What distinguishes our distillery is our own organic agriculture. While many brands of spirits have to buy the basic schnapps for their whiskeys, vodkas, fruit schnapps and liqueurs, we rely on specially grown cereals, true to the motto “from the field to the bottle”. This self-sufficiency is particularly important to us because it ensures our independence.
We are just nervous
In July and August, the crop, which was cultivated in the fall, is threshed. For crops to grow, it needs regular rainfall. At the time of harvest, however, rainfall is only partially desired. They are in abundance right now. In the last few days it rained and thundered almost daily, which makes us a little nervous. Rain pleases us farmers on the one hand, because under the dryness during the last weeks our cultures suffered sensitively. On the other hand, we are trembling for our harvest. In heavy precipitation, the grain stores water, the ears mushroom on the field or grow out, the harvest is lost in both cases.
The advantage of rare crop varieties Several years ago we specialized in old organic cereals for our fires. The grain is more robust, healthier and has more nutrients than conventional crops. We were already able to successfully thresh, clean and store our barley. In addition to the rare cultivar Emmer, bare oat, einkorn, old brewing wheat and brewing star varieties, we also build Schlägler-rye. This particularly robust type of grain, one of the oldest rye varieties in Austria, is of particular importance to us. Last Saturday we wanted to start threshing, but unfortunately the residual moisture in the grain was still too high. The grain grain may have a maximum residual moisture of 14% when threshing, then it is considered storable and moldy. Normally we thresh Schlägler-rye at the end of July or the beginning of August, but due to the weather this year, the rye is already ripe. So we are waiting for things!
What do we use the rare cereals for?
From the cleaned and mashed barley we produce single grain whiskey. From the Emmer we distil crystal clear, purest vodka and whiskey and from the Schlägler rye also vodka and Rye whiskey. The basic alcohol for all our organic fruit liqueurs is the distillate from our brewing wheat Hermann. The wheat grain is also used as the basic alcohol for the pine cones for our so-called pickle schnapps, such as the particularly popular organic pear schnapps in summer and autumn.
After the grain harvest, the field is processed with a disc harrow. The area is then planted a greening mixture of mustard, clover, vetch, field bean and pea, as erosion protection and thus weeds overgrow the soil until we grow in the field einkorn in the fall. The video here:
