The Schlitzer Distillery is considered the oldest distillery in Germany and one of the oldest in the world: its documents date back to the year 1585. But distilling was known in Schlitzerland even earlier. Already in 1575 the counts of Schlitz had to pay taxes for their spirits to their lords, the duke-abbot of Fulda abbey. Due to a forgotten barrel, it became also one of the oldest whisky producing distilleries in Germany.
The people of Schlitz love to party. From Trachtenfest to white beet party and Christmas Market, no opportunity is missed to indulge sociability. And each and every time, the Schlitzer distillery celebrates with the inhabitants. The reason is simple: since the city council of Schlitz decided in 2006 to purchase the once by the Counts of Schlitz genannt Görtz established distillery from the state government of Hesse, it belongs to the citizens of Schlitz. And who knows, maybe there would be still no whisky from the distillery if the people of Schlitz didn’t like to celebrate.
It was a really big party in that legendary summer of 2010 when the distillery celebrated its 425-year jubilee. No other existing distillery in Germany can look back to such an age, and for such a special occasion they wanted to bring out a very special bottling. So they began to look around in the extensive cellars and attics of the historic site of the former Meierhof (feudal dairy estate run by a steward), where the Graf von Görtz’sche Distillery had been moved to after the war, for a suitable dram. What they found was incredible and sounds like a wishfull movie plot turned reality: they discovered a long-forgotten barrel with 25 year old single malt whisky.
Find me a barrel
Initially there was some confusion about that barrel of obscure origin. Only Franz Fuchs, the old master distiller, who had started his job way back in 1970, eventually could remember. His boss had once ordered more malt than needed, and because they did not want to waste the good stuff, they came up with the idea to distill it to single malt and then the barrel got stored away. That was in 1985, and whisky was in little demand. So no one really needed that barrel. And at some point, people began to forget about it.
When they rediscovered the whisky barrel in 2010, the result was overwhelming. By then angels had nibbled quite a bit in all these years. Only 70 bottles were left and sold for about 150 Euro each. At that time a steep price. Today, 5 years later, an absolute super bargain. Happy the man who still has a bottle of it in his basement bar. You won’t find much German Whisky at an older age and an earlier time.
When master distiller Gottfried Ickler tells this story to visitors, he remains quite unexcited. They didn’t create a hype about the old distillate back then, and they don’t do it today. For Ickler the real peculiarity of the barrel is the excitement that came afterwards. Overnight whisky had become an issue that has been talked about in the distillery. And they remembered some 24 more old whisky barrels that were lying in the deepest corner of the quiet medieaval cellars of the Meierhof in a state of hibernation.
Sleepy Times
As I said, the people of Schlitz like to party. Especially during the traditional procession at the Trachtenfest. In 1995, the distillery had the idea of decorating their Trachtenfest cart with old barrels from the Jack Daniels Distillery. Back then, these barrels were available in abundance. The cart was well received during the procession, but after that the barrels were rather useless tucked away in the distillery. A later screening found that about 25 barrels were still intact and usable, and so it was decided in 1998 to distill a mash with a higher malt content than normally and to fill the barrels with this grain distillate – and to let them sleep. And among all the large 1,200 liter drums, which are traditionally used at the distillery for the storage of grain, a few small 200 liter barrels in the farthest corners of the basement can be forgotten easily.
Perhaps it is also because the clocks tick a little different in Schlitzerland. Here everything is a little more relaxed. A little more personal. Almost a bit like in Scotland
And as slowly as the water of the river Schlitz which slides calmly through the town, time passes by slowly in this forgotten part of the world, where old timberframed houses date back to medieval times and the past lurks around every corner. Only little has changed in Germany’s oldest distillery since it moved to its present location at the old feudal Grange. Most of the equipment still comes from the 60s and 70s and you will look for modern computers in vain. Here, distilling ist still a craft and making good spirits depends on the skills of the master distillers. One can easily lose track of time in such a place.
But in 2010, the slumbering whisky barrels were remembered again. And just like the Scots, the Schlitzer distillery had a keen eye for a perfect moment. A part of it was bottled as a 12 year old grain whiskey, and two years later, the rest went was sold as a 14 year old whisky. Only 600 bottles were filled. Glen Slitisa they called it, after the stream that gave the city its name: the unhurried water in the valley of the Schlitz.
The “Glen” was dropped later, though, to prevent any conflicts with the Scotish Whisky Association, and the latest edition is simply called Slitisian whisky, Slitisa being the medieval name for Schlitz.
Whisky Whisky
Gottfried Ickler decided to give it a go and in 2013 he submitted his Grain Whisky to the competition of Germany’s Best Whisky Awards in Frankfurt. Glen Slitisa convinced the judges in the blind tasting and scored a fantastic third place.
Now the Schlitzer had woken up. Gottfried Ickler attended trainings, took courses, studied regulations and had a deep dive into the world of whisky creation. One great advantage for him was the factthat the Schlitzer distillery uses no enzymes for their distillation but has always fermented with malt.
Two lines of whisky were developed, Glen Slitisa Sour Mash single malt (barley whiskey) and Glen Slitisa Single Malt Wheat (wheat whiskey), currently the only pure wheat whiskey in Germany. Both versions are about five years old. Unfortunately, the Single Malt Wheat has recently sold out, a new one will only come back in a few years. At an entrance level, there is the “Castle Whisky”. Earlier this year, Master distiller Nina Lang has taken to the sweet side of the water of life and developed a whiskey liqueur.
Today there are still about 140 Whiskey Barrels in the attics of the distillery. With regard to quantities of other German whiskey producers this is negligible. But the taste is lovely and the Schlitzer whisky is one of the best that can currently be found in Germany.
The storage area under the roof is a fine place for whisky, because here temperatures are really cold in the winter months and in the summer it’s really hot. Although the heavy changes in temperature leads to a high evaporation rate, it’s good for rapid maturation: in the summer the alcohol expands and penetrates deeply into the wood pores. In the winter the distillate contracts and takes all the flavors substances from the wood with it that you love to find in your whisky, vanilla, caramel and oak notes, for example.
So what about Korn
In the cool cellars of the distillery completely different barrels are stored: here the grain distillate called “Korn” is slowly matured. In Northern Germany, Korn is often made of Rye, but in Schlitz, Korn ist based on Wheat. The old oak barrels hold more than 1250 litres, resting sublime in long rows. But as georgeous as they look, they are useless for whisky production: whisky and Korn are similar, but they are not the same, and different rules apply. A whisky barrel has a maximum capacity of 700 liters and the spirit is distilled with a maximum of 94.8% vol. alcohol. Korn usually is done at 96.0-96.3% vol. alcohol, and the barrels can be really huge.
History
For centuries the Schlitzer distillery has been rooted deep in this rural region in central Germany and to this day you can feel the close connection of the distillery with the people in Schlitzerland. As long as the distillery belonged to the Count of Schlitz called von Goertz the excesses of the connected country estate Gut Karlshof were processed. Everything people could spare got distilled. Even potatoes.
Only when the Graf Görtz’sche distillery came into possession of the State of Hesse in 1969, potato distillation was given up and the distillery was turned into a pure grain distillery. In 1993 fruit distillation was added.
In 2006, the federal state of Hesse lost its interest in possessing a distillery, and decided to sell it. But the people of Schlitz were worried about it. There was a hihg probability that the destillery might suffer the same fate as so many other small-scale businesses in the past: a big company buys the small business, keeps the brand name and closes the plant. To prevent such a development, the city of Schlitz decided to buy the distillery. It was turned into a socalled “Verschlussbrennerei ohne Brennrecht”, which refers to their status of taxation and is quite a complicated issue in Germany. As a result, the distillery no longer could claim state aid by the Federal Spirits Monopoly Administration. Nevertheless, it has been doing well on the spirits market and the people of Schlitz love “their” liquor.
Future
Approximately 500 liters of pure drinking alcohol are produced by the distillery daily, especially fruit and grain distillates. The raw materials come primarily from domestic production.
The wonderful fruit flavors of their whisky, however, is not related to the production of fruit spirits, as many German whisky drinkers often falsely claim, but comes from the cereal. Different stills are used for grains and fruits.
The production of whiskey is yet a small branch of the distillery. But Gottfried Ickler is far from having reached the end of his desires. Earlier this year he ordered ab big load of new barrels: used barrels, prefilled with rum, cognac, wine and scottish single malt from tullibardine and Bunnahabhain (Staoisha). The latter had a really fine smell of smoke and peat, and everybody is quite excited about the results in a few years time.
I’m sure, this time, the barrels won’t be forgotten.
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