Franconian Beer Message Board

Hausbräubier
Posted by Jason on 2021-02-26 09:06:11
It's just beer, the pipe that fills the barrels is too cumbersome to move back and forth and you'd have a lot of wastage, so they just fill up a more mobile and precise vessel. 

Today's foray into this strange new world was quite exciting in these times. I posted the following on Facebook:

An early start this morning to partake in another uniquely Franconian beer tradition for the first time (no drinking involved... yet). 

The tradition of Hausbräu refers to the filling of personal barrels of ‚young beer’ from a brewery to be further ‘lagered’ at home (in a cold store or cellar). Everyone has their own process which I’m led to believe culminaties in a very different taste experience at the end than the original lagering in the brewery.

I arrived at Brauerei Zehendner, Mönchsambach at 7:30 to see a group of middle aged Franconians crowded round the brewer who was filling a large number of various sized barrels with what can only be described as a petroleum pump stretching from the fermentation tank. 

The local sages then took over and started topping up the barrels with a milk churn until they were full. This took some time, as the foam needed to subside, and throughout there was various chatter about how long to lager, when and how often to ‘unbung’ to let it exhale, what moon phases are coming and a number of other insider tips, some of which were lost in the thick dialect. I kept a low profile, being a bit of a novice, nodding knowingly at the requisit times to avoid scrutiny. 

Before long the barrels were all full, the keystones secured and 15€ exchanged for 15 litres. The results of all this tradition will be determined in 3 weeks or so time when I will share with a couple of friends
 
Followups:
           Hausbräubier  by Barry on  2021-02-27 03:19:44
             Hausbräubier  by Jason on  2021-02-28 01:48:53
           Hausbräubier  by FredW on  2021-02-28 08:36:56
               Hausbräubier  by Robbie  on  2021-02-28 13:05:19
                 Hausbräubier  by ToddA on  2021-03-01 20:35:30
                   Hausbräubier  by Jason on  2021-03-01 23:08:35
                     Hausbräubier  by Kim Lund Johansen on  2021-03-02 02:24:28
                   Hausbräubier  by ToddA on  2021-03-03 19:20:28
                     Hausbräubier  by Jason on  2021-03-04 10:26:45