Creativ Brauerei - Trumer Pils

In September my wife treated me to a Saturday course in brewing beer offered by Trumer Pils in Obertrum am See (Austria), it's about 30-minutes by bus from Salzburg.

Trumer Pils is my favorite beer, so this was a real treat. Here are photos of our day at Trumer's Creativ Brauerei.

The Creativ Braueri is located in the cellar of the Gasthaus Restaurant in Obertrum am See. The idea is a small group of people spend the day brewing about one keg worth of beer. The day is held in German (probably a group could arrange a tour in English, but I am not sure). They brew beer about 100 days a year, mostly tour groups and company events; we had to book well in advance for our day.

We started with a recipe prepared by our Braumeister and measured the ingredients carefully, placing them in the warm water and cooking the mixture for a couple hours.

While the mixture cooked our Braumeister talked to us about the process of brewing beer and the importance of small local breweries. We walked around in the Gasthaus - a huge building with restaurant, banquet rooms, beer garden (naturally!) and huge kitchen. We visited the beer library and sampled a few of the unique beers (e.g. one made with coffee). During this time we monitored the cooking beer and stirred the mixture every now and then.


At about noon lunch was served. A hearty portion of Schweinsbraten (roast pork) with knodel and kraut. Yum. Washed down with plenty of Trum beer: Pils, Marzen or Weissbier ... who knew that Trum made so many varieties (only the Pils is 'exported' outside of the region to the rest of Austria). It was an open bar all day, you served yourself.

Next we added the hops pellets, stirred, and waited a while before filtering the mixture. See the photos, lifting the settled mash out of the pot was really hard. Next the 'brew' was transferred to the aging tank where the yeast was added. The beer would then age for a couple of weeks before being consumed at a Gasthaus in Obertrum that serves the Creativ Brauerei beer.

At this point we had our graduation ceremony where we each received a diploma and souvenir glass. Next we had a tour of the Brewery and had a chance to ask questions about Trumer Pils' unique brewing process.

It was great fun!