Nuremberg – Beer brewing course – 8 hrs

Franconia has a denser concentration of breweries than anywhere else on earth, and Nuremberg sits at the centre of it. This eight-hour brewing course puts your clients on the working side of the mash tun for a full day: they mill, mash, lauter, boil and pitch, and they leave understanding why the beer in this region tastes different from one village to the next. It is a hands-on day, not a tasting with a lecture attached.

What the day involves

The morning starts with the raw materials – malt, hops, yeast and water – and with the question that governs everything in a Franconian brewhouse, which is what the local water will and will not let you brew. Your clients weigh and mill the grain, mash in, and hold the rests while the brewmaster explains what each temperature step is doing to the starch. Lautering and the wort boil fill the middle of the day, with hop additions at the points the recipe calls for. By the afternoon the wort is cooled and pitched, and the group has produced a batch that will be ready weeks later.

The Franconian context

Between the working steps the brewmaster covers the things that make this region unusual: the Rotbier that Nuremberg brewed for centuries before pale beer arrived, the smoked malts of the surrounding countryside, the rock cellars cut under the city to keep beer cold before refrigeration, and the purity law of 1516 and what it actually says. A tasting flight runs alongside the day so your clients can put the theory against finished beer rather than taking it on trust.

How it is set up

• Roughly eight hours, private, with a brewmaster leading and an English-speaking guide or interpreter as needed
• Physical work in a warm and wet environment – closed shoes are required and clothes will pick up the smell of malt
• Suitable for adults; the tasting element means it is not a programme for children
• Lunch and the tasting flight are arranged as part of the day and quoted with it
• The finished beer is bottled after fermentation and can be shipped or held for a later visit

Who books it and what pairs with it

This suits clients who already know beer and want to go a level deeper, parties celebrating something together, and travellers who would rather do one thing properly than see six churches. It is a full day, so it needs its own slot in the itinerary. Most parties put the Nuremberg private walking tour on the day before to get their bearings in the old town, and in December the Christkindlesmarkt walking tour makes the obvious evening counterpart. The city overview is on our Nuremberg destination page and the full local range in our Nuremberg portfolio.