A Cool Tradition | Zymurgy Magazine

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2024 issue of Zymurgy Magazine

By Ryan Packmayer

Twenty-five miles east of Bamberg, Germany, lies the small town of Waischenfeld. On one of the town’s few main streets, you’ll find Brauerei Heckel. This unassuming brewery is a tiny producer (the equivalent of around 250 U.S. barrels per year), but it has a reputation that far exceeds its size. The single-room pub has four tables. It only serves on beer, gravity-poured from a barrel. Despite being brewed with 100 percent Pilsner malt, this vollbier (full strength/full flavored beer) has a deep, golden color due to the wood-fired copper-bottom brew kettle used during the brewing process. The lager is full bodied, balanced, and has a certain freshness to it. It’s not uncommon for the single room to fill up within a half hour of opening, with plenty of folks coming from surrounding regions to experience an authentic slice of what many small village breweries used to be.

Heckel also uses a lager coolship, or kühlschiff, a piece of equipment that plays a role in the authentic, old-world process used to brew beer. While more popular for spontaneously fermented beers, especially in Belgium and the United States, coolships serve an entirely different purpose when it comes to lagers.

Access the full article in the January/February 2025 Zymurgy magazine.

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