With historical brewing craft to museum beer
Hop growing, breweries and brewhouses at the Franconian Open-Air Museum of the District of Middle Franconia in Bad Windsheim
By BAYERN TOURISMUS Marketing GmbH
Franconian Open-Air Museum of the District of Middle Franconia in Bad Windsheim | www.freilandmuseum.de
Der Braustern verweist auf die Braugerechtigkeit, zum Beispiel von einer Gastwirtschaft. (2018) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Frank BoxlerOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
Time travel through 700 years of Franconian history
The Franconian Open-Air Museum Bad Windsheim explores and conveys how earlier generations lived, built, lived and worked, mainly in villages or small towns. An exciting (and tasty) topic is the historical craft of brewing with all its facets!
First you need the ingredients for the beer - like the hops.
Hop growing has a long tradition in Franconia: it was already documented around Spalt, Hersbruck and in the Aischgrund in the 14th and 15th centuries and experienced a renewed boom in the 19th century. With a small cultivation area and relatively high yields, hops were also ideal for smaller farms...
Blick auf den Hopfenbauernhof von der Hersbrucker Alb: Hopfenbauernhaus aus Eschenbach (vorne) samt Stadel aus Thalheim (hinten). (2013) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Ute RauschenbachOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
Cultivation
... as shown in the example of the hop farm in the open-air museum. The hop garden is located directly behind the two buildings, which made the work easier. The typical elongated ventilation dormers on the unusually steep and high roofs are unmistakable.
In der Dauerausstellung im Dachgeschoss des Hopfenstadels aus Thalheim werden verschiedene Geräte zur Hopfenernte und -verarbeitung präsentiert. (2021) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Lisa BaluschekOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
Harvesting and processing
The four-storey attic room therefore provided enough space for storing and drying the hop cones, which were harvested in the ‘picking season’ in September. Usually the whole family, including employees or day labourers, were busy plucking the hops...
... and then celebrated this highlight of the hop year at the ‘Niederfall’, a communal meal. In addition, the wages were paid out in the form of so-called "Hopfenzupfermarken".
Ein Korb voller getrockneter Hopfendolden - sie verleihen dem Bier in der "Aromagabe" den letzten Schliff! (2021) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Lisa BaluschekOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
Product
After successful processing, you end up with beautiful dried hop cones. In the so-called ‘aroma addition’, the hops, nowadays in pellet form, are added to the warm brew towards the end of the brewing process to round off its flavour. A very important ingredient!
Then you need a container for the beer.
In the past, before beer could be brewed, the appropriate equipment and (beer) barrels had to be prepared for bottling and storage. Barrel making was even a profession in its own right.
Blick auf das Büttnerhaus aus Wipfeld, am alten Standort an ein anderes Gebäude angebaut, im Museum nun freistehend. (2018) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Frank BoxlerOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
Craftsman's house
In Franconia, these craftsmen are still referred to as Büttner to this day. The Büttnerhaus from Wipfeld is located directly on the village square of Baugruppe West: the living rooms and bedrooms were located on the upper floor of the particularly representative building with its bright red half-timbering.
So entsteht ein Fass: Der Museumsbüttner bei der Arbeit. (2020) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Margarete Meggle-FreundOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
Workshop on the ground floor
Still fully equipped and usable: the museum cooper demonstrates the production of wooden vessels for visitors in the workshop. Staves (hollowed, bent wooden boards) and flexible twigs or iron hoops are used to make vats or barrels of various sizes.
Now it's off to the two breweries.
One of the oldest preserved breweries in Europe is the Hofbrauhaus from Kraisdorf dating from 1699, which is still in working order today! This ‘dwarf brewery’ was only allowed to brew for its own use, as the estate had no right to dispense beer - which amounted to 4,000 litres.
Blick auf den hölzernen Läuterbottich (links) und den Sud- bzw. Bräukessel (rechts). (2018) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Frank BoxlerOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
Brewing purely by hand
Once every museum season, brewing takes place here using the fully preserved equipment and historical technology, completely without a motor or pump. Soaked barley grains are dried in the malt kiln under the roof. The crushed malt is heated with water in the brewing kettle.
This mixture, the mash, is then ladled into the wooden mash and lauter tun, in which the solid components settle at the bottom. The liquid wort flows through a bunghole at the bottom into the lauter tun, a trough in a pit between the two vats.
Brauen im Hofbrauhaus ist noch reine Handarbeit. (2018) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Tobias TratzOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
Reaching your goal with physical strength
The brew is ladled back into the brewing kettle and boiled with hops. The brew then flows through a wooden channel into the cooling vessel made of oak beams and on into the fermentation vats. Back then, the main fermentation took place in these large vats before the wort matured in barrels.
Franconia has the highest density of breweries.
It is therefore not surprising that there is still a brewery in the museum: The communal brewery from Schlüsselfeld shows that brewing in Franconia was often organised collectively and breweries were maintained by communities. All citizens with ‘brewing rights’ were allowed to brew in them.
Das Gebäude konnte mitsamt der voll funktionsfähigen Brautechnik übernommen werden, dargestellter Zustand um 1950. (2018) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Tobias TratzOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
With electric motor, agitator and pipes
In the attic, warm water is waiting in the water tank and next door in the grist mill, the malt that has been delivered is crushed. Upstairs in the mash and lauter tun, both ingredients are mixed for an hour at 50°C and then pumped into the copper brewing kettle from 1852.
Die Würze aus dem Sudkessel wird vom Braumeister geprüft. (2021) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Lisa BaluschekOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
With the master brewer's skill and experience
There, the barley juice is heated to 62°C & 72°C for two hours. During this time, the master brewer regularly checks the wort before it is pumped back into the lauter tun, where the malt husk settles at the bottom. The cloudy brew runs through this filter layer...
... and the lauter grist back into the brewing kettle, where it is flavoured with hops and boiled for another two hours.
Der dampfende Sud wird in das Kühlschiff gepumpt. (2020) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Ute RauschenbachOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
Final touches ‘off-site’
The boiled wort is pumped upstairs into the cooling vessel, a large shallow vat in the attic. The wort cools down there, is then transported away and fermented outside (as is usual in municipal breweries). In the case of the museum beer, at the external partner Brauhaus Döbler.
Das Ergebnis kann sich sehen lassen: Das Museumsbier in den Sorten Zwickel und Dunkel. (2021) by Fränkisches Freilandmuseum/Lisa BaluschekOriginal Source: Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim
A tasty result
Water, hops and malt are regularly used to brew the delicious Zwickl and Dunkel museum beers. It can be enjoyed directly on site or purchased in the museum shop and in local shops. A taste of the historic craft of brewing for the palate - enjoy!
Franconian Open-Air Museum of the District of Middle Franconia in Bad Windsheim
Concept & realisation: Lisa Baluschek M.A.
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