Two hundred percent for the high-proof: Hans Schedler and Friedel Kronacker have been running the schnapps distillery in Bad Kohlgrub for many, many years.
And they are still happy today when it warms their hearts.
Bad Kohlgrub
- Hans Schedler got the first drops of alcohol of his life from Jager Jörgel.
And it really wasn't more than a few drops.
Today such an action would trigger a veritable school crisis.
But in 1962 - or as Schedler reckons: in third grade - you could still tell your parents about the trip to the schnapps distillery with confidence.
As an altar boy, you sipped altar wine.
Truly other times.
So what was it like: The third grade of the Bad Kohlgruber elementary school paddled down to Jager Jörgel in the village, who was actually called Georg Steigenberger and lived in the 500-year-old property with lots of nice little sayings on and in the house and burned in the cellar.
When he was finished with his tour, he passed a glass around, everyone was allowed to dip his finger in it and taste it.
"Today that would be unimaginable." The hunter Jörgel died in 1971, and looking back it can be said: How good that he had no idea about modern educational techniques.
Because for Schedler it was “a striking day” - and for the Kohlgruber distillery it was the salvation.
It has been burning for 21 years.
Burns what grows on the trees - and on the bushes.
Apples, pears, plums, mirabelle plums, quinces, rowanberries, cherries and - as this time - blackberries.
Friedel Kronacker picked them up in his garden.
15 kilograms, he was busy.
This year it is their ninth fine brandy.
“We burn almost everything,” says Schedler.
Strictly speaking: everything that is brought over from the region.
The next private distilleries are in Wallgau and Polling.
Schedler and Kronacker are not trained distillers.
You were in the horticultural association, pressing apples, and then this year 2002 turned the corner.
High-proof Hörnlegold
A few more unfortunate coincidences and Bad Kohlgrub would have lost its right to burn after more than 80 years, the "system would have been over".
In the village it would have been like the death of an original: first mourning, then forgetting, at some point people would have started to say, “Mei, remember, back then, the schnapps distillery at Jager Jörgel”.
But that didn't happen.
The horticultural association repaired the boilers at its own expense.
When the company's experts came from Geißlingen, Schedler and Co. knew where to heat.
But how does burning go?
“We were on our own,” says Kronacker.
Amazingly, you could still drink your first schnapps without suffering any consequential damage.
Schedler still remembers this well, the first “was definitely an apple brandy” that shines golden from the glass.
One of the many labels actually says Hörnlegold.
You can do marketing in the small town.
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Liquid gold: The Bad Kohlgruber apple brandy from 2020 is stored in the cellar.
© Mayr
You figured out how it works pretty quickly: harvesting, washing, mashing - the holy trinity to start with.
At this point it is already decided whether the schnapps tastes good or not.
What does it take for a lot of taste?
Clean, especially ripe fruit with a lot of sugar.
Hundreds of pounds of fruit that hang for six to eight weeks.
In one year they process around 1500 liters of mash.
Ten percent of it trickles into the big carafes at the very end.
They start in late autumn, sometimes not until Advent.
“That needs rest,” says Schedler.
And a lot, a lot of time.
It is best to drink on an empty stomach and before meals
In round one, the two men heat up the raw fire kettle until the alcohol evaporates.
Should start at 80 degrees.
Nobody measures the temperature in the boiler.
The system is too old for that.
The vapors are cooled with water.
This is the schnapps, the unfinished one.
Alcohol content: 40 percent.
Smell: pleasant, fruity.
Taste: not to be determined.
“We don't actually try it that early,” says Schedler.
The distillate can be used again in the sauna, wood in the flames, one star a year, off you go.
In the fine-fire kettle, the alcohol content swings up to 80 percent, explains Kronacker.
The brandy becomes “smoother” and the aroma penetrates even more.
Of course, nobody drinks 80 percent schnapps.
"It just burns down, there is none of it," he says.
“You don't drink the rum straight, either,” adds Schedler and a little later he hands out three glasses filled with blackberry spirit, alcohol content around 60 percent.
With so much oomph, it doesn't end up in the bottles that are later sold in the village shop next door.
But the colorless elixir is good for trying.
There are a few rules for schnapps in general and that of Hörnle in particular.
The best thing to do, says Kronacker, is to drink soberly and before dinner.
“That doesn't falsify the taste.” In addition, the two distillers recommend not to dump the Stamperl away, rather to sip three or four times.
If it feels like a fireball is shooting down your esophagus, you're doing something wrong, then you can also pour pure Yeltsin vodka down your throat for a few toads.
A sip of the Hörnlegold should act like a tiled stove in the room, it should warm up where the heart beats.
To illustrate this, Schedler strokes his chest.
There is nothing wrong with having a drink a day.
Recently he even heard that a shot of high-percentage coronavirus could kill.
The two men laugh, then the glasses clink.
Bottom up!
Looking for a successor
The last step is still ahead of them, the blending, as the expert says.
After a few months in the warehouse, water is mixed in.
Schedler has also fetched spring water from the Hörnle and used it.
On May 1st, during the musical morning pint, he and his colleague traditionally present the new brandies that have already won various gold and silver plaques.
Two years ago there was a gin for the first time.
Because young people are drinking gin everywhere at the moment, this is the best seller.
They wouldn't be unhappy at all if the boys live out their love for gin not only at celebrations and parties, but also in the distillery.
You need successors slowly, after such a long time in voluntary work.
But it is not that simple.
“We're watching,” says Schedler.
Everyone is allowed to come by, get to know the craft, i.e. as soon as Corona allows, and try it.
You should only be 18 years old.
Times are changing.