Brewery to the key

Key GmbH & Co. KG
legal form	GmbH & Co. KG
founding	1850
Seat	Dusseldorf , Germany
management	Karl-Heinz Gatzweiler
Branch	brewery
Website	www.zumschluessel.de

The head office on Bolkerstrasse

The Hausbrauerei Zum Schlüssel is a Düsseldorf Altbier brewery. The brewery on Bolkerstraße has been producing the Schlüssel-Alt since 1850. Due to the limited capacities, the sales area for this brand is concentrated in the city of Düsseldorf and the surrounding area. The Hausbrauerei Zum Schlüssel is the smallest of the four traditional Altbier breweries in Düsseldorf's old town .

history

Beer garden in the churchyard of the Neander Church

For the first time around 1850 beer was brewed in the house "Zum Roten Ochsen" ( Bolkerstraße 47 ). Later the neighboring houses "To the three queens" (No. 45) and "In the Black Horse" (No. 43) were added. At the end of the 19th century the name "Zum Schlüssel" came up. In 1936 Carl Gatzweiler, who came from a Neuss family that had been brewing since 1313, took over the key. The brewery is still owned by the family today. In 1963 the Gatzweiler family built a modern large -scale brewery in Düsseldorf-Heerdt . In addition to Schlüssel Alt, the mass brand Gatzweilers Alt (Gatz) was brewed there. In 1977 the brewery achieved the largest output in its history with 530,000 hectoliters. In 1990 the restaurant and brewery in the main building were extensively renovated.

From the mid-1990s, sales collapsed by more than half. The decision was then made to sell the brewery in Heerdt and only continue to operate the parent company in Düsseldorf's old town. The Gatzweilers Alt (Gatz) beer brand was also sold and is now owned by the Carlsberg Group. Only home-brewed beer from the Schlüssel brand is served in the Schlüssel .

In 2009 the brewery employed around 80 people and brewed around 19,000 hectoliters of beer. Although sales of Altbier have been declining overall for years, Schlüssel-Alt was able to continuously increase sales of its beer over a longer period of time, similar to the other three Düsseldorf house breweries. In 2011, the goal of more than 20,000 hectoliters was exceeded for the first time with an output of 21,000 hectoliters.

A special feature of the key is the beer garden, which is located in the churchyard of the Neander Church opposite . Right next to the house brewery there has been the “Schlüssel Lädchen” since October 2010, in which numerous products related to Düsseldorf are sold. All products are produced directly in Düsseldorf.

Naming

Originally, the keys to the city gates in Düsseldorf were deposited in the nearby inns over night. In the vicinity of the mill gate in Ratinger Strasse there was a first restaurant called “Zum Schlüssel”. The name and trademark of the brewery are a reminder of this tradition. The symbol of the key can be found on the glasses, the beer coasters and even on the house facade.

Products

Key Old is manufactured in accordance with the Purity Law . The brewery uses its own yeast, which is a company secret. The Altbier has an original wort content of 12.5%.

The brewery obtains some of its raw materials directly from the region, partly due to the shorter transport routes. Since 2009, summer and winter barley has been grown in Ratingen exclusively for the key. In 2012 and 2014, the Schlüssel Original Alt won the gold award at the European Beer Star in the Düsseldorf-Style Altbier category.

Stike-Alt

Twice a year, in spring and autumn, the Stike-Alt is brewed in the house brewery on Monks Day. This Altbier specialty contains 6.5% alcohol. This makes it a good 1.5 percentage points stronger than the original key old and has a higher original wort content of 14%. Tradition has it that in the 19th century, monks were not allowed to eat solid foods during Lent. So they secretly (literally translated: stike ) brewed a strong beer themselves. In this way the monks were able to fortify themselves with a stronger Altbier, at least during the weeks of abstinence.