. He led a tasting at Bierkraft in Park Slope, and was also on hand at Spuytin Duyvil which featured his beers as well.

Bierkraft's insane list!!!

About 30 people showed up to hear Sebastian talk about the breweries and to sample 5 of the 15 Freigeist/The Monarchy beers on tap -- FIFTEEN! It's rare to see even one of these brews on draught!

Bierkraft.

Freigeist Bierkultur was founded in 2009 and first began importing to the U.S. in 2012, while The Monarchy started up last year, and makes their beers in the Dutch brewery Jopen, located in a former church. They also brew at the Braustelle brewpub in Cologne and the Vormann Brewery, situated about 70km north-east of Cologne.

Sebastian isn't as sour as his last name implies.

Most of Freigeist's products are made for export, as Germany is not a huge market for "unusual" beers that don't fit squarely into the modern German lager styles of Pils and Helles. Freigeist doesn't own it's own facility, but rents brewing time at the Cologne brewpub Braustelle, as well as other breweries (Vollman and also Göller, near Bamberg), as many other renowned craft brewers do.

L-R: Anthony of Proletariat, Joel Shelton, 
Sebastian Sauer, Chris of Bierkraft.

In addition to talking about his own enterprises and creations, Sebastian also talked about some of the obscure and nearly forgotten historical beers of Germany, which are the focus of The Monarchy brewery, as well as the Reinheitsgebot and other germane topics. He also answered the many interesting questions posed by the thoughtful group gathered. Hear his full presentation on the Beer Hear podcast!

Alternate name: A Beer Named Sue.

And I thought it was a product of England.

Grodziskie: 3.3% ABV, 5 IBU, 100% oak-smoked wheat malt
Polish style sour, bittered with willow bark.

Methusalem: 10% ABV Adambier aka Dortmunder Altbier.

Son Of A Batch: dark sour Göse, brewed with coriander
and Hawaiian black lava salt, aged in apple wood.

Munchhausen: Münsterland Altbier style, traditionally (mildly) sour.

Sauer Power ale: collaboration with Jester King.

Phoebe Caufield: this better be a rye beer!

Bierkraft backyard.

L-R: Joe from Bierkraft, Ira Glass, B.R. of Shelton Bros.

Jim spins the schlager platters.

Sebastian looks ready to bust some Schuhplattler moves.

You know, Heino!

Ottokolong at Spuyten Duyvil.

Black Smoke at Spuyten Duyvil.

Spuyten Duyvil list.

Son Of A Hickory: dark Göse sour, brewed with coriander and Hawaiian black lava salt, aged in hickory wood.
.

Rauch at Spuyten Duyvil.

  [link to podcast page]