He was surprised, says Hubert Koths, when he noticed how the Maisel brewery responded to the local residents. “Actually creative and accommodating,” says the Bayreuther. When it comes to noise and design, the company has good ideas ready. And yet Koths asks: Does it really have to be the large plant for 500,000 hectoliters of beer annually right on your own doorstep?
the worst case From Koths’ point of view and that of his fellow campaigners in the “Stadtgrün Oberobsang” initiative: A gigantic complex that destroys the landscape, is loud, emits an unpleasant smell and also generates traffic. Koths lives with his wife on the outskirts of Bayreuth, where the main road leads past a lot of greenery. Maisel, best known for his wheat beer and based in the city center, wants to set up another brewery on his doorstep, so to speak. Comparable buildings sometimes amount to a higher double-digit million amount, so it is definitely a major project for Bayreuth, which has 75,000 inhabitants.
Wiese and not so much else: Residents fear where Maisel wants to build, destruction of the landscape, noise and more traffic.
(Photo: Hubert Koths/oh)
And this of all times, while the beer industry in particular is suffering from Corona? Closed restaurants and pubs, curfews during the pandemic – that’s a problem for breweries that sell their beer to the catering trade. At Maisel, however, business was already going well before Corona; and in the crisis you are doing well in retail, says managing director Jeff Maisel on Wednesday. “Fortunately” people found the brand in stores. He himself seems a little surprised that they had full capacity in 2020: employees had signaled that they were reaching their limit. “And you can’t work until 10 p.m. every Saturday,” says Maisel, “we had to brake sooner.”
The plans are well received by the city council. After initial resentment that the city was not acting transparently, Koths now feels that it is being taken seriously. The building committee was there on Tuesday for an inspection, and Maisel presented the plans. Balloons marked the dimensions of the building, which is intended to be climate-friendly with a green roof and low water consumption. And the initiative, which now includes around 500 residents, was explicitly invited. Those present somehow no longer found the plans too monstrous.
Noise in production, in bottling, Maisel wants to move underground, part of the site is to be built on a slope and the bottles are to be transported underground, which Koths also likes. Trucks should be loaded indoors, not outdoors. Koths also likes the refusal to use a residential street as an access road. Suppliers, guests and employees should come via the main road. There will still be more traffic in Oberobsang.
And: The systems could be built on a smaller area overall, says Koths. Jeff Maisel denies: This is the only way to create compensation areas for sealing, for meadow orchards and a rainwater catchment pond.
Maisel wants to focus on one or two brands of beer in Oberobsang. And that from 2024, in the spring the first beer should come from there. Which is not considered unambitious. The project has to go through the city’s procedures and committees, which can take months. Only then can construction begin.