My boyfriend is actually stationed in Grafenwohr Germany through the Army. I went to visit him over spring break where we decided to go on a tour to Griesbrau Brauerei (Brewery) While we were staying at Edelweiss lodge in Garmisch. This is a blog of what we did. The tour itself cost $40 for two tickets and you got to have 5 free beers and dinner.
As soon as we walked in the door they handed us a wheat beer(Heffeweizen). Definitely not my favorite, it had a lot of yeast built up at the bottom, which you can kind of detect at the bottom of our mugs. All of the beers we tried were made through the microbrewery. Now on to the tour!
Some of the tanks used for the microbrewing process. This is also the room where mashing occurs. It is the step in which the malted grains are crushed. They are then put in hot water, and then create the malt, after this the substance sits a while, and converts the starches into fermentated sugar.
Stainless steel tanks used to keep all of the flavor in the beer. These tanks varied in temperature, because as Brewmeister Wolfghang says, it depends on the flavors, and type of beer. The second stage of this process is called sparging- in this stage the sugars are dissolved in the malt, and then the dark sugary liquid left is called the wort. In the tanks towards the back, the boiling process occurs. In this stage anything that could cause possible bacteria is killed off and the hops are put in. Once that stage is done, Wolfghang disucsses how the fermentation process takes place, which allows for yeast and other particles in the beer to settle.
Here Wolfghang discusses the different processes of packaging, and how you have to be careful not to have too much CO2 released into the bottles.
Wolfghang saying "Prost"(Cheers in German) as he took a shot of what is translated to english as beer liquor. The name I could not get, but it was AMAZING. It was 70 proof, but was made with beer!!! CRAZY
PROST!!
Pilsner
I had such a wonderful time getting to meet people from all walks of life, and getting to explore a German Microbrewery. The food was excellent as were the drinks! My favorite which I did not get a picture of was the dark beer. Definitely a place I would recommend if visiting Garmisch or Parchenstein.!
