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Brewery International Introduction Dear friends and
customers, The human being as a customer, employee or friend has always been the focus of our activities. This brochure was designed in September 1998 and has been kept up-to-date continuously until now. The latest information was added in January 2007 when we turned our name to "Lahnsteiner Brauerei" ( former St. Martin Brauerei ). We hope you will enjoy reading all about our Lahnsteiner Brewery.
In order to achieve a healthy growth of our business against a declining market, we had to ask ourselves how to be successful under the adverse conditions. We have found three answers how to lead Lahnsteiner Brewery successfully during the next years:
We started our career as a specialised beer producer. Now we are on the way to offer additional services as event promoters. The whole brewery has been renovated. Plants have a new home within the brewhouse. Older machines, plants and parts are not longer regarded as rubbish but polished, painted and displayed. Guided tours through the brewery also in English, French or Russian have become a part of our business.
Tel. 02621-91740 Internet: http://www.lahnsteiner-brauerei.de Amtsgericht
Koblenz Handelsregister Nr. 2169
Lahnstein or "Loynstein" as it was called in the middle ages became a city on January 9th 1324. It is located at the middle Rhine about 100 km south of Cologne and about 100 km northwest of Frankfurt. Today Lahnstein is part of the Unesco world heritage "Upper Middle Rhine Valley". In the years after 1324 people started to establish a defending wall and towers around their city. This wall was partly located at the western border of Lahnsteiner Brewery´s ground. Some parts of the wall can still be seen today, especially the "Powder Tower" which was the southeast edge of the old city and today is the southeast edge of Lahnsteiner Brewery´s ground.
Directly in the centre of Lahnstein the "kurfürstliche" brewhouse and the mayor´s house were rebuilt. This confirms that there was a brewhouse at this place before. The brewing tradition at Lahnstein therefore is older than 1624. The brewhouse was administrated by the court of Mainz, which is still the regional capitol. The building of the old brewhouse can be visited until today.
Jakob Fohr - the grandfather of Dr. Rainer and Dr. Markus Fohr in eights and nineths genera-tion- receives the "Bannzapf". At that times the "Bannzapf" was the name of the right to brew beer. Before he already got the first half of his "Bannzapf" - proving that he worked as a brewer before. "Jacob Foor" - this is how his name was written in 1667 - probably was born in the region of todays "Lüttich" in Belgium. Many Belgians came to the middle Rhine at that time to work for the ceramic and pottery industry that still enjoys supra-regional fame. Obviously those immigrants feared not to get an adequate beer in Germany so they brought along their own brewers. This fear in some way was the beginning of the family "Fohr"'s tradition at Lahnstein. In spite of that Jakob Fohr lived at "Ransbach", a small town about 30 km away from Lahnstein. The family and its brewery moved to Lahnstein several years later.
After the secularization by Napoleon the brewhouse in Lahnstein become private.
Johann Junker establishes a brewery at that place where it is located today. 1895 Family Fohr was still living at Ransbach and now brewing beer for seven generations. Unfortu-nately this seventh generation was represented by two brothers being not on good terms with each other. Because of this the older brother got the brewery and the younger brother, Franz, was paid off. Franz Fohr took his money to buy the brewery of Johann Junker at Lahnstein. He named his brewery "Lahnsteiner Brewery" because Lahnsteiner is the protecting saint of Oberlahnstein, the part of the city where the brewery is located until today.
On the premises of Lahnsteiner Brewery the first great industrial chimney within the area of La-hnstein was built. It was needed to run the new boiler and the ice producing plant. In addition to this a steamed brewhouse and an electric power plant were installed.
Lahnsteiner Brewery celebrates its 25th anniversary. Since Franz Fohr became the owner and manager of the brewery it developed from a small brewery to become a modern industrial plant.
After the death of Franz Fohr in 1940 his widow managed the brewery. In 1944 Hugo and Wilhelm Fohr, Franz Fohr's nephews, took over responsibility. In the same year many parts of the brewery were destroyed by a bomb. Only one year later the destroyed areas were newly established with a brewing capacity three times bigger than before.
Modernization takes place at St Martin Brewery. The brewhouse was newly installed and from now on could be run automatically. Also a bottling line with a production of 12.000 bottles an hour was established.
Dr. Rainer Fohr, brewer in ninth generation and still active in management, takes active part in Lahnsteiner Brewery. Within the following years modernization takes place again. The cleaning of all tanks and vessels is now run automatically. The old fermentation vessels are replaced by new cylindroconic tanks constructed of stainless steel. As a consequence the consumption of water and cleaning fluid was heavily reduced. The quality of the final beer was increased. A new keg line was installed. From 1989 on the the brewery´s wastewater is cleaned by its own sewage plant.
Dr. Markus Fohr, brewer in tenth generation, becomes a managing partner of Lahnsteiner Brew-ery. Again this was the starting point of a modernization programme not only in terms of technology but also in marketing. A new brewhouse constructed with stainless steel was built between 2002 and 2005. In 2001 the "First day of the beer in the city of Lahnstein" was established. Until now it is celebrated at the last weekend of August. The new philosophy as already described in this brochure was born.
As a consequence of the new philosophy Lahnsteiner Brewery will get its new name "Lahnsteiner Brewery". By this name the brewery´s unique identity and the close connection to the local region will be strongly emphasized. The new logo was developed in cooperation with the city of Lahnstein. Now the city, the brewery and also the local producer of mineral water use a logo which is nearly identical.
If you just regard the technical point of view it´s possible to brew beer without complying with the German purity law of 1516. You need some enzymes, antioxidants, sugar, grain or foods colour but it will work. Apart from that, since 1516 nearly 1.300 breweries in Germany have shown that it is possible to produce high quality, healthy and pure beer just by using water, hops and malt as raw materials. This tradition is continued in Lahnstein now and in future times. January 1st 2007 the labels got their final design with a young spirit and with the new logo of "Lahnsteiner Brewery".
"Bierstengel, Biernudeln, Bierkäse and Lahneckchen" Since 2004 it´s even possible to eat Lahnstein´s specials. The first of these products was the "Bierstengel", a smoked sausage with about 50 grams of weight. Butcher Wagner of Braubach, a small town near Lahnstein, created a special recipe using the dark strong beer "Schnee Bock" as an ingredient. "Schnee Bock" also provides the basis for the other specials because of its dark colour and its malty taste. One of these specials is "Bierkäse" ( beer cheese ). This is a biologically produced cheese out of cow milk. During the production "Schnee Bock" ( dark strong beer ) is added so the final cheese gets a little darker and gets a little more aroma.
Beer Liqueur and Beer Spirit Before he became brewmaster at Lahnstein Henrik Rohmann was employee of a distillery where he collected strong experience in producing liqueurs and spirits. This knowledge he used to create the recipes of "Bierbrand" or "Beer Spirit" and "Bierlikör" or "Beer Liqueur".
In the same way the bottles of the "Beer Spirit" or "Bierbrand" are labelled. Distillery "Vallendar" creates it by using readily filtered beer from Lahnsteiner Brewery. It is not produced from yeast or unfiltered beer because then the spirit gets a hard taste which is not intended. "Beer Spirit" reaches 40 % alcohol and is only available in 500 ml bottles with natural cork.
This is the darkest beer of Lahnstein. It is often thought to be strong beer but it has the same strength as Pilsner beer. Roasted malt causes its black colour and characteristic taste. Black beer is produced exclusively for pubs just in kegs.
Since 2004 Lahnsteiner Brewery produces top-fermented beers and this one was the first of its species. "Lahnsteiner Obergärig" is a pale and top-fermented beer with less hops. The recipe is the same like breweries in Cologne produce their "Kölsch". Because of the "Kölsch Convention" beers may only be named "Kölsch" if they have been brewed not more than 50 km away from the city of Cologne. As a local special "Lahnsteiner Obergärig" is just produced in kegs.
Lahnsteiner Alt is brewed according to the tradition of the "Altbier" in Düsseldorf. In contrast to "Kölsch" in Cologne the name "Altbier" or "Alt" is not protected so its possible to call this special "Lahnsteiner Alt". A little roasted malt is enough to have a dark colour and a characteristic malty taste. Like "Lahnsteiner Obergärig" and "Lahnsteiner Schwarzbier" it is offered just in kegs.
Packages and containers Brewing beer specials is Lahnsteiner Brewery's main business. Up to now these beers are filled in returnable kegs and bottles only. We use 330 ml Longneck-bottles and 500 ml "Nordrhein-westfahlen" bottles. Regarding kegs they are filled with the volume of 10, 15, 20, 30 and 50 l. More than 80 % of the production is filled in kegs and the rest in bottles. For export business, it is also possible to fill one-way-bottles for sixpacks or boxes.
The beers and specials of Lahnstein are sold from Monday to Friday 7 - 18 hours and on Sat-urday 9 - 12 hours directly in the brewery. Apart from this they can be found in local restau-rants, pubs and beverage markets. To get it by post please try the shop on the internet. Any other questions will be solved by
+49 - 2621 - 91740 or fax +49 - 2621 - 917434 email: webmaster@lahnsteiner-brauerei.de
In addition to our products we also work as a consultant for our customers. We help pubs or restaurants to plan and organize their business, deal with contacts or brew a brand of their own for many collegues or wholesalers. For parties we organize guided tours through the brewery or also offer party equipment like cooling containers or mobile tapping units.
Our specials are souvenirs for themselves. In addition to this we have steins, glasses, mini trucks, wooden casks or pins.
Besides our work
to brew beer Lahnsteiner Brewery has started to be an event place. Since
2003 every year at the last weekend in August we celebrate the "Day
of the beer in the city of La-hnstein". Apart from that we have many guided tours through the brewery being frequently connected with a further programme like a walk through the old part of Lahnstein or with shipping the river Rhine. If you come to the brewery you can have a close look at the brewhouse, the fermentation and storage tanks, the filtration, the racking hall and also the historical "Powder Tower" built in 1411. Highlight of every visit is tasting all the specials. You will get to know how to produce top- or bottom-fermented beers, pale, dark or black beers and much more. At the end you get a local meal and also local music if you like. Visits are possible nearly at every time and day in German, English, French, Russian or Bulgarian. For further information please contact us by telephone or email.
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