Guy, our Brewer
When he first arrived in Bascharage, our future brewer did not believe his eyes. Instead of seeing a finished brewery, he looked into a huge hole where the later was going to be built. Everything was to be put up and the challenge was lying in front of him.
Many others would have given up, but not him. He started to imagine his beer recipes and started to think that this was a unique occasion in his lifetime. He had gotten job offers from other breweries, put if he had followed them, he would only have had the possibility to work on all-built recipes. He was tempted by the idea of creating. The occasion was to be taken. Moreover, he was given free hand from the beginning on and soon a confidence relationship was built up between the Meyer family and himself. He knew the brewer’s world, but was on his own to create this new concept. His employers weren’t brewers themselves, but butchers. Nonetheless he could count on their full support.
He was able to choose his suppliers and the best raw materials necessary for creating a high quality product. The main goal was to achieve the same level of quality than the homemade ham already had.
After the first tasting, everybody was pleased by the result. “Our engagement is to make a good product without copying the beers already present on the market.” Guy had worked in almost every Luxembourgish brewery and his aim was not at all to copy any of the known products. “I wanted to create something new by playing with the beer’s bitterness. We knew that our guests appreciate a little more bitter beers. We started by a light, then a dark beer. Afterwards was created the “ambrée”, which at first was only a seasonal product. Already the first year, we were also able to offer a wheat beer in the summertime. The “ambrée” was sold by the first autumn. After that, Guy created a winter beer.” In every following year, those 5 different kinds of beer were produced, even when not all of them throughout the year.
“At the moment, we brew 42 tanks of 15 hectolitres, or 360 hectolitres all kind of beer merged. Most of the beer is sold in the restaurant and our own shop. But we are starting to expand on supermarkets and gas stations. So there is to think, that we might actually be able to increase our production.”
“Often we make special offers, for examples samples sold with a glass. This invites beer collectors to pay us a visit. They also appreciate the continuity of the beer’s quality, which is a result of never changing our recipes.”
“Concerning my job, I appreciate that I am my own boss. I manage my time schedule, sometimes working more hours and on weekends, when there are for example tours planed. When I brew, I start at 3 am and finish in the early afternoon. Everybody willing to lend me hand is welcome to stop by. It’s often on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, but you have to get up very early… To brew a good beer, means a lot of work.
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