Brewing Tours!

Guten tag!

It's been a fun couple days.

On Sunday we heard presentations from Amanda and Jenna. Amanda talked about brewing behind the iron curtain. I learned that the USSR would only allow distribution of a certain kind of beer. Jenna talked about Gose beer, which is a salty beer brewed in Germany. I'm really excited to try it when we go to Leipzig...it sounds a bit strange but I am open to trying new things!

Afterwards we took the S bahn to visit Brauhaus in Spandau, a brewery where we got a tour and lunch. This was the first real, running brewery that I have toured. It was really interesting. For lunch we all tasted Helles bier, which was a beer that had a slightly citrusy and sour aroma. It was cloudy and not extremely light, though I enjoyed it. Next we had a glass of Plotz Blitz, a dark lager. I'm normally a bit hesitant to try dark beers, but I actually liked it! It didn't taste terribly dark...a bit like coffee. Very drinkable! Next we went to the Jewish museum which was incredible! The architecture of the building itself contributed to the exhibit. It was a bit disorienting, but I think that really made sense, considering everything that the Jews went through, especially during the Holocaust. I learned a lot about Jewish culture, not only during the Holocaust, but before as well. For example, I had no idea that the Jewish had gained equality in Germany just a few years before the Holocaust.

Monday we visited the Versuchs-und Lehranstalt fur Brauerei (VLB), a brewing school in Berlin. Today was the first day of classes, and we were lucky enough to be invited to come today to tour the school. I learned that there is a lot that goes into brewing. Even past making the actual beer, there is so much scientific and technological work that goes into insuring the beer and the packaging is adequate. One man who works in the laboratory at the school told us all about the advanced scientific work that goes into ensuring that the chemical composition of the beer is up to par. A lot of it went over my head but I was amazed to see that work is done right down to the molecules to make sure beer is good. Even the packaging of the beer is studied and tested to make sure it is of quality. So amazing. I also learned that technology can do tests to see where isomers come from, so scientists can tell where beers (or components of beers) come from based on their components. We also did a sensory analysis and tested off flavors of beer. It was really interesting to try to detect off flavors of beer...and definitely not easy! It was great to get the opportunity to try this, though. Hopefully I will get better at detecting certain flavors as time goes on! At the end they had a reception for all of the new students, which we were invited to. We had a few beers and mingled with the people there!

I haven't uploaded pictures from the last couple days to my computer yet, but I will post some pictures of the last couple days soon! Tomorrow we are taking a day trip to Leipzig...can't wait!