After the Atelier der Braukünste has been the crowd favorite in every tasting in which it has been represented, it is time to give the friendly microbrewery from the tranquil town of Romrod in central Hesse a little attention here as well…

Beers are a dime a dozen. A part of the supermarket offer falls then over the table edge, if we want to speak about well made beers. At the latest with the attributes >well made and really interesting beers< the air in Germany is getting thinner. If we then consider regionality, there is only one left in Central Hesse who is capable of expanding taste horizons with excellent beer: Nico Döring of the Atelier der Braukünste.

After the improbable awards of the last few years (silver and platinum at the Meininger Craft Beer Awards, silver at the European Beer Star!), the small brewing facility in the local Romrod Castle was slowly becoming too small. Actually, Nico Döring is one of the managing directors of the Hotel Schloss Romrod. As a hobby brewer, he found his way into the creative beer scene, and today walks between worlds. To meet the growing demand from all over Germany, he now brews most of his beers near Bamberg. Brauhaus Binkert is quite in demand in the scene for what is known as gypsy, cuckoo or simply: contract brewing. And anyone who tastes the beers brewed there must at least conclude: the quality is right!

Rating and being rated

The reward is second place among all German breweries on the beer rating platform Untappd with a fabulous 3.98 out of a possible 5 points, based on the average rating of all listed beers. This puts the Vogelsberg microbrewery ahead of scene giants like Frau Gruber from Augsburg (3rd, 3.91 ∅), Sudden Death from Timmendorfer Strand (7th, 3.84 ∅), and Fürst Wiacek from Berlin (9th, 3.83 ∅)!
[all of may ’19]

„Climb the ladder to success, escalator Style“

Notorious B.I.G.

Nevertheless, the double life is a tough business: management by day; in the evenings, at night and on weekends, a sought-after scene brewer. Because Nico Döring is actually on the road an incredible amount. Especially during the festival season from spring to early fall, it’s a real challenge. In addition to production, new beer ideas need to be developed and finished beers need to be presented in person at craft beer festivals all over Europe.

And the latter is a kind of parade discipline of the brewing artists. Nico Döring always keeps a few specials that are not available in bottles or cans. The Macadamia Nut Porter /// Nitro Foam Festival Edition already bears its exclusivity in its name: if you want to enjoy it, you have to visit one of the many beer festivals at which the Atelier is represented, and you’ll be rewarded with a little enlightenment – beer can do that! Rough amounts of the sinfully expensive queen of nuts are hand-roasted and processed into a natural syrup that is sprayed onto the Samt & Seide (velvet & silk) Porter with nitrogen. The nutty, sweet, fine bubbly foam (almost more of a crème) combines uniquely with the soft chocolaty roasted flavors of the beer underneath. For me, the perfect dessert – I’m still waiting for the opportunity to sink a scoop of vanilla ice cream into it. Rarely achieved 4.25 out of 5 points on the rating platform Untappd speak their own language…

The overall image plays a major role for the Middle Hessians as a whole. The bottle labels designed by visual arts artist Jörg Karg immediately catch the eye and make each beer in the range an absolutely perfect souvenir for people with a penchant for holistic aesthetics. Names like „Philanthropische Geste“ („Philanthropic Gesture“, Pale Ale), „Temporär Tourette“ („Temporary Tourette“, New England IPA) or „Truman Syndrome“ (Mosaic IPA DDH and worth a Wiki-Click!) testify to the fact that a lot of love goes into every aspect of the product here.

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As attractive as the facade, as special is each individual beer in production. Selected ingredients that (greetings to the purists) only carefully stretch the purity law, which is quite controversially discussed in the creative beer sector (for example, by adding spelt or other types of grain instead of barley malt), are brought together to form a brew on which it is not unusual for two different yeasts to let off steam. In the case of the Range’s latest beer, Truman Syndrome, a double dry hopped [1] IPA, it involves a common American ale yeast (Chico) and a Riesling yeast. [2]
„Beers with species-appropriate husbandry“ is what Nico Döring calls this philosopohy.

In any case, the result is beers with a very high drinkability – beers that make you want another one as soon as you stop drinking them. This trait runs through almost all of the beers in the portfolio. It’s no coincidence that Nico Döring and his colleagues hardly get a chance for breaks at trade shows. However, the brewing artist always takes the time for longer explanations of his beers and topics that visitors bring with them – no matter how long the line is.

In any case, at the Craft Beer Festival in Frankfurt, the opinion around the stand was pretty unanimous: „this is probably the only stand where you are guaranteed to draw a prize from the lottery ball – no matter which beer you choose!“. Reason enough to present the beers available in the bottle not only in the Fermentos-Tastings but also here in loose order.

So: stay tuned and subscribe to the Blog if you want to read more!

Atelier der Braukünste
Schloss Romrod | 36329 Romrod
https://www.atelier-der-braukuens.de
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[1] In dry hopping, relatively large quantities of hops with high aroma oil contents are added to the young beer during and/or after fermentation. This allows large parts of the aroma components to be retained in the beer, which would otherwise be expelled by boiling or the rising carbon dioxide during fermentation.

[2] The new version received a new yeast blend, though…

May 2019

Baltic Porter Baltikum Bamberg Barrel Aged Belgisches Bier besondere hefe Bierbesprechung Brauerei Brettanomyces Britischer Ursprung Craftbeer Deutsches Bier Diversität Dunkelbier Estland Flanders Red Ale Franken Früchte Hamburg Hopfenbombe Imperial IPA IPA Kellerbier Kreativbier Lactobacillus Lager laktose Lehe Mikrobrauerei Mischfermentation obergärig Pale Ale pastry Porter Russian Imperial Stout Sauerbier Sauer macht lustig Sommer Spotlight Spotlight_EN Stout untergärig USA what the funk!? Wilde Fermentation