Uerige

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Uerige Brewery
The weekend in front of the brewery
Uerige weather vane with yellow jersey of the Tour de France 2017 , start in Düsseldorf

Uerige is also the name of the Altbier brewed by Düsseldorf's Uerige Obergärige Hausbrauerei GmbH and the associated restaurant “Zum Uerige” in Düsseldorf's old town, Berger Strasse 1, at the corner of Rheinstrasse . A noticeable feature is that when the weather is nice, guests who drink Altbier sometimes stand right up to the opposite side of Rheinstrasse and are served.

history

Today's restaurant "Zum Uerige" with its own brewery has had different names over the centuries with changing owners, such as "Berliner Hof" or "Zum Bergischer Hof". The current name is traced back to Wilhelm Cürten, who took over the house brewery in 1862. Since he was always in a bad mood, the regulars called him in the best of Düsseldorfer Platt "uerig", for "bad mood".

The names of the various owners of this building have been handed down since the beginning of the 17th century, namely: in 1632, 1663 and 1720 various members of the Pfeilsticker family and in 1755 Bertram Kesseler. At that time there was already a restaurant called “Heidelberger Fass” , this name can still be found on a sign above the entrance. In 1783 the wine merchant Leonhard Juppen took over the restaurant and house. Other owners were the Gruben family in 1790, Lambert Mertens in 1800 and Johann Bender in 1802. Under the Benders , travelers could also stay overnight in the inn until at least 1819.

The widow J. Bender modernized and expanded the building to four floors in 1837/38. Afterwards, as already mentioned, Wilhelm Cürten took over the house and the inn in 1862 and master brewer Jean Keller at the beginning of the 20th century. After the building was destroyed in World War II , the brewery was rebuilt. In 1951 the restaurant was called "Neveean" and from 1964 onwards, under the owner Rudolf Arnold, "Brauhaus" . However, it remained closed under this for ten years because there were problems between the owner and the city authorities about garage parking spaces. The plots at Rheinstrasse 11 and 9 have belonged to the corner house since the reconstruction after the Second World War ; Rheinstrasse 7 was acquired in 1974.

"Your way to the Uerige is only 4 m." First day of street sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, April 17, 2020

Since 1976 the brewery and the restaurant have been run by the old Düsseldorf brewer family Schnitzler, who continue to brew the traditional top-fermented Altbier . In the 1950s, the Düsseldorfer Alt was hardly ever called Alt, regardless of the brewery, but was called "Düssel". However, a local brewer successfully claimed the name Düssel for its products alone. Today the rights are held by the large brewery Radeberger , which no longer uses the name.

In the meantime, Wilhelm Cürten's small brewery has become a modern company that still brews, fills, stores and sells at the original location using modern technology. For the expansion of the brewery with additional space requirements, former neighboring houses on Rheinstrasse were taken over and integrated. "Zum Uerige" is one of the oldest restaurants in Düsseldorf.

Until at least the 1980s, the waiters in Düsseldorf's old town beer bars, known as Köbesse in Rhenish, still had a rather harsh tone when dealing with guests, and the warmth that was hidden in them was not always recognizable to visitors from outside. In 1968 a local guide reads: “Altbier costs 40 pfennigs. The Köbes collects 5 pfennigs for the service. The guest receives a nudge in the neck if he is constantly in the way. If you happen to find a place there, you will not be amazed or out of the open for the next five hours. ” However, that much doesn’t seem to have changed, because a visit in 2011 is still one of the things that you have to experience in Düsseldorf when you place an order for a Coke, preferably light, instead of an Altbier in Uerige: “If you don't really love adventure, it's best to take someone with you to visit Uerige, who will then ordered a coke. You can then lean back and see how the other person survives the adventure ” .

It used to be customary to give the Köbes a glass of beer, which he left on the table of the inviting guest and drank it verifiably as he passed. In the course of the evening, the "warmth" of the Köbesse increased according to the beer consumption. The guests and random passers-by aroused mischievous cheerfulness, often at a late hour, when the small Altbier keg set up on the counter when the Köbes did not hit the tap fast enough and the barley juice in a high arc towards the actor and through to Rheinstrasse open taproom shot. It was also frightening when the Köbes rolled the full wooden barrel upright with a loud crash, i.e. over the barrel bottoms, through the middle of the mostly crowded guests.

The Altbier produced in the Uerige is rather light in urban comparison (Altbier is generally darker) and has a very tangy and tart taste. It is offered in its own brewery bars at the so-called Schwemme, the Rhenish bar, in various restaurants and shops. The Uerige is one of the few remaining independent breweries in Düsseldorf . The annual output in 2006 was 20,000 hectoliters.

Plaque

Memorial plaque: Willy Millowitsch

The memorial plaque for Willy Millowitsch in Uerige , designed in 2000 by the sculptor and Pankok master student Ulrich Grenzheuser (* 1934), indicates that his father Peter Wilhelm Millowitsch was born on January 24, 1880 in the parent company of Uerige beer . The mother Käthe, née Planck, came from Vienna. The roots of the Cologne folk actor Willy Millowitsch lead to Düsseldorf and Vienna.

On the facade of the brewery on Rheinstrasse there have been copper reliefs by the sculptor Walter Schmieg (1905–1982) since 1953 depicting the four elements: “Earth gives the hops” (1) “Fire burns the drop” (2) “With water mach it's never like here ”(3)“ Uerige beer tastes good with air ”(4). Around 1960, Schmieg also made the weather vane with the tower figure of the cheerful innkeeper who toasted passers-by. Above the glass windows of the brick building are the busts of the former owner Rudolf Arnold and his wife Hilde as wedge stones, in between a cartouche with the initials of the master brewer, which gives the year 1937.

Brewery

The restaurant in the Uerige brewery on Berger Straße consists of several rooms. Including a brewhouse with large copper wort kettles that can be seen from the restaurant , which, however, nowadays only serve as cladding for the modern stainless steel kettle. With the purchase of neighboring houses, which used to be the premises of “en de Wichsdos” and “Tante Olga”, a new building with two flood-proof basement floors created space for fermentation basins, a filter system for the young beer, and conveyor belts for cleaning and bottling Barrels created. There is a system for filling the bottles on the ground floor.

Street sales on a beautiful May weekend

For some years now, bar tables have not only been set up along the street leading to the Rhine , but bar tables and beer garden benches are also located on the raised, opposite side of the street. Since the Köbes also serves food on the road in between, even passers-by can hardly get through at peak times.

In addition to the parent company, there are also three “Uerige Meetings”: in Düsseldorf in the Carsch-Haus -Passage, in Oberhausen and in the old town of Mülheim an der Ruhr .

Products

  • Uerige: top-fermented Altbier, amber-colored, very malty-sweet, but at the same time one of the beers (according to the brewery: the beer) with the highest hop bitter values ​​in Germany . Alcohol content 4.7% vol.
  • Hosen Hell , the beer brand of the Düsseldorf punk rock band Die Toten Hosen .
  • Uerige not filtered: in contrast to the house brand, which is also served openly, this is bottled without filtration and is only available as bottled beer.
  • Ueriges wheat: a light wheat beer with an alcohol content of 4.7% vol.
  • Uerige Sticke: a stronger variant of Altbier with an alcohol content of 6% vol., Which is only produced in limited quantities twice a year - on the 3rd Tuesday in January and October.
  • Uerige Doppelsticke: an even stronger brewed alt that was originally made specifically for export to the USA. Alcohol content 8.5% vol.
  • Uerige Stickum: A 42 percent brandy from the strong beer Uerige Sticke or Uerige Doppelsticke. But by tradition, this is not sold in the parent company. A sign in the courtyard explains: “It is forbidden to enjoy schnapps here - it is harmful to your health and my business. The host."
  • Uerige Stickum plus: A 45 percent brandy made from the strong beer Uerige Sticke or Uerige Doppelsticke, which is stored in oak barrels for a year.
  • Uerige original Elderberry Fassbrause , a brewed elderberry lemonade (first launched in 2011).
  • Uerige Baas: A single malt whiskey aged three years with 42.5% vol.
  • Uerige Doppelsticke edition 1862: An edition brewed six months and stored in whiskey casks for one year for the 150th anniversary (December 2012), 150 bottles. Alcohol content 12.4% vol.

Brand strategy

The Uerige brand is typical of Düsseldorf. It is only marketed and advertised regionally in a very targeted manner.

The products are therefore only regularly available in the house brewery and a few restaurants and beverage stores in the greater Düsseldorf area. In the rest of Germany, they are only available in a few beverage shops specializing in beer in metropolitan areas, and there is no active, expansive sales outside the home region on the part of the manufacturers.

The brand's official advertising slogan is "dat delicious Dröppke" (the delicious droplet).

  • Main entrance door, Berger Strasse

  • Historical three-wheel delivery van of the Uerige (taken in 2005)

Web links

Commons : Uerige  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ H. Ferber: Historical walk through the old city of Düsseldorf. Verlag C. Kraus, Düsseldorf 1889, p. 62.
  2. ^ Journal: Königliches Düsseldorfer Intellektivenblatt , year 1819.
  3. ↑ Alfons Houben: Düsseldorf How it was then - how it is today. WI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1983, ISBN 3-88785-006-9 , p. 115.
  4. ↑ Alfons Houben: Düsseldorf How it was then - how it is today. 1983, p. 114.
  5. ↑ Thomas Bernhardt, Gerda Kaltwasser: "Dä Willi mit de dicke Nas !!" Uerige (Ed.), Düsseldorf approx. 2000/2001.
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Berney: When the Altbier was still called "Düssel" . Rheinische Post, Düsseldorf, December 29, 2011, Düsseldorf edition p. D2
  7. ^ Helmuth Hartmann, Franz F. Froeb, Peter Andreas: in out - The Düsseldorf old town. Dr. Wolfgang Schwarze Verlag, Wuppertal 1968, pp. 108-109.
  8. ↑ Signed sg: Cola from Köbes in the Uerige - Series 55 things that you have to experience in Düsseldorf. In: Rheinische Post, December 1, 2011, Düsseldorf edition p. D4
  9. ^ Herbert Slevogt: "Uerige": meeting place for Altbier fans. ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 4, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www2.hwk-duesseldorf.de
  10. ↑ Uerige brews schnapps and beer.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Rheinische Post. February 14, 2008, last accessed May 17, 2011@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rp-online.de  
  11. ↑ In 2013 there is Vodka der Toten Hosen , Rheinische Post from December 28, 2012, accessed on March 29, 2013.

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 30.2 ″  N , 6 ° 46 ′ 20.4 ″  E