Portraits of Speidel customers » Staffelberg-Bräu, Bad Staffelstein – Loffeld PORTRAITS OF SPEIDEL CUSTOMERS

» From butcher to brewer

Staffelberg-Bräu, Bad Staffelstein – Loffeld

Franconia is known for good beers. The connection between brewery One of the outstanding breweries in and restaurant is a very special one. the area is Staffelberg-Bräu. Since Karl-Heinz Wehrfritz, the boss, was 1856 beer has been brewed here. But formerly a professional butcher. But unfortunately you will look in vain for when he met his future wife Helga this Franconian beer with the dwarf and then married into the family, he on the label in the beverage markets also trained as a brewer. Brewing across the rest of Germany, because has now become his profession, sau- the sales area is regionally limited. sage he makes now only as a hobby.

How does the dwarf get into the logo? That Wehrfritz is also a true master Legend has it that dwarves used to in brewing beer is shown by the live in Staffelberg. They often helped awards he has received for his the people, and every now and then beers. In 2010 he received the first they stole a potato dumpling for “European Beer Star” for his Doppel- it. So the dwarf is a positive figure bock, to date a total of six times. But and that's why he was the brewery several other of his beers have also mascot at some point. When you scored internationally. The last time sit in the brewery restaurant in the he received the gold medal for the beer garden and enjoy the delicious pale full-bodied beer was in 2019. Franconian cuisine there, you can im- Karl-Heinz Wehrfritz in his own mediately guess why the one or other hop garden potato dumpling disappeared. Wehrfritz works with classical open This was important to him, because After an insulated fermentation tank fermentation, which has become a the tanks had to fit through a rela- for non-alcoholic beer and other rarity. In his four brewing cellars, tively narrow door and yet should containers, the expansion of the fer- Pils, wheat beer, cellar beer, Bock each hold 6,000 litres. Because they mentation cellar was scheduled for and other specialties mature. are standard tanks and not custom- 2019. Again, Wehrfritz looked through made, they were also cheaper and the catalog and configured exactly A special feature are the two brewing could be delivered faster. “That's ex- the fermentation tanks he needed. kettles. They are not, as usual, made actly my tank!” he is still happy today. The six cooling-jacketed cylinder of conical, but of shaped stainless blocks together hold 120,000 litres. steel and are real gems. Anton Geld- Wehrfritz is enthusiastic about the They were installed in spring 2020 ner, the father-in-law of Karl-Heinz craftsmanship, the proverbial Speidel and have been in use since then. With Wehrfritz, proved farsightedness and quality. He also took a look at China their three cooling-jacket zones, the in 1970 he decided to use stainless tanks at the brewing fair, he reveals. fermentation process can be precise- steel kettles, which were just begin- At first glance, they looked good and ly controlled. ning to appear at that time. In 1959 were also cheaper, but on closer he also developed the brewery’s own inspection, Wehrfritz was horrified. Wehrfritz’ son Jakob joined the bre- mountain spring, the water of which Especially the welding seams were wery in 2017. He has worked on the has been used for brewing ever terribly bad. “You can mess up your new fermenting room from the very since. whole beer with such a crappy weld,” beginning, helped to lay the pipes and Wehrfritz says bluntly. The welding knows every screw. It is nice to see The first tanks from Speidel were seams of the Speidel tanks, on the that the brewery is now in its sixth two pressure tanks in 2016. At a other hand, “are laid around the tank generation with new Speidel fermen- brewing fair Karl-Heinz Wehrfritz re- like butter” and the tanks look like tation tanks. ceived a Speidel catalog in his hands new after cleaning, he says about the and was immediately impressed workmanship. by how well you can plan with it. Wehrfritz was able to configure the diameters, the dimensions, the add- on parts, all of this by himself. TANKS MADE WITH PASSION

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