Brews of the season from Heinzelmannchen
Oktoberfest, 2008
Recipe: Chocolate Black Forest Stout Cake
Heinzelmannchen seasonals Winter: Gnutty Gnome Ale – Holiday Celebration ale has a hint of nutty flavor and sweetness producing a mild, smooth finish. Celebrate the joy this season brings. Spring: Hoppy Gnome Pilsner Style Ale – This creamy ale has a mild bitterness and hoppy bouquet finish that is subtle yet noticeable and light. Enjoy with fresh cheese appetizers. Fall: Oktoberfest-style Ale – A malty, full-bodied ale brewed to celebrate the wedding of King Ludwig of Bavaria to Maria Teresa of Saxonia. This ale has a satisfying mouth feel that is balanced with Noble hops and finishes malty sweet.
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SYLVA–During the mid-to-late nineties, as craft brewing made it’s resurgence, I had a couple of buddies with a microbrewery over near Waynesville.
My friends at the Smoky Mountain Brewery made good beer, and I had the chance to tag along to a brew festival or two and learn just enough to be dangerous (and to learn that beer festivals themselves are dangerous). One true-fact: it isn’t too hard to make one good batch of beer; you get the right equipment, buy quality ingredients and follow the recipe. But to make sequential batches of beer that are equally good, now that’s a trick. And to do the same in big volumes is even harder.
Dieter Kuhn and Sheryl Rudd opened Sylva’s Heinzelmannchen Brewery in Sylva in 2004, and through Dieter’s talent for brewing tasty, consistent, top-fermented ales in a certain German style, Heinzelmannchen’s reputation has grown. The home office is on back street in Sylva, and is open to the public, though it isn’t a brew pub. You can get a short snort there, and several restaurants within a few hundred yards serve Heinzelmannchen. You can also get a really nice root beer or birch beer, among other things, and in warm weather a root beer float to die for. In fact, my six-year-old daughter – one of Sylva’s few “townies” – is convinced we have a tab there.
As with many breweries, Heinzelmannchen offers limited-run seasonal products. Autumn beers. Holiday beers. Summer beers, you name it. The seasonal-brew high-season runs from early fall through Christmas, and generally starts off with a universal tip-o-the-hat to Oktoberfest, a Munich, Germany tradition that takes place in late September and early October (and has spread around the world).
“In my hometown,” says Dieter, “Oktoberfest was usually celebrated as a harvest feast or a version of thanksgiving. It involved all the little social clubs such as the Rabbit club, the Hound Club, the Gun and Marksman club and the Chicken club, showing off their wares and causes and animals, while volunteer firemen provided a semblance of oompah music. The local butcher cooked pork on a spit, the local brewer brought his best beer and there was song and dance under a big tent out in the pasture. All the town folk would come out and help set up. It was a blast, even for the kids–pony rides, games and such–and for teenagers, because there are no underage serving laws!”
Rudd’s “Roktoberfest” autumn brew, of which he makes one or two batches a year, has gained a following. Now on tap is the annual holiday “Gnutty Gnome.” He first put together “Weise Gnome” Hefeweizen Style Ale as a summer brew, but it proved so popular that it earned a year-around spot in his rotation.
This year, in October, Heinzelmannchen and Restaurant 553 rolled out Sylva’s first Oktoberfest celebration, and had a good turnout despite challenging weather. They say they’ll continue.
More regional breweries we recommend:
Green Man Brewing, Asheville
French Broad River Brewery, Asheville
Highland Brewing, Asheville
Wedge Brewing Company, Asheville
Tags: Beer, birch beer, craft brewing, dieter kuhn, Food, microbrewery
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