Beer cellar
A beer cellar is an underground cool storage room for beer that is occasionally combined with a beer garden .
Origin and meaning
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Storage at cool temperatures can extend the shelf life of a beer. Before the use of technical cooling systems , most breweries and beer bars therefore had large beer cellars. The cellars were filled in winter by ice men with blocks of ice that were sawed out of nearby frozen lakes or rivers ( ice cellars ); It is known from Franconia and East Prussia that icicles were often struck on special scaffolding that was overrun by water . With the stored ice, the temperature in the cellars could be kept constant until late summer.
The brewers probably started their products (mostly just one type of beer) early in the summer in the shade of the trees planted for cooling above the cellars (especially chestnuts, oaks, linden, ash, trees with large or dense foliage) in the Franconian area known as summer cellars "to pour out". At the end of the 18th / beginning of the 19th century, when the (basement) weather was nice, Franconian society met "in the basement", especially on Sundays, for bowling and dancing. Music and dance pavilions as well as bowling alleys were built for this purpose. The latter were partially in operation until the 1980s. Many a bowling jack has earned his first pocket money there as a ( bowling or wedge ")" kick-off "(the bowler calls for a" Budel "> ball has touched the gang <:" Open the wedge "!)
The Bavarian beer cellars received their formal legalization (concession) through the "Act on Real Trade Licenses and the Serving of Own Products" issued by King Ludwig II of Bavaria on May 1, 1868, which, by the way, also permits the operation of "hedgerows" for the - especially Lower Franconian - winegrowers included. It says in Art. 2, Clause 1: "Brewers are allowed to serve their own products in a designated place and in their storage cellars, as are communal brewers and winegrowers who are entitled to donate, in accordance with local tradition." (see BayRS 7100-1-W, status: 1983–1985)
Many beer cellars are still in operation in Franconia today. A bar was built nearby, mostly above the cellar; this gave rise to the phrase “go to the basement”. Visitors are invited all summer to drink a beer under the trees in a beer cellar atmosphere. Many innkeepers also sell a snack , although in some cellars you are allowed to bring your own, an important criterion of the Bavarian Beer Garden Ordinance of May 1, 1999 (BVBl. P. 142)! A typical Franconian beer cellar consists of the cellar house at the entrance to the storage cellar, from which drinks and snacks are served, and the bar area equipped with beer benches, often under the old trees of oak, linden or beech.
According to the local geology, many Franconian beer cellars were driven into the sandstone , which was easy to work with, and, especially in the Bamberg area, often emerged from small corridors for the extraction of scouring sand . The resulting rooms, used for beer and food storage, can take on astonishingly large dimensions , especially in the city of Bamberg , and are sometimes spread over several floors . The 16 brewery cellars in Erlanger Burgberg form a labyrinth totaling 21 km in length. Without additional cooling, the temperature is around 8 ° C all year round. In Forchheim's "Kellerwald", the "Annafest" takes place every year from the end of July to the beginning of August in 26 cellars with around 30,000 seats (according to Forchheim's parlance: one for each inhabitant!). Many cellars are open all summer, some all year round (with indoor catering). There are also particular in the range of Frankenalb ( Jura many off) lime brick -Bruchsteinen vault. The term is mainly used in " Beer Franconia ", which, unlike " Wine Franconia ", traditionally has many (small) breweries and has been badly affected by the death of breweries since the late 1990s.
In southern Bavaria, the garden on the surface is predominantly used instead of the cellar, where the term beer garden is common today. However, names such as Hofbräukeller , Löwenbräukeller or Augustiner-Keller show that the term “beer cellar” used to be widespread here too.
literature
- Martin Hahn: Sweet summer freshness. Beer cellar in the Heidenheim district . In: Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg , 42nd year 2013, issue 3, pp. 153–158 ( PDF )
- Günter Heinritz, Herbert Popp: Summer cellar in Franconia. The retraction of a cultural landscape element , in: Yearbook for Franconian State Research 34/35 (1974/75), pp. 121–144.
- Christof Herrmann, Helmut Herrmann: Beer garden walks in Franconia - 22 walks to 79 beer gardens and beer cellars. Heinrichs-Verlag GmbH, Bamberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-89889-165-3
- Bayerische Rechtssammlung - BayRS 7100-1-W: Law on Real Trade Authorizations and the Serving of Own Products, Status: 1983–85
- Bavarian Beer Garden Ordinance of May 1, 1999
