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01-08-2015, 08:26
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Here's another installment of possibly the most useless guide ever. To part of a country that no longer exists.This time it's an overview of some of the breweries and their beers.

Thank god for Peter Crombecq. I'd picked up a copy of his book "Biersmaken" when I moved to Amsterdam in 1988. My main reason for buying it was that it had a complete list of Belgian beers. But it also contained a section on objectively tasting beer. It got me intrigued in trying to describe beer flavour and prompted me to start making tasting notes. Which is why I have the brief descrptions in the text below.



Beers
The beers are all bottom-fermented, though the Schmitt brewery in the village of Singen produces a pale top-fermenting beer. Most are unpasteurised and the bottled beer will develop a sediment after 6 to 7 days. They fall into the following general categories:



Hell
pale and fairly thin


Pils
with a bit more body, often quite bitter


Pilsator
a bit darker and more like a true Czech Pils


Spezial
a premium Pils, the bottled equivalent of Pilsator


Bock
a winter beer (available November to January) of about 16% Balling - can vary in colour from amber to black


Schwarz
as the name suggests, a dark lager, similar in style to Czech Tmavé Pivo



The Reinheitsgebot has never been enforced in the DDR, originally due to raw material shortages in the 1950's. Currently, the ordinary pils and hell beers are brewed using about 70% malt and the spezial and bock beers using about 80%. Both use about 10% sugar. Despite this, some of the beers, especially the pilsators, are very characterful and compare favourably with some of the rather inoffensive pils-style beers of the Federal Republic. In fact, with their bitter emphasis, the DDR beers are often more reminiscent of the pale Czech lagers. With the availability of W. German beers in the DDR it is now possible to directly compare the products of the two nations' breweries. In Muhlhausen, for example, beer from Eschwege (about 30km away over the border) is on sale. After a couple of glasses of the excellent local Turmquell Pilsator I tried Eschweger Pils which, although as it proudly proclaimed brewed to the Reinheitsgebot, seemed thin and almost tasteless in comparison.

Breweries
The specific beers, by brewery, in the towns described are as follows:



Vereinsbrauerei Apolda


Classic
malty with a strong bitter finish






Eisenacher Brauerei


Hell
a bit thin and watery


Wartburg Pils
sweetish flavour with a bitterish aftertaste


Bock
amber coloured, pleasantly malty






Braugold Erfurt


Pils
a good, clean, very bitter beer


Angerbrau
well-balanced and bitter






J. Andreas Klosterbrauerei, Eschwege, Federal Republic


Eschweger Pils
neutral flavour with a slight bitter aftertaste






Brauerei Gotha


Pils
thin and bitter


Diabetiker
malty aroma and bitter, slightly strange, taste


Spezial
bitter aroma and bitter taste






Brauerei Jena


Pils
light with a bitter aftertaste






Kostritzer Schwarzbierbrauerei, Bad Kostritz


Schwarzbier
Black, fairly sweet and malty






Muhlhausen Turmquell (bottled)


Pils
light, rounded malt aroma and bitter taste


Spezial
hoppy, slightly acidic flavour, with a bitterish finish


Bock
slightly sweet, malty flavour with bitter finish






Muhlhausen Turmquell (draught)


Pils
pale and quite bitter


Pilsator
malty/fruity aroma with strong bitter finish






Brauerei Neunspringe, Worbis


Hell
thin with a slight bitter taste


Pils
a bit more body and a bitter finish


Pilsator
slight malty/fruity aroma with a hop finish






Sternquellbrauerei, Plauen


Pils
thinish but bitter


Plaunator
bitter beer with a malty aroma and bitter/buttery finish


Pilsator
bitter taste with a full spicy, hoppy finish


Bock
sweet and dark with a slight caramel finish






Konsum-Brauerei Weimar-Ehringsdorf


Ehringsdorfer Pils
thin but pleasantly bitter






Exportbier-Brauerei Wernesgrun


Wernesgruner Pils
malty aroma and bitter aftertaste




The companies listed above are all VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb) or nationalised firms (apart from the Eschwege brewery, of course), but, especially in the south, there are still several very small private breweries operating. Examples of these are the Brauerei Göpfert in Jüchsen, Brauerei Geßner in Steinach and Brauerei Schmitt in Singen (the smallest brewery in the DDR). The best bet for finding the beers from these breweries is probably to visit their home village.




Wasn't that, er, completely useless? While most of the larger breweries have closed, I was delighted to discover that the three small private breweries mentioned in the last paragraph are all still open:

Brauerei "Zur Goldenen Henne" (http://www.brauerei-juechsen.de/)
Queckgasse 17,
98631 Jüchsen.
Tel: 0170/ 6018260
Fax: 036947/ 50903
Email: webmaster@brauerei-juechsen.de
http://www.brauerei-juechsen.de


Privatbrauerei Gessner (http://www.privatbrauerei-gessner.de/)
Am Lindenbach 27,
96515 Sonneberg.
Email: info@privatbrauerei-gessner.de
Telefon: 03675/4079-0
Fax: 03675/4079-40
http://www.privatbrauerei-gessner.de/


Brauerei Schmitt (http://www.brauerei-schmitt.de/)
Brauereiweg 1,
99326 Ilmtal OT Singen
Tel: 03629-802556
Email: info @ brauerei-schmitt.de
http://www.brauerei-schmitt.de

If you'd like to try the Schmitt beer, the fasmily runs a pub in the village:

Friedrich Schönheit Str. 4,
99326 Ilmtal.
Tel: 03629-802244
Fax: 03629-8379127
Gasthaus Zum Singer Berg
http://www.gasthaus-singerberg.de/

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