Brewery & distillery Gebrüder Sünner
| Gebr. Sünner GmbH & Co. KG brewery and distillery
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | GmbH & Co. KG |
| founding | 1830 |
| Seat | Cologne |
| management | Astrid Schmitz-DuMont |
| Number of employees | 40 |
| Branch | Brewery |
| Website | Sünner brewery |
The brewery and distillery Gebrüder Sünner , founded in 1830, is the oldest still producing brewery in Cologne. In addition to Kölsch, Sünner also brews wheat beer , unfiltered top-fermented beer and an alcohol-free malt drink. Attached to the brewery is a distillery that produces various schnapps and liqueurs . The main building of the colliery brewery in Cologne-Kalk , built between 1888 and 1890, is the oldest industrial monument in the city of Cologne that still operated in its original function .
history
The brewery was founded in Deutz in 1830 by Franz Hess, a brother-in-law of Christian Sünner . The house brewery was on Deutzer Freiheit , directly on the pier of the Cologne Ship Bridge, which was built eight years earlier and was then the only Cologne bridge over the Rhine. The fact that one of the two Brückenzoll houses and a swimming pool anchored in the river were very close by was probably also a reason for choosing this location . The house brewery was initially called Zum Schiffgen . After the death of the Hess couple, Christian Sünner took over the brewery in 1846. In 1882 the Schiffbrücke station of the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft opened directly in front of the brewery. Due to the convenient location, the number of customers at the inn increased steadily, so that the beer demand could no longer be met by the small brewery. In order to build a new production facility, Sünner bought a 2.5 hectare site of the Neu-Deutz union from the lignite mine owner Wilhelm Eckardt in neighboring Kalk in 1858 . The existing colliery there had never been put into operation due to groundwater penetrating the tunnel, but this tunnel water could be used as brewing water for the Sünner beers due to its purity. The associated mine structures were later used as storage rooms.
In 1860 the colliery brewery started operations. The large garden restaurant Zur Zeche was attached to the brewery and quickly developed into a popular restaurant. The brewery's capacity was adapted to the increasing demand several times in the following decades through technical modernizations, such as a refrigeration machine , and extensions, so that in 1900 a production volume of 70,000 hectoliters of beer was achieved.
The brewery was converted into a limited partnership after the First World War . Personally liable partners were Albert, Ernst and Christian and Dr. Alexander Sünner. The schnapps distillery had to be shut down due to a lack of raw materials during the famine in the First World War. It was only able to resume production in 1918. After the opening of the Deutz suspension bridge , the Deutz riverside promenade was expanded extensively in 1920. The Sünner Terraces were opened there. In addition to the company's own restaurants in Kalk and Deutz, the Cologne brewery restaurant Zur Henne and the Muschelhaus Bier-Esel were also supplied.
The original building on Deutzer Freiheit, which was destroyed by aerial bombs in World War II , was not rebuilt. The Sünner-Terrassen, which were one of the most popular places to visit in Cologne in the post-war years, were demolished in the mid-1960s because the headquarters of Lufthansa was being built there.
In addition to bock , export and lager , the Sünner brewery's product range was expanded in 1906 to include a top-fermented pale beer, which was first advertised in 1918 with the addition of “genuine Kölsch”. The advertising offensive regarding the regional origin of the beer was taken over by all traditional breweries in Cologne. Since the term Kölsch became more and more popular, it became part of all Cologne beer brand names up to the 1960s. In March 1986, the 24 Kölsch breweries of the Kölner Brauerei-Verband e. V. the Kölsch Convention and have since been solely entitled to produce Kölsch. In 1997 Kölsch became a type of beer protected by the EU in its designation of origin .
building
The three-story brick building, built between 1888 and 1890, is visible from Kalker Hauptstrasse. The coat of arms of Kalk and Deutz adorn the stepped gables of the building, which is faced with yellow bricks on the street side. A large central window on the ground floor, built in the 1950s, allows a view of the brewery's copper wort kettle . In the middle of the upper floor, the lettering "Zechenbrauerei" was placed above the three central arched windows, flanked on the left and right by the mining symbols mallets and iron . The building, which was badly damaged in World War II, was completely rebuilt by the early 1950s, while the production facilities were modernized at the same time.
At the back of the building there is a newer machine and boiler house. In the rear part of the brewery area there is a stable building that was built in 1898, a cellar completed in 1907 and an administration building. In the stable building, which also offered space for horse feed and carts, the horse boxes can still be seen today.
On July 26, 1983, the roadside fence with the two gates, the front building with the brewhouse, machine and boiler house with the chimney and the current distillery building, the administration building with the side cellar hall and the loading ramp as well as the coachman and coach house building were placed under monument protection . During extensive renovation work, the buildings were modernized from 1989 to 1991 and at the same time visually adjusted to their original condition. The façades of the historic buildings, heavily soiled by environmental influences, in particular by the air pollutants contained in the exhaust gases of the former lime industry, were cleaned at the end of the 1990s with a high-pressure cleaner.
The traditional brewery opened on April 23, 2009, adjacent to the beer garden, the Sünner-Keller , which offers brewery specialties as well as rooms for events on around 1000 square meters in the historic cellar vaults. The historic Sünner cellar is also the starting and ending point of the approximately 75-minute brewery and distillery tours offered by Sünner.
The company today
The company, based in the Kalk district of Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine, is still family-owned today and is managed by Astrid Schmitz-DuMont. With around 30,000 hectoliters of annual beer production, Sünner is one of the medium-sized Kölsch breweries.
Although the former managing director Ingrid Müller-Sünner († May 25, 2013), the mother of Astrid Schmitz-DuMont, was married to Hermann R. Müller, one of the shareholders of the Früh brewery , the breweries go their separate ways on business. The Sünner GmbH & Co. KG is cooperating business with any other brewery. Due to the declining number of catering establishments in the Cologne area, the brewery's draft beer output is falling continuously, as this is where the main sales market for Sünner-Kölsch is located. The share of draft beer in production is around 50%. The wage brewery has been producing the Traugott Simon Kölsch for the Krefeld beverage retailer trinkgut since 2007 and the Colonius Kölsch since January 2016 . In addition, for the brewery Joh. Cramer & Cie. KG from Nideggen brewed the 3 types of Cramer top-fermented , Cramer Edel-Pils and Cramer malt . Schmitz Kölsch is also a contract filling product from the brewery.
Since 2017 the craft beer product “Hircus” Malz-Bock has been marketed with 7.2% both as draft and bottled beer.
Lemonades have been produced in 3 flavors (Kölsches Wasser * pink, * orange and * green) since 2013. In addition, the brewery offers its own well water as table water (Kölsch water * with and * without).
brewery
According to Sünner, only brewing barley from local cultivation, hops from the Hallertau , its own cultured yeast and soft water from its own well for brewing beer . The wort matures in the Sünner brewery with the addition of top-fermenting yeast in an open fermentation process. The metabolic products that are harmful to the taste of the beer during fermentation, such as tannins and bitter substances, can still be removed from the beer in this process. With a closed fermentation this is no longer possible in this form. Since this method is very labor-intensive and therefore expensive, this process is only used by a few breweries in Cologne. The young beer is then stored for around three weeks in tanks for final maturation before it is bottled.
distillery
Every year, 96.5 percent alcohol is distilled under the supervision of the Federal Customs Administration . This is used as the basis for an extensive range of spirits. The spirits mature and are stored in the so-called liqueur cellar, a vaulted cellar below the distillery. In addition to modern stainless steel tanks, very old oak barrels are used for the maturation process. In addition to the meanwhile 3 different gins, a further 11 products are made based on wheat grain.
Marketing and Sales
The main product Sünner Kölsch, like many other Kölsch brands, is only offered regionally.
The products are mostly delivered to retail outlets and restaurants in the entire sales area with company-owned vehicles. The company owns numerous restaurants that are leased to breweries. The best known objects include the Muschelhaus Bier-Esel and the Brauhaus Sünner im Walfisch . Sünner-Kölsch is served at many festivals thanks to fixed contracts with organizers and marquee rental companies. Sünner set up a beer garden and a brewery cellar within the brewery premises, which are operated by Sünner Gastronomie GmbH.
gallery
Products
|
|
The beers are offered in 0.33 and 0.5 l longneck bottles. Sünner-Kölsch is also available in 10, 15, 20, 30 and 50 liter barrels. For the catering trade, 30 and 50 liter kegs are filled with Kölsch and wheat. The spirits are filled in sizes from 0.04 to 10 l, depending on the product.
Sünner Kölsch
Sünner malt
Sünner wheat beer
Sünner Kölsch water
literature
- Heinrich Bützler: History of lime and the surrounding area , reprint based on the original from 1910. Ohlert Verlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-935735-00-6 .
- Georg Roeseling: Between Rhine and Mountain - The story of Kalk, Vingst, Humboldt / Gremberg, Höhenberg . Bachem-Verlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7616-1623-6 .
- Henriette Meynen: Stadtspuren - Monuments in Cologne, Volume 7, Kalk and Humboldt / Gremberg . Bachem Verlag, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7616-1020-3 .
- History workshop Kalk e. V: Kultur & Industriepfad Kalk, a district guide . Self-published, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-935735-06-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Railway facilities on the Deutz bank of the Rhine . In: Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , 1887 No. 38, zlb.de
- ^ Heinrich Bützler: History of lime and the surrounding area. Self-published, Cologne 2003, p. 54 and p. 292
- ↑ Company history website. Sünner Brewery; Retrieved July 29, 2007
- ↑ Kölsch library. ( Memento from May 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Kölner Brauerei-Verband e. V .; Retrieved July 29, 2007
- ↑ koelsch-net.de, accessed on August 3, 2007
- ↑ website. German Institute for the Protection of Geographical Indications of Origin; Retrieved April 5, 2008
- ↑ Werner Jung: The modern Cologne . Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2004, p. 206, ISBN 3-7616-1590-6
- ↑ rheinische-industriekultur.com ( memento from June 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on March 28, 2008
- ↑ Company history website. Sünner Brewery; Retrieved August 3, 2007
- ↑ The SÜNNER cellar . suenner-keller.de
- ↑ Brewery tour . suenner-keller.de; accessed on March 25, 2018
- ↑ Express.de - Well, where does this new Kölsch come from? Retrieved January 12, 2016
- ↑ Report on the tour of the Sünner brewery on July 3, 2007. ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Academy for us Cologne language; Retrieved July 31, 2007
- ↑ press release, 24./25. April 2001. ( Memento from January 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Cologne Brewery Association; Retrieved August 1, 2007
- ↑ beerme.com accessed on March 13, 2008
- ^ Website about brewing beer. Sünner Brewery; Retrieved August 1, 2007
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 21 ″ N , 7 ° 0 ′ 39.9 ″ E
