So what kind of beer is it that you specialize in? Ah, German beer.
And where are we right now? Fort Collins, Colorado.
Hey everyone! Dana here and today I'm hanging out with Kirk Lombardi of Zwei Brewing, a
brewery here in Fort Collins, Colorado, that specializes in German beer.
Thank you so much for being here with me today, Kirk.
My pleasure. It's really cool to have you both here and it's gonna be a good day.
So my first question for you is: the Zwei in Zwei Brewing, that's because you and your
brother started this, is that correct?
That's correct.
And how long have you been here? We opened last August, um, so we'll be a year old next month.
Originally we were Zwei Brüder. - Okay. - Which is "two brothers." We got into a little bit of trademark
problem with a brewery in Chicago called Two Brothers in English. So now you're Zwei Brewing.
Let's do a little tour!
Okay, so what are we looking at here?
Alright, so, over here's our brew house. It's a ten barrel, which, ah, in German terms I
think is about 12 hecto. Three vessel system; mash ton, hot liquor tank, and brew kettle.
And we keep it nice and dirty 'cause we kind of like the look of that, that tarnished copper.
Maybe clean it once a year or so. This system's kind of designed to make lager beer. That's,
that's what we love around here, so that's what we do.
It seems like right now in America, German beer is getting more popular. What do you
think is the reason for that? What makes it so popular right now?
Um, I don't know. It's, well one, it's one of the untouched niches that - Okay. - are out there.
Two, it's just, you know, it's the subtle simplicity, I guess you could say
of German beer. It's just really simple, straight forward, easy drinking, sessiony, you know.
I think in the past, Americans only really got imported German beer. - Uh-huh.
And, ah, whenever that beer travels that far it gets kind of damaged. - Okay, yeah. - So when you
taste a fresh product, it's really a whole different world. - Gotcha. Gotcha.
These tanks right here are kind of special. You don't see those too much in American breweries.
They're horizontal lagering tanks, and they're designed to help produce those lager beers.
So they lay on the side because it helps allow more contact with the yeast with the beer,
and helps that long maturation phase lager beers need.
How long does it take for the beer to go from start to finish, coming out the tap?
Um, good question. So, it's kind of based on the strength of the beer. - Okay.
Most of our, like, our sessiony weight beers like Pilsner or Helles are about six weeks. - Okay.
And then if we're getting into, like, Doppelbock or Märzen or something like that, it's, it
can be eight to twelve weeks.
Okay. And as for the ingredients; are those from America from Europe? Where do you get
the ingredients from?
We use entirely German ingredients - Wow! Okay. - in our beer. Except for the water, of course.
Predominantly we use a company called Weyermann Malt. It's in Bamberg.
But, ah, we do use some other stuff. But, um, yeah, so all the malted barley's from Germany.
Our hops are contracted out of Hallertauer region. - Okay! - And then we use a lager strain from
monastery cloister called Andechs.
Oh yeah, of course, we know that. That's just a little bit out of Munich. - Yeah, yeah. - Cool.
It's a really cool place.
Ah, so this is the, the malt storage area.
And all this came from Germany?
It's all German except for this little pile right here. - Okay. This is Canadian for our
American beers, but ah... - Okay.
And what then initially got you and your brother interested in making German beer?
Well, we both took a trip over to Munich and Austria and I think we were already into
making German beer before that, but that was kind of the ah-ha moment. - Uh-huh. Okay.
We kind of both fell in love with the styles - Yeah. - and, I guess, culture and all that,
so it was a - Okay. - just a, something we thought would be fun to do.
And then you came back here and you said, "Okay, we're gonna do it. We're gonna make this happen."
Yeah. We worked for another brewery for about twenty years - Okay. - making all types of
different beers, but our, whenever we had the opportunity we would make a German beer.
And those are the beers we've won medals for and had a lot of success with so.
So I've got my cheat-sheet here. I'm starting with the Helles. That's Munich style golden lager.
Tastes pretty authentic.
I need my sorbet. This isn't going to be very scientific.
Okay, that's my favorite so far.
Mr. German Man confirmed the authenticity of the Helles and said that that one was his favorite.
Thanks so much for being here with me today. It was a pleasure to have you. Thanks for
showing me around, thank you. - It was cool. - And for the beer of course.
Thank you so much for watching. All links to Zwei Brewing down in the description below.
Be sure to go and check them out. Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
We try to keep true to the German purity, beer purity law.
Yeah, this Reinheitsgebot. - Yeah. Good. - So what is that and, so you, you keep to it then?
As best as you can.
We, we do. Um, so, basically, my understanding of it is, you know, it's water, malt, hops.
Originally yeast wasn't involved but, and yeast, so - Yeah. - that means you can't add,
like, CO2 to the beer. - Okay. - We have to use naturally carbonated beer. You can't add
chemicals or clarifying agents to the beer. Um it's all, you know, straight forward pretty
simple stuff. - Yeah very cool. Also no blueberries in your beer or anything like that. - No fruit.
Yeah. - Yeah, we dabble in some American styles too, but, yeah, for the German stuff
we keep true to style. - That's awesome. Very cool. - Yeah.