Description
The Schmitt brewery has been family-owned for more than 100 years. In 1885, master brewer Richard Schmitt acquired the brewery built in 1875, which he renovated and expanded in the following years. Fermentation and storage cellars were added, two ice cellars were built, a steam engine was purchased and the old brewery in Singen became a small but modern business.
The brewmaster's constant building activities came to an abrupt end during the war and inflation. After the First World War, the brewery was expanded again. A bottle washing machine and a bottling machine were purchased so that bottled beer could also be delivered. In the years that followed, the old machines and equipment remained almost unchanged and were always in operation, so that beer is still brewed today “as it was a hundred years ago”: The stirrers and wort pump are driven by a 12 hp steam engine on brewing day, the wort is fermented in wooden vats and the beer is stored in oak barrels. Brewing takes place once a week, producing 2000 liters of wort; once this has fermented after 8 days and the resulting green beer has matured after 4 to 5 weeks of storage, the majority of the finished beer is sold in barrels (primarily to pubs) and the smaller part in bottles. The labels are still stuck on by hand today. In total, around 800 hectoliters of beer are produced every year. The Schmitt brewery has been a listed building since 1976. As the almost one hundred year old technical equipment for beer production has been almost completely preserved and is also fully functional, this brewery is probably unique.
