Beer tasting for tourists in Bremen, at the end of a guided tour for visitors at the Becks Brewery.
Hi guys and gals,
I'm living in northern germany and in this article I would like to review the guided tour I recently did visiting the Becks Beer Brewery in Bremen.
In april 2016 some friends from Italy visited me and I was thinking about some interesting places to go with them. I remembered that they like the city of Bremen and also enjoyed Becks beer. So I searched the net and found the Becks brewery visitor center offering two-hour guided tours.
From their website:
"Brewery tours: A lot of interesting information relating to the art of brewing, the brewery and the Beck’s and Haake-Beck brands, presented in a highly diversified manner, constitutes the main element of our brewery tour. The tour takes you through the museum, the raw materials area and the brewhouse. You will also pass malt silos and fermentation and storage tanks. Two 10-minute films and a presentation in our cinema conclude the tour. After the tour you will be treated to a beer tasting, during which we serve three different beers from our product range. Soft drinks will also be available."
This sounded good to me so I booked us on the next available two-hour tour in english language.
The next day we arrived at the Becks brewery plant in the center of Bremen, located directly at the river Weser.
They had built a visitors center with a little museum, a souvenir shop and a pub inside. This is also the meeting point for the guided tours.
We arrived just in time, paid our 11,90€ admission fee and were handed a yellow neon security vest. Several tourists from all over the world were already waiting there wearing their neon vests. Our visitors group consisted of several men from Italy and Malaysia, an elderly japanese couple, some dutch ladies and a family from Sweden with adult kids. Minimum age for this tour is 16 years.
The tour at the brewery
A nice young blonde lady introduced herself to us as the guide and gave us some security information first. We had to wear our neon security vests on the premises all the time.
First we were seated in a movie room where a short film about the history of the company was shown.
Some history
The Becks brewery was founded in 1873 selling beer in mouth-blown green bottles to the local pubs in Bremen. Ships with raw materials were and are able to directly reach the brewery via the river Weser. The green bottle became the trademark of Becks. The key in the logo remembers at the key in the logo of the city of Bremen, showing that the company has its roots in Bremen.
During the time, the brewery expanded, focused on Pilsner beer (pale lager?) for export, changed ownership several times and became more and more successful, selling different beer brands all over the world. Since 2008 Becks belongs to the international brewery giant Anheuser-Busch Inbev.
After the movie, which was a mixture between company history and company PR, our guide showed us the museum, where several objects, different kinds of beer bottles and machinery from the early years of their beer brewing are shown.
Beer has been labelled as "food" in germany and we learned why: In medieval times drinking water often was contamined with bacteria and caused diseases. But beer was always safe to drink when no clean water was available. So beer became regarded as valuable "food".
Becks also innovated new ways of advertising, creating images to their brands not directly related to the products. A famous example is the tall ship "Alexander von Humboldt" that appeared in many commercials, transporting an image of "freedom", together with the song "sail away" sung by Joe Cocker. The ship also links to Bremen as a seaport and member of the hanseatic trade league in medieval times.
Now the tallship "Alexander von Humboldt I" is out of service and on static display in Bremen. There is a restaurant in it and You can go and have dinner in it. Since 2011 the newbuilt tallship "Alexander von Humboldt II" is the succedessor, also appearing in Becks advertising.
The brewing
After the museum we were seated in another movie room in another building where a second short movie was shown. This film was all about the process of beer brewing and its ingredients.
Beer is a major part of german culture and Germany ranks third in per-capita beer consumption. The purity decree or "German beer purity law" was published in 1516 stating that
"In all cities, markets, and in the country, the only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be Barley, Hops and Water. Whosoever knowingly disregards or transgresses upon this ordinance, shall be punished by the Court authorities' confiscating such barrels of beer, without fail.
The german "purity law" is one of the oldest food regulations of the world, still a "holy cow" in german beer culture and many breweries in germany still stick to it. Later yeast was added.
After the film, which ended with an emphasis on how environmental friendly Becks get its high-quality ingredients, we were led into a room where details of the fermenation process were explained and we were able to touch and smell barley and hops.
Then we went into the old brewhouse with historic mashing machinery.
After that we visited another fermentation room. Unfortunately, we were not able to visit the bottling and packaging rooms that day.
So far 1,5 h have passed and after all that theory we were brought back into the visitor center, now into the pub room for the practical part of the tour: the beer tasting! :)
What we got to taste
After an advice to not drink and drive (non-alcoholic beverages are available for vistors as well) we were seated and given different types of beer, either in small bottles or directly fresh from the spine in small glasses.
To neutralize the taste in our mouths in between the beers, we had little salt prezels on our tables as well.
Our guide made a little competition and game out of it, we had to taste and detect if its a top-fermented beer or not and to detect different ingredients and tastes.
They presented to us their brands and beer types, classic ones, new products and mixtures like beer-lemon. Also their non-alcohol beer. At the brewery we were not allowed to take pictures and at the end I didn't have many camera with me so I recreated what we got at the beer-tasting on my kitchen table at home:
1. The standard becks and becks golden are pilsner pale beers and have 4,9% vol.
2. Becks blue is the non-acoholic beer and has 0,5% vol.
3. Becks red ale is a new product, has more malt, is darker brown-red, has a light sweet taste and 4,5% vol.
4. Becks 1873 is a new "retro beer" brewn after old traditional recipies from the 19th century and is similiar to the classic pilsand has 6% vol. They have several more products though.
This is what we got to taste. Different kinds of beer and little salt brezels. We also got to taste from the ice and lemon mix beers there.
I didn't know they also had a special beer dedicated to the Werder Bremen soccer team also. On certain occasions they brew special beers from time to time.
After relaxing and trying the different beers offered to us we finally left the brewery and headed back to the City Center of Bremen which is a 20-minute walk away.
My review:
The guided tour is well organised and thought of and there is an extra visitors center. The guide was friendly, well understandable and open for questions and additional explanations. The tour was a mixture between information and company PR.
Everything presented was fine, great, environmental friendly and social. They say. But that's to expect when visiting a commercial operation where brand name, reputation and image is very important. It's all about PR in the end!
I was disappointed that we weren't able to see the bottling. The price of 11,90€ for a 2-hour guided tour in english with beer tasting is ok in my opinion
My italien guests have enjoyed the tour and were happy. And that was what counted for me that day.
If You are a tourist visiting northern germany and are interested in beer production and beer tasting I can recommend a guided tour at the Becks brewery in Bremen. If You visit other parts of Germany, most probably the local breweries there offer similiar tours as well!
Here You can see a short image video on Youtube of the tour we did.
Link to the tour description and info.
The article is finished now and finally I can have now one of those beers from my kitchen table, to the success and prosperity of steemit and You steemiters! Cheers! :)
Thanks for reading, have a great day!
( Disclaimer: English is not my first language so please forgive any errors! Pictures are from pixabay.com except for mine taken on 16.6.2016 or otherwise stated. I'm in no way affiliated with Becks or Bremen tourism, that was a private visit with guests! I'm not much into alcohol, just having an occasional beer and wine sometimes. Please always drink responsibly and don't drive and drink!)