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For a long time, it has been a shared dream of us, Simon Siemsglüss and Nienke Oostra, to have a farm. It was the longing for a Horizon in the most literal as the figurative sense. As two countryside kids in the city there was always this lack of wind, cause the horizon got hidden behind concrete and stone.
The move to a farm also opened up a new perspective on things; it opened that figurative Horizon. We started asking ourselves the question why in beer and spirits the terroir of the main ingredients is so undervalued. In wine the terroir is seen as key to quality, but in beer almost all of us are working with grain bought with the large malteries. So basically, this is grain without traces of a distinguishable terroir. The more interesting is the fact that a lot of former grow regions of brewing grains are no longer producing. Reason here is that what is a good brewing grain is momentarily defined by the large industrial breweries. Their mentality of scraping pennies is the driving force of favouring some growing regions over others: regions where the grain has the highest rate of potential saccharification.
This is where our marvel starts. Does this mean that if the mayor industrialization of the last twenty years in the beer industry with respect to brewing grain, would also have taken place in wine, we no longer would have been able to enjoy a great Riesling or a Champagne? Isn't it obvious there is so much more to grain than just a boring source of sugar? Would it be possible to catch traces of the surroundings in grain? We would like to test the grounds around our farm on their terroir: what indistinguishable ownness will they leave in the grain they produce. We are utterly sure this step will set our beer apart.
In 2020 we bought a farm in the North of Germany between Elbe and Weser. It was derelict and completely overgrown by blackberry and meters high Nettle. We freed our castle from the thornbushes to make it into a brewery, distillery and family home. We planted a hundred fifty tree orchard with heritage apples, pears, medlar, quince and of course lots of sour cherry, a total of 50 different varieties. Underneath the traditional High stem trees we started growing our botanicals like juniper, gale, rosebud, raspberry, chamomile and calamus. Fenced in by hops, elderflower, sloe, hawthorn, saskatoon and crap apple. As an organic farm we try to stimulate the biodiversity to protect our crops.
We plan to focus mainly on wild fermented beers; Landbier, fruited lambics and botanical barrel aged stouts. Fermentation and aging is done on wooden barrels; Our barrels range from a big 2500 liter foeder to 500 liter ex-wine and whisky barrels, and port butts, to 200 litre wine and whisky barrels. We also plan a koelschip: an open basin to cool down the beer after brewing, while inoculating the wort with micro-organisms.
Besides a brewery we will also run a distillery, On a two-pot copper still where we will focus on grain, fruit and botanical distillates. Wild fermentation always has been the key to creating distillates with a wide yet gentle taste profile. We will use our knowledge to embrace these traditional methods.
To finalize this project, we will build an ecological constructed Waterland for renewal of waste water and create our own water source. To make all of this happen we will start a crowd funding 18th of June 2023. During this crowdfunding you can have the opportunity to become a treeholder as well as to secure yourself other some perks. And see you on our founders day?
