The art of brewing beer in wooden barrels – Munich

Giesing is not only somewhere between Harlaching and Haidhausen, Giesing is also on Detmoldstraße in Lerchenau. In any case, if you trust the place-name sign posted in front of the entrance to the Giesinger Bräu. Here, what Steffen Marx started 17 years ago in a Giesingen garage is being continued on a much larger scale – namely brewing beer. Very successful in the meantime, so much so that the small entrepreneur, who once earned only mild smiles with his Oktoberfest plans, has also become a topic for the bosses of the large Munich breweries.

Steffen Marx and his team regularly come up with something new: now it’s beers aged in wooden barrels. Four different types of rum, whiskey and cognac aged in Jamaican and Martinique casks. Strong beers are needed for this, the “Sternhagel” ended up in the Jamaica Rumfass, and the name “Rumms” refers on the one hand to the fine rum note that it now has in the taste, on the other hand to the eleven and a half percent alcohol where the star hail came in the meantime. In the end product, however, they are reduced to ten percent again, “it shouldn’t be too sprightly, but a well-rounded overall experience,” says Sebastian Esche, the technical director of the Giesinger Bräu.

Even for him, who is in charge of the project, the whole thing is still a matter of touching and trying things out. Maturing beers in wooden barrels is very time-consuming, the barrels prefer to have a constant temperature of 18 degrees and a humidity of 70 to 80 percent. Esche sprinkled water on her every day. In addition to the “Rumms”, a “Glenmarx” matured in a whiskey cask, a “Très Bier” matured in a cognac cask and an “Arrrr!” matured in a Martinique rum cask were created. The strong beers take on the aromas of their barrel predecessors. The beers will be sold from April 5th.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” says Steffen Marx. “We’re the only ones in Munich who dare to tackle the subject. It’s complex, but that sets us apart a bit.” Now that they have established themselves as a medium-sized brewery in Lerchenau, the time has finally come.

Birgit Zacher, spokeswoman for Paulaner, would not let Giesinger Bräu be the only one who dares. “It’s a good marketing idea,” she says. But the Paulaner already had: “Ten years ago, Martin Zuber prepared a nice bourbon bock at the Eiswerk, which sold well.” The Eiswerk was a small Paulaner experimental brewery. Master brewer Ulrich Schindler also prepared a light bock in the whiskey barrel for the last time in 2018, now, after Corona, this is planned again for the autumn in the Paulaner Bräu. “But we’re curious to see how the variants of Giesinger Bräu taste!”

“After the Wiesn, everyone is detoxing anyway.”

Steffen Marx’s beers taste good, no wonder. In autumn there will not only be another special edition of cask-aged beers, but also: an alcohol-free one. “I know I once said I would never do that,” says Marx. “But times are changing.” With good hops and well-bred yeast, a great, aromatic non-alcoholic beer can be made, he says, and trials are already underway. “It could come onto the market after the Wiesn,” says Marx, “then everyone is detoxing anyway.” In addition, with regard to the Oktoberfest, it is important to offer a full range. That’s where non-alcoholic beer comes in.

Giesinger Bräu wants to break even this year. “We’re currently at around 34,000 or 35,000 liters,” says Marx. 36,000 to 38,000 liters are needed. The alcohol-free beer is also a step towards keeping the brewery fit for the future, because it should also appeal to the health-conscious younger generation, according to Marx. With the draft beers, on the other hand, you can win new fans. Giesinger Bräu should now enter the earnings phase and the crowdfunding that helped them get going should be repaid. A lot should happen this year, not least a brewery opening party, which has not been possible so far due to the pandemic. And then, maybe in two years, another Giesinger town sign could be rammed into the ground on the Theresienwiese.