The Grande Finale. An illustrious trip to a magical place in Austria. Returning home with an internationally recognized certificate with a German title, but only if you pass the mysterious exam of which no one seems to know how many people passed and failed in the past. The culmination of an educational program about beer. I went through this climax this month and it imprinted memories that won’t fade easily. Spoiler: I made the exam and joined the ranks of International Diplom Biersommeliers (in Good German).
The whole concept of Beer Sommeliers was invented by Axel Kiesbye, who started training people in these skills in 2001. StiBON is the organization in the Netherlands that trains people in most of this and they have a now 10-year ongoing collaboration with Axel’s Kiesbye Akademie to dot the i, over the course of two days. After these long, but inspiring days, the Dutch sommeliers get properly minted. So what happens these two days? Even though “what happens in Obertrum, stays in Obertrum”, I think I can reveal some of the details.
Obertrum am See is a lakeside village just north of Salzburg in Austria. At some 1000 kilometers from my house it begs the question whether to fly, take a train, or drive. I appreciate our planet, so the quest was down to either taking a train, or finding three people to join me in the car. The latter option won. The nice thing about driving is that you can stop anywhere you want, and in between Austria and the Netherlands there’s Germany, which happens to be full of beery spots to spend the breaks at. With the long drive, though, stops needed to be quick.
Eight a.m. on Sunday, the trip starts from the Leiden Central station where my first two passengers joined me. Forty-five minutes later the car was fully loaded with four excited to-be-certified beer nerds. Even though outsiders are generally baffled about how we do it, to us talking for 10 hours on end about beer is almost second nature. Admittedly, we talked about other things, but killing awkwardly long periods of silence was never too challenging. On the way to Austria we decided to have dinner at the Weihenstephaner Bräustüberl. Located on a hill just north-east of Munich, the brewery has a Biergarten with a splendid view, while on the other side of the brewery, the Technical University of Munich has its brewing departments. I don’t regret my studies in astrophysics at all, but a MSc from this place doesn’t sound all that bad either… By 10 pm we arrived in Obertrum, where many of our classmates had already assembled around a table, drinking the lovely beers of the Trumer Privatbrauerei from across the street. A few more of these would follow in the coming days!
German and Austrian beer in class and in the city
The program is taught at the BierKulturHaus, which has a 400 year old brewing kettle, a small experimental brewery and a more than impressive cellar with beers. Obviously, the first few minutes there are spent with the jaws on your knees and your tongue hanging out of your mouth drooling. The control over facial muscles is regained quickly, though, as the lessons start and obviously come with tasting. At the BierKulturHaus they give a large variety of courses and the two-day (both 830am to 10pm, roughly, so full days!) menu that the StiBON people get is especially designed to touch upon those few topics that, after StiBON level 2, still require some further detailing.
A first, rather obvious topic is the German and Austrian beer culture and the corresponding beer styles. Jens Luckart was our teacher for the full program, and in this first module we got to learn that he is a great teacher, super funny and engaging. We also learned that basically everything in the world of beer has some link to Austria, to what was once Austria, to a person that had connections in Austria, or that had even more vague connections to Austria (all Austria, though!). Also, alcohol isn’t good for you. Either way, the first tasting session was to blindly recognize a bunch of lager styles from the area, which was far from easy. Good thing: no repercussions for your exam if you screw up.
Over the course of the first day, a dedicated chef was present, who cooked dishes with beer. No breakfast, lunch, dinner, but an almost continuous stream of deliciousness like beer soup, beer “bitterballen” (you need to come visit us in the Netherlands if you don’t know what that is; yes the cook was originally Dutch), pork with pasta and Kaiserschmarrn.
A next module was on barrel aging of beer. Theory about what the wood does to the beer and why was followed by a trip down the cellars. You can’t be there without opening a few bottles and wow, what an interesting selection of beers we had there. One of their own beers was open fermented in the woods for four days, and then bottle conditioned. Flash pasteurization when it was to the brewer’s likings meant it could stay that way. Nice one! Jens has good connections with some local brewers, too, and those brewers know to call him before flushing away any beer. Any production “error” might be worth picking up anyway, and a Brett “infected” Sherry barrel aged bock was in fact fantastic. We were promised to drink another Austrian specialty the next day, but already got the barrel aged version of it in the cellar: Samichlaus Barrique by Schloss Eggenberg. Perhaps this is a next new beer style, as this is Barleywine-like, but bottom-fermented (and therefore designated as doppelbock…) to a staggering 14% abv! Apparently, a famous Austrian beer writer has asked himself who would ever drink that, and whether it’s even beer… The farmhouse experimental brewery of Stiegl (Gut Wildshut), brewed a beer like it would have been produced 4000 years ago. It was gentle on the nose, but rather sour in the mouth. Interesting, but I probably wouldn’t necessarily order a second glass, or even sip, of that one. This might well have been the most extreme 45 minutes of my life, flavor-wise.
The rest of that day was dedicated to our secret practical assignment in downtown Salzburg that evening. During and around dinner we did a real-world exercise that revolved all around beer, beer serving, beer quality, beer food-pairing and all things hospitality that come with being a sommelier. Very fitting, very enjoyable, and great for the bonding of the group. We learned about the concept of a Schankanlagenbuch, which turned into a running gag that I expect to come across in the future again, when I spontaneously run into one or more of my classmates. After the assignment we all gathered at the Augustiner Bräu beer garden, which was surprisingly busy for a Monday evening. Love the concept: pick between half a liter or a full one, let the man at the barrel fill it up and enjoy. No complications. Relaxation.
The day of the truth
The next morning is different. Some don’t seem to care, while with others you can feel a bit of tension for the exam that is to follow this afternoon. The uncertainty about what’s to come and the ignorance about whether failure is a realistic option can be harsh. To me, it wasn’t too bad, I guess I’m ever so slightly too arrogant to be worried. Or should I say confident? Either way, there is not just an exam on the program today. In fact, the first lesson, 830 am once again, was on beer-food pairing. A plate with some bites and a line-up of beers was waiting for expert judgment on what basic flavors in beer work with what basic flavors in food. Ever had salty or hot nachos for breakfast? Or a 14% abv beer at 9am? Another few questionable items off my bucket list!
The geek in me was also quite stoked about the other major theme of the morning: the module on the fifth raw material for beer: glassware! StiBON 1 and 2 had mentioned some aspects of the glass you pour your beer in, but I was happy to get some more nerdy tidbits thrown at me on the topic. Besides some theory (running from marketing elements to glass shape and induced turbulent flows), we were asked to compare one and the same beer from two different glasses. We compared foam stability and structure of the foam, intensity and harmony of the aroma and of the flavor and whether or not the glasses did something different in bringing forward the separate influences of malts, hops and yeast on the flavor. There was not a “winning” glass, because just as with food pairing “it all depends”! What do you want to get from the tasting session? What do you want to get from the beer? Depending on such questions, you might pick one glass over the other.
The rest of the day was, besides a pizza lunch, filled with the exam and a tour through the Trumer Privatbrauerei. The set-up of the exam was somewhat unconventional, but not as crazy as some of the answer options in the multiple choice were. Of course, the exam was taken very seriously, but wasn’t without subdued giggles every now and then. Half an hour was plenty to finish the few-pager, but discussing it afterwards among the quick finishers took at least as long. Anyway, it’s out of your hands by that point, so why bother? Sit back, relax, sip on a beer and wait for the brewery tour to start!
The Trumer Privatbrauerei is led by Joseph Sigl. In good Austrian tradition both the first name and the company are inherited by the firstborn son, so that sentence has been correct for quite a while by now. The brewery is medium-sized, but high-tech. They brew about 1% of Austrian beer consumption. We were toured by the lovely tour guide Joanna. The usual story about raw materials and the brewing process was swapped out for personal stories about the brewery, the family operating it and the Christmas dinner beer pairings. It was well over 30 degrees, though, and we all felt guilty about feeling a little drowsy and not being as lively as the lovely stories deserved! Impressed by the open fermentation tanks (!!) and the Imperial Pilsner, we hung out on the couch overlooking the fermentation room for a bit. The open fermentation is rather unique, you don’t see it often and certainly not in a brewery producing bottom-fermented beer. Scooping off the foam and yeast is said to make the lagers even more crisp than they otherwise would be. To counter the heat, luckily Trumer is also famous for their Hopfenspiel: a very drinkable, yet flavorful 2.9% abv grassy, hoppy “session” pilsner. This was a welcome refresher for the hot afternoon and prepared us for the festivities to come later.
Party Time
This edition of the seminar to upgrade StiBON graduates to Biersommelier was a special one: the collaboration between StiBON and the Kiesbye Akademie was in place for 10 years. Worthy of a celebration! Therefore, the dinner and graduation ceremony in the evening had some commemorative extras. Speeches by the board of StiBON (and their presence!), a huge plate of Sachertorte and the presentation of a special anniversary beer. Jens Luckart, before becoming beer mega-expert and master brewer worked as a wine make, so it just had to be a grape ale! Because the idea was born somewhat late (last April), there were no grapes available. Therefore, a base beer was brewed and Grüner Veltliner (Austrian, of course!) was added. Only 70 bottles of this beer are made: exclusivity! Just before all the celebratory speeches, dinner and graduation ceremony took place in the BierKulturHaus, we had a toast outside. After beery prayers and the magical touch of the faucet by Henri, the water from the fountain in the village spontaneously changed into beer! That magical moment happened right after everybody heard we all passed the test. Such euphoria!
After stuffing ourselves with a fantastic dinner, the more than excessive Sachertorte and a few beers: diploma ceremony. A brief personal word, the diploma and silver pin handover, a quick photo-moment and a massive round of applause. Seventeen of these were to follow, but everybody kept their enthusiasm until the very end! Music, plenty of beers from a varied selection and plenty of joyous conversation filled up the last hours of our program there. Many memories were made, and they will last for a while.
The next morning, perhaps with a tad bit less energy than the previous two, we were ready to take off at 830, on our way back home. Passing through Germany again, we decided to fit in a lunch at the Schlenkerla brewery in Bamberg. At only a 20 minute detour, such pilgrimage can not be passed by, of course. A lovely town, great lunch, and just one (maybe two) good beer(s) would keep us happy for the ten hour journey back home.
Emptiness ahead
Now what’s next? With an internationally recognized diploma in the pocket, there will be no more Monday nights at beer school. It feels a little like something that was part of your life for a while, in a most enjoyable fashion, now is lost. No worries though. I have made new friends, and the things I have learned hopefully open up some new gates to beer-related activity. And to our Obertrum group: see you at the reunion!
This would be a good place to thank all my StiBON 1, 2, and 3 classmates for the fun times we shared. Many thanks to all inspiring and knowledgeable teachers throughout the program: I have learned more than I could have imagined and had the time of my life!
Tasting Craft Beer 
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