Long Time No See!

Cesky Krumlov II: Eggenberg Brewery

Many apologies for the long delay!  As I mentioned before, on Thursday Rebekah and I went to the Eggenberg brewery for a tour.  We bought our tickets in the town square and then got to the brewery just as the tour was about to start.  Apparently the people in the town square had charged us incorrectly for the ticket but since we already had it they couldn't charge us more so they said go ahead.  The second problem was that the english tour guide wasn't supposed to be there until the noon tour.  However, the lady called the guide who was there over and he agreed to do our tour in English.  He wasn't too happy about it at first, he told us he hasn't spoken English in a couple years.  His name was Rosta and he was 75, he had worked in the town archives for decades and had just retired and decided to work part time as a tour guide.  It was an awesome tour!  I'm relaying as much as I remember, feel free to skip around.  The tour basically takes you through the steps of brewing beer the way they did in the 16th century and still do today at the Eggenberg brewery.

It starts in the malt room(sorry we didn't go in there so no picture) where they take wheat and wet it and then dry it with air from a chimney and then wet it again and dry it and wet it and dry it to get the malt.  They grow their hops about 3 km away and use water from a well that is 35 m deep.  Then it proceeds to the brewing room below.  There are 4 huge vats (originally made out of ebony wood replaced with copper in early 1900's) that they put the water and the malt in first.  The brewmaster comes to taste it every hour.  It is heated and cooled a couple times and then the brewmaster pumps it by hand from one vat to another so the hops can be added.  Once the hops are added it's heated and mixed for 6 hours.  After that it runs through the faucets so the brewmaster can check it.  The drain of the sink brings the beer to the cellar.

Rosta told us that there is a tradition that engaged couples come to the brewery.  The man has to clean the vats and the vat room.  The woman stands and watches.  If he does not do it well enough she says no I will not marry you until you can do this well and he must stay for another week when she will come again and see if he is fit to marry.

So since the beer headed down to the basement we also headed down to the basement.  As we headed down the stairs I spotted something on the wall.  It turns out it tells you where the dumbwaiters are.  They have several around the building and it tells you what floor they're on.

Once in the basement Rosta points up at the moldy ceiling and tells us that that is where they get the bacteria from to make the yeast.  There is another cellar below the one we are in that is more damp and grows more bacteria.  So he says that the bacteria they use for beer is over 500 years old.  The yeast is cultured in cold water 0-1 degree Celsius.  Rosta put his hand in and grabbed some for us so we could try it.  Brr!  When the yeast is ready the tub gets dumped it is added to large tanks (the size of my apartment) that have been filled with the mixture from upstairs.  These tanks are giant refrigerators and chill the beer to 0-1 degree Celsius. 

Rosta says there is a legend about these tanks as well.  The legend says that if a woman really loves her husband and she is getting old she can swim across all the beer tanks and she will be ten years younger.  He also said that none of the women on his tour had ever volunteered to try but their husbands were more than willing to try and throw them in!  After it has been chilled the beer is piped to giant holding tanks so the residual yeast can be cleaned out of the tanks.  What they do is wash out the tanks and then dump the water into the hallway where it drains into the river.  Rosta says the fish are dancing and are the happiest fish in the world!

And that's the end of the medieval part.  What you have now is unfiltered, unpasteurized beer just like they had in the middle ages!  Beyond the blurry door below is a 200 m long corridor that connects the brewery to the monastery and convent.  The monks and nuns used to come and eat and test the beer in this corridor.  (It was too dark in there for pictures, sorry!)  We also went to the modern part of the brewery.  Not as interesting, it's one room all controlled by computer.  The beer in the modern part takes about 5-6 hours to make and the medieval way takes about 5-6 weeks.

There's Rebekah among the kegs.  Rosta was trying to explain to us that the yeast beer cannot be kegged because the yeast is still active so it will explode.  But he couldn't think of the word explode so he did great hand gestures and the sound effect, "Kaboom!"  And then Rebekah pretends to drink from the giant keg in the wall in the restaurant.  We had a lot of fun.

While we ate lunch in the restaurant, Rosta came in and offered his knowledge of the legends of Cesky Krumlov.  He lent us a book of legends that he had compiled while working in the archives and then translated to English.  We read it while we were eating and then when he came back a little later we asked if we could buy the book and he says, "No, No!  My gift, here let me sign for you."  So we wound up with little books telling us about the houses in Cesky Krumlov and what they were used for in the 1500's and the stories that go with them.  It was very generous and he was a very nice man.  Rebekah and I felt really blessed to have him as our tour guide he just made the day more fun.  We spent the rest of the day wandering around the town and finding the houses and reading the stories.  Then we found this wonderful little cafe that had amazing hot chocolate!  It was so thick and creamy it was like chocolate soup and we also got a delicious fruit topped little cake.  My hot chocolate had mint in it and it tasted like crumbled thin mints in hot cocoa it was tasty.  Rebekah had the spicy one with the peppers in her cocoa.  I would definitely go back just for another cup of hot chocolate!

Then we continued wandering around and ate dinner at the steak place I mentioned before and then we came back to Prague!  It was a great vacation!

A Trip to Cesky Krumlov

Wanderings...

Troja

  So last weekend I went to visit the Troja chateau after church.  The Hartmans, Nicole (who's living with the Hartmans) and I went up and spent a nice afternoon meandering around this late 17th century chateau.  It was built by Count von Sternberg right on the river to provide a resting place right next to the royal hunting grounds.  He was hoping to entertain the Emperor Leopold I but had to settle for his son Emperor Joseph I.  He loved Rome and was obsessed with Roman style and so built it in the style of a Roman villa.  There are extensive gardens and orchards that extend out to the river in the 8 pointed star that is the symbol of the Sternberg line. 

This is what you see when you enter the front gate.  The first picture is immediately on your right as you descend the ramp and the second picture is what is immediately in front of you.

I spent a lot of time wandering around the gardens and outside because the inside is restored stuccos and of course they don't allow pictures so the only pictures are from outside.  This is the full front of the chateau.  When you turn around you see this beautiful little staircase and behind it the vineyards and little old chapel up on the hill.

These next pictures are from walking around the side of the house to the actual front of the house.  He built the chateau so that the front faced the river and the royal hunting grounds.

The actual front of the house with the grand staircase.  Most of the statues are of Greco-Roman gods.  From the top of the staircase you can look down and see the depiction of Tartarus.

Me on the grand staircase and a picture of the cool sky and the funky tree

One of the statues and one of the outdoor paintings so I could actually take a picture of it!

This is the chateau from the orchard and the entry hall where you could still take pictures.  So these are the awesome looking doors.

I did pick up the brochure that contains pictures of some of the stucco/frescoes inside the chateau.  I was actually more impressed by the inlaid wood that is prevalent in the building.  Every door and piece of furniture is very intricate inlaid wood.  Absolutely gorgeous.  The paintings are amazing as well and overwhelming in some rooms.  If you find me when I return I will show you the little booklet with the pictures of the art.