A couple of days ago I received an e-mail from Thomas, the man behind the revived Bergmann brewery in Dortmund, announcing that they will be serving Glühbier at their kiosk in Dortmund every Friday till Christmas. It seems that they have this kiosk in Dortmund where they open from 4pm to 8pm just selling their beers. Nothing else. Interesting outlet idea!
I asked Thomas if they had brewed a special beer for the holiday season or were they spicing up something like their Schwarzbier that I tasted before. It turns out it's exactly the latter, and they will be using fruit concentrate and spices to mull the beer. I'd love to know what combination of spices will be used. I wonder would the spices used for making Glühwine work? I like to think they were inspired by my Christmas beer, which I really should bottle soon, but I doubt it. :)
So, if you were making a mulled beer from a dark beer at home, what would you use to make it festive?
On an aside, the local TV station, WDR, is going to be running a program in January titled "How beer disappeared from Dortmund". An interesting title presumably reflecting how the breweries of Dortmund have either closed or been subsumed into larger holding companies. Bergmann represents the return of an old brand name and an independant brewery to Dortmund, a slight reversal of the trend, and the program makers have filmed in the new brewery last month. Always good news...
My trip to Kraków really put me off hot spiced beer, but then they used crap lager as a base. I doubt I could bring myself to spice up a nice dark beer.
ReplyDeleteI am planning on making a mulled beer this weekend - in Czech it would be called svářené pivo. I am planning to use the Primátor 24º as the base, and mix in some honey, cloves and cinnamon. Choice of beer is due to the fact that the 24 is 10%ABV. Will report back on Fuggled on Monday.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather push needles into my eyes than drink mulled beer. Or mulled wine for that matter. We're off to Düsseldorf /Koeln a week on Monday. Christmas Markets and all that for the Mrs. She likes mulled wine though.
ReplyDelete:D
ReplyDeleteI'll give anything a go (as long as it's a drink). Actually, I quite like Gluehwine, and I think that stemmed from a Christmas I spent in my wifes home town when there was a big snowfall and the neighbours built a bar out of snow in their garden. They were there all night passing out Gluehwine to anyone passing by. And schnapps too. I think I was there for a few hours at least, so that broke me in! I can't imagine what a mulled beer would taste like, and I haven't tasted my own spiced Christmas ale yet. Here's hoping...
Aargh! We were in Dortmund last weekend and missed the Gluhbier. We also saw Gluhbier being advertised in the Goslar christmas market, although it officially opened the day after we left, so we didn't get to try that either.
ReplyDeleteWe had the Liefman's Gluhbier in Dresden though, which was nice if the idea of hot cherry beer appeals to you. (It does to me). And I quite like the Polish hot beer.
We're planning a few gluhbier experiments - how about a big chocolaty stout as a base?
Liefman's Gluhbier? Sounds interesting. And even more interesting that you'd get it in Dresden!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I did find a bar selling trappist beers here in Muenster, but I'll post about that later when I'm not working...
I'm a sucker for Gluehwein in general. Christmas just doesn't seem like Christmas to me without it now.
ReplyDeleteIf you like this sort of thing be sure to try the gluehkrieks at the festival in Essen... If the Liefmans is too sweet go for the De Cam!
I just made something like a Gluhbier. I didn't even know such a thing existed. I must drink it hot and see what it's like.
ReplyDeleteI brewed a dark ale type beer with honey and threw in a load of mulled wine spices at the end.