"Those that don‘t have any beer don‘t have anything to drink"
LORCH employee Günter Huber and his son have built their own brewery in their free time
Those who want to drink a half a litre of "Schnätterle" beer and enjoy Swabian noodles with scalded sausages in Swabia, won´t get around a trip to Weissach im Tal. A local brewery of the family Huber will be opening there soon – with catering and traditional beer garden. One of the owners is Günter Huber, a selfemployed design engineer at the HEROSE subsidiary LORCH since 23 years. How on earth did you get the idea to build a complete brewery on the side? "The decisive point was that my son Andreas studied brewing and beverage technology in Weihenstephan and always wanted to stand on his own two feet," said Günther Huber who, however, did not have to be asked twice: "New projects have always appealed to me."
In its own, the Swabian is not the sort of person that rushes decisions – and the planning phase took the respective time. "We had already taken the decision in 2013", said Günter. At some point, we found the matching building on a former industrial site, "that we then completely gutted and rebuilt." Detailed business plans were prepared in order to become the credits, to purchase a complete brewing plant and, and, and ... "It took its time until we had all approvals together", said Günter with a smile on his face, who fortunately is difficult to annoy. "In the decisive construction phase, we mainly dealt with the dry construction as well as the brewing and filling plant. Over the past two years, we have invested all of our free time in the brewery – but we always had fun."
Weissach itself only has 7000 residents, but has a district of more than 100,000 persons. "Our guests will also come from Heilbronn, Backnang and Ludwigsburg", said Andreas Huber, "the word gets around". Where the family Huber primarily see themselves as brewers anyway: "We can brew up to 3000 hectolitres per year and have already conducted specific purchase conversations with diverse beverage distributors in our area." Family Huber brew so-called "Craft beer", beers "that are crafted with high-quality additives and do not serve the tastes of the masses."
The standard beer of family Huber is the mentioned "Schnätterle", a pale ale, and the Weissacher Woiza. The seasonal beer such as the "Fetz", a pilsner with the refreshing aroma of the Citra hop, the "Weissacher Frühling" (spring), a Märzen beer, the "Weissacher Heimat" (a craft beer that changes annually) and the "Stachelbock" in the winter.
The Tälesbräu brewery in Weissach is a perfect family-run business. In the restaurant, Günter and his wife Gabi prepare typical Swabian cuisine such as Swabian noodles with scalded sausages or "Maultaschen" filled pasta. His son Andreas is the brewer, his brother Christian is responsible for the marketing – and Günter himself, naturally for the engineering.
The mechanical engineer has been working for LORCH since 1995 and is responsible for technology. Since the company belongs to the HEROSE Group, his field of activities has extended – from sole safety valves up to new developments from Bad Oldesloe. "I am up north for a few days each month and then work together with the development department and their manager Volker Jensen. As mentioned, I am always open for everything new: and that is why I find this extended field of activities outstanding."
Pictures from left:
Günter Huber with his son Andreas in front of the brewing plant
Cheers from Weissach
Günter Huber (right) with LORCH site manager Hans M. Ruckh