Together we are stronger
Why is it when you talk to Josef Sigl and his son Seppi of the Trumer Brewery you get the impression that they are fairly pleased with their lot? Is it because they regularly scoop prizes for Trumer Pils as the best German-style pilsner in the world – albeit always competing for the top spot with Trumer Pils brewed in Berkeley, United States, by their friends at the Gambrinus Company?
Or is it because they can still rely on the on-trade sector to sell most of their beer? According to Josef Sigl, 90 percent of their beer output is sold in pubs and restaurants across the country. That way, he says, he can buck the price dictatorship of the supermarkets.
Actually, Austria’s brewers on the whole seem to have it much better than their neighbours do: they have been successful in maintaining high beer sales. Domestic beer sales have consistently hovered around the 8.5 million hl mark since 2000. Austrians, on average, drink about 107 litres (2012) per year, which is an astounding "self-preservation rate", as some Austrians jokingly put it, because on a global scale they are only bested by the Czech (145 litres per capita).
Therefore, it’s widely assumed that brewers’ profits aren’t all that bad since Austrians like to enjoy a beer in company and in pubs (over 30 percent of volume sales are in the on-premise), where prices for 0.5 litre of beer range between EUR 3.80 and EUR 4.00 (USD 5.00 to USD 5.20).
Although Austria’s brewers so far have been lucky in warding off the worst excesses of the Europe-wide ban on smoking in pubs – most pubs and restaurants have sections for smokers – which has helped on-trade sales, they nevertheless have had to contend with a gradual shift of volumes from the on-premise to the off-premise. As Mr Sigl readily admits, this has affected Trumer adversely. Though widening their distribution reach, volume sales have suffered.
However, high volumes and good profits cannot be the only reasons why the country’s 170 or so brewers refrain from moaning about their lot. The sweep of globalisation did not stop at their borders. Dutch brewer Heineken owns Brau Union with eight breweries and a market share of 49 percent. The privately-owned Stiegl brewery and the Ottakringer brewery are ranked second and third and control about 20 percent of the market. This leaves the "Culturbrauereien" ("culture breweries"), a club of nine privately-owned breweries set up by Mr Sigl and Hubert Stöhr of the Schloss Eggenberg brewery in 2008, with merely 13 percent, media say.
Interestingly, market consolidation has not lead to a rift among brewers. If my observations are anything to go by, Austria’s microbrewers don’t feel compelled to adopt an "us-against-them" attitude that can be noticed elsewhere in Europe. Rather, what makes them stick out is a deeply felt enthusiasm for their craft, which in turn is fed by a generally positive societal attitude towards beer. In Austria, beer has not been turned into the scapegoat for all that ails society, nor has its status degenerated to a fast moving consumer good on par with washing powder, chocolates and coffee.
One reason for consumers still holding beer in high esteem is that brewers have put a lot of effort into underlining beer’s cultural value. From Trumer’s design-driven pub paraphernalia to their engagement in the arts, a lot of thought and effort has gone into emphasising beer’s continuing relevance for a contemporary lifestyle. Stressing their beers’ quality, diversity and regionality has helped too.
What is more, brewers have begun to put their faces to their beers. Taking their cue from the country’s vintners, personality marketing is now a must. Some older readers will remember that Austria’s vintners were in the doghouse for many years following the discovery of large-scale glycol adulterations in 1985. If vintners have since risen from the ashes to international acclaim it’s because they have realised that in the public mind the link between "my name – my face – my honour" and their products works miracles.
On the homepage of the Culturbrauereien (www.culturbrauer.at) all its members/owners have a strong visual presence. Because of their regional bases, they don’t really compete with each other. Therefore, they can afford to market their beers together. Several times per year they sell their beers in a themed box. At the end of April 2013, boxes with the members’ Märzen beers were available all over the country.
Being a "Culturbrauer" is as much a state-of-mind as business practice. This becomes apparent when you visit the Trumer brewery in Obertrum, some kilometres to the north of Salzburg. The brewery is a production site and a total work of art. In other words: it’s fairly unique.
I think Austrians have heard this message loud and clear because the brewery attracts about 10,000 visitors a year. Guided tours take them through the brewhouse to the "fermentation lounge" (Mr Sigl’s term not mine), literally the centre-piece of the brewery, which is a two-story glass and concrete cube, designed in what Mr Sigl calls a "sensuous minimalism" with a view of the nearby lake.
From the outside, the cube could be mistaken for a very generously sized modernist home, sprung straight from the pages of an interior design magazine. This impression is maintained on the inside too, surprising as this may sound.
Because inside the fermentation room it’s all concrete and stainless steel plus wooden floors. Yes, you read correctly. There are wooden floors around the open fermentation tanks. The other thing that surprised me is that visitors are actively encouraged to hang around and watch the yeast doing its job before they move on to the visitors’ lounge which is separated from the fermentation tanks by glass walls.
I must say I have never experienced anything like this before. The fermentation room presents visitors with an eerie spectacle (hence the total work of art experience). When all the machines are turned off and it’s dead silent you can hear the bubbles burst: zing, zing, zing.
The fermentation unit is evidently a major technical and technological achievement for which Trumer’s brewmaster Axel Kiesbye is partly responsible. I say "partly responsible" because without Mr Sigl’s deeply-held conviction that fermentation provides the beer with half of its flavours the project would not have gotten off the ground.
I am sure some readers are interested in the cellar’s technical features. They have been already written up in the German edition of BRAUWELT by Karl-Ullrich Heyse in 2007.
Therefore, I asked Lars Larson, the brewmaster of the U.S. Trumer Brauerei, for a summary in English. Here is what he said:
"The fermentation tanks are open top cylindro-conical form with a unique design which holds a European patent that allows both the removal of CO2 gas and automatic CIP cleaning. In contrast to more commonly seen CIP systems of open-top fermenters, no lid is required to CIP these tanks. The top of the open fermentation tank is rolled over 180 degrees to the inside, and forms a protective cover for a DIN 50 stainless steel tube ring, which curves around the top of the tank closely located next to the tank wall. The tube is perforated with a series of small holes which spray cleaning solution and rinse water against the tank wall, effectively cleaning off all the brandhefe. The rolled top also protects the room from incidental spray. Fully automated CIP is accomplished in under an hour.
During fermentation the same tube is connected to a vacuum pump and gently removes all the CO2 which forms during fermentation, keeping the room safe for brewers and visitors alike.
The open top of the system allows the observation of the fermentation itself as well as the emptying and cleaning of the tank, which is quite useful for process optimization. Three cylindro-conical tanks, each with a volume of 500 hl (two brews) were installed, and one 250 hl tank (one brew). The firm Christian Gresser from Regensburg was charged with building the tanks and the firm Esau & Hueber of Schrobenhausen was responsible for the integration of the new tanks and the construction of the cellar project."
Similar units have since been installed at the Schlossbrauerei in Fuchsberg and the Spittal-Brauerei, Regensburg (both in Germany).
Readers, if you find my prose too esoteric, I suggest you go and visit the Trumer brewery yourselves.
