The head brewer from the world’s oldest brewery, Frank Peifer of Weihenstephan, returned to Temple in Brunswick East for his second collaborative brew there. The Crafty Pint crew (VIC and WA) went along for the ride and to create a collaborative write up, with Pia girlplusbeer responsible for the words, Crafty for the pics…
Event: Temple x Weihenstephan ReUnifikator ‘Brewligious’ Experience
Venue: Temple Brewing, Brunswick East
Date: May 20
Good Beer Week Stream: Beer Lover
The Event:
When you start your day with a beer in one hand and a fresh-out-of-the-oven pretzel in the other, you know you’re in for a damn good event. Not that an average day was ever on the cards given that we were spending the entire day at Temple Brewing to witness their collaboration brew with Weihenstephan, the oldest brewery in the world.
The yet-to-be-named collaboration brew is a smoked amber rye wheat beer that is being brewed to the Reinheitsgebot, the German Beer Purity Law, that all Weihenstephan beers are brewed to, meaning it’s only water, barley and hops allowed to make the magic. Well, that and yeast too.
As the mash did its thing, it left us plenty of time to get to know the brewers a little more and drink their fine beer. Glenn Harrison (above right), formerly of Hargreaves Hill, joined Temple earlier this year and in that time has introduced a couple of new brews such as the New World Order Stout and Rye Hard IPA, both of which poured freely on the day. Frank Peifer (above left), brewer at Weihenstephan, did not come empty handed either, bringing two of his beers across the seas. The Weihenstephan Pilsner was a joy to drink off tap, not something that happens very often in Australia, and the Kreuz Des Sudens, which roughly translates to “Southern Cross” in German and showcases our own Galaxy hop.
Lunch was punctuated by an audible sigh of happiness from the crowd as we walked downstairs to see the feast that had been laid out, including two suckling pigs. Temple head chef Sam Hopkinson stood at the ready to carve, serve and happily chat about his approach to food and his favourite local produce.
Back upstairs for the afternoon and the brew was running a little behind as Glenn had predicted with the wheat and rye resulting in a stuck mash. It was going to be a longer brew day than originally thought but everyone was all smiles, rolling up their sleeves and working together.
When you see Frank pouring the liquid through a sieve being held by Glenn you know that “collaboration” and “handcrafted” are not just buzzwords here.
Killer Beers:
Weihenstephan Kreuz Des Sudens uses the Australian Galaxy hop, with its passionfruit aromas
appealing to Frank as “something special” and certainly not like any German hop variety. In its creation, the brew was spilt in two, one batch fermented with a Bordeaux yeast and the other with traditional Weihenstephan yeast and then the batches were blended together. Kreuz Des Sudens has lots of lovely tropical fruit flavours like mango, peach and pineapple with medium bitter finish.
Temple New World Order Stout, one of the new beers since Glenn joined as head brewer, is velvet smooth with chocolate, roast and coffee bean flavours and a dry finish.
Highlights:
Witnessing grown men almost weep at the magnificent food by Sam and the team in the Temple kitchen.
Watching the brewers working together while fielding questions from the eager crowd, their openness in discussing the process and sharing their knowledge confirming everything that’s great about the brewing community.
The Event in Three Words:
Pigs and beer
