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Beer and monks simply belong together – also in the Black Forest.

 

From the eighth century onward, the Black Forest was settled primarily by farmers who opened up new areas for agriculture. Monasteries were also founded, such as in St. Blasien (858), St. Peter (1093), St. Georgen (1084), Alpirsbach (1095) and St. Märgen (ca 1100). The monastery of Hirsau in Calmbach near Bad Wildbad is already mentioned in the ninth century and was of immense importance at times, several other monasteries were founded from here.

 

The monasteries not only administered the territories assigned to them, but also ensured the dissemination of written records by having the monks make copies of existing books.

 

But that was not all. It was not uncommon for monasteries to have breweries that produced beer. But why? The reason was the fasting period. During fasting, monks were not allowed to eat solid food. Since the beer of the time was still quite thin, the monks tried to make it more nutritious. Hence, the art of brewing in the monasteries was refined more and more. Monastery beer thus became more superior than others, which is why the monks eventually began to sell it.

 

Brewing is anything but a simple process, but requires several steps and, accordingly, a lot of time. First, you need grain, usually barley, from which brewing malt is made. This is ground, mixed with water and then heated. Part of it is then separated, namely the spent malt, which is not fermentable. What remains is the fermentable so-called "wort". This is heated in pans with the addition of hops and then filtered to remove suspended solids. Now the so-called "pitching wort" has been obtained. Yeast is added to this and allowed to cool down to a temperature at which it can ferment. During fermentation, which usually lasts about a week, the sugar contained in the wort is converted into ethanol. The resulting beer is usually stored for several weeks before bottling.

 

Over time, other breweries have developed outside the monasteries. By far the oldest is the Fürstenberg Brewery in Donaueschingen. Much younger, but still venerable, are the Löwenbrauerei Bräunlingen (from 1783), the Privatbrauerei Waldhaus in Weilheim im Hotzenwald (1833), the Privatbrauerei Rogg in Lenzkirch (1846), the Löwenbrauerei O. Dold in Elzach (1856), the Brauerei Ganter in Freiburg (1865) and the Familienbrauerei M. Ketterer in Hornberg (1877). It is worth mentioning here that the Waldhaus brewery uses natural hops, a circumstance that is quite rare in breweries in Germany.