| Hobbies: | Biking, reading and family time. |
| Favourite beer: | Hefe-Weizen Natural Wheat and – not to be forgotten – our Original Munich Lager. |
| For me, the art of brewing means ... | ... making inspiring beers on the basis of the German Purity Law. |
| » Back to the top |
At first glance, the workstation of Gregor Nowotsch looks like a maze made up of thousands of bottles. Under his watchful eye, they travel down the conveyor belts and through the hall, rattling as they go. "At one installation, we fill up to 50,000 bottles in an hour," says the head of bottling. Anyone who has ever poured a glass of beer will wonder how it is possible to bottle it so quickly. "The secret," says Nowotsch, "is that the bottles are under pressure, so they can be filled without building up a head."
At the start of the filling process, beverage distributors from across Germany return the empty bottles. "They do not all make it to the filling process," says Gregor Nowotsch. Because at the end of the bottle-washing machine, which cleans the bottles at a temperature of around 176 °F, stands the "inspector", and that doesn't miss a thing. In the plant, the bottles are inspected for dirt and damage at an incredible speed. And if they are damaged? "Waste glass container, and off to the recycling plant," says Nowotsch.
One hall down, pallets bearing kegs for beer gardens and pubs are piled up. They undergo a process that is just as thorough as the one for bottles. The kegs are first washed out with various cleaning agents and are then steamed. "Nothing should interfere with the taste," says Nowotsch. Once the 20-liter, 30-liter and 50-liter kegs are filled with beer, they are labeled and delivered. So much effort just so that fresh Paulaner can be poured into mugs at the pub.
Why does Paulaner only come in brown bottles? Gregor Nowotsch fires off an answer to that instantly: "Because of the flavor." Green and clear bottles are not as good at deflecting short light waves and UV radiation from the sun as brown bottles are. The result: poorer beer quality. When you open a beer in a light glass bottle, you can tell that it was exposed to sunlight for too long. Connoisseurs call the smell that emanates from the bottle "light-struck". "And I don't let things like that into the bottle," says Nowotsch.