Steam Grain Distillery Museum
The Dampfkornbranntweinbrennereimuseum in Wildeshausen is an industrial museum in which old methods of alcohol production are demonstrated. A specialty is an approximately 15 HP strong, still functional single-piston centrifugal regulator - steam engine , built in 1887. The museum shows the production of alcohol from grain, its processing, the filling and corking up to the labeling of bottles. The approximately 150 square meter granary on the second floor is used as an exhibition room and for small art events.
history
In 1857 Johann Heinrich Kolloge founded the Kolloge distillery . The alcohol production initially took place in a distillery acquired from the previous owner Lübbert Stegemann. In 1887 the company was equipped with a single- flame tube steam boiler of the Galloway type with a steam voltage of 6 atmospheres and a single-cylinder steam engine. In 1895 the distillery fell victim to one of the great Wildeshaus city fires. The son of the company founder, Wilhelm Kolloge, then erected the distillery building that exists today in the same year. Individual items of equipment and machines from the old distillery such as the steam boiler and steam engine that had survived the fire were reinstalled. The company now operated under the steam grain distillery and yeast factory.
In 1913 the steam boiler was replaced by a coal-fired single-flame tube boiler with an operating pressure of 10 atmospheres. The boiler and steam engine were in use until 1972. On the one hand, they supplied the company's machinery, which includes other steam engines, mills, lifts, pulleys and agitators, with energy. On the other hand, they provided the cooking steam for steaming the grain or for distillation. The steam engine is one of the oldest preserved of its kind, it is operated today by means of a compressor. The steam boiler and other machinery, tools and equipment are also preserved in their original condition and most of them are fully functional.
On November 13, 1972, the chimney of the distillery building was partially destroyed by the Quimburga storm . The distillery, run by Ulrich Kolloge, a great-grandson of the company's founder, then ended its work. Since then, only preliminary products could be blended and mixed. In 1978 the company was completely closed. In a private initiative, the four-storey building has been restored since 1978 and in 1982 the owner family donated it to the museum association for the steam grain brandy distillery in Wildeshausen e. V. , who has been running the museum ever since. The museum has around 2000 visitors annually. It forms a station on the Route of Industrial Culture in the northwest .
literature
- Heinrich Kreipe: A visit to the grain distillery museum Wildeshausen , in: The alcohol industry (AI), 100th year, no. 6/1987, pp. 133-135.
- Eva-Maria Ameskamp: From the best malt and hops , in: Wildeshauser Schriften für Heimat, Geschichte & Kultur, Volume 14/2016, p. 13.
Web links
- Wildeshausen Distillery Museum
- Steam Grain Distillery Museum . In: German Museum Directory
- Wilhelm Kolloge distillery . In: Steam Engines and Locomotives
- Description at Wildeshauser Geest Nature Park
Individual evidence
- ^ The alcohol industry (AI), 100th vol., H. 6/1987, pp. 133-135. and: Directory of power and steam engines
Coordinates: 52 ° 53 '49.6 " N , 8 ° 26' 21.8" E