More “August” for everyone

Munich. It’s summer in the city. The fountains at the university’s Geschwister-Scholl Square splash and gurgle soothingly: a cooling balm for hot feet and weary legs. That’s what I need right now. My lectures are over, so I hop on my bike and race across the English Garden. The wind caresses my face. I smile, and look forward to a barbecue on the banks of the River Isar. And what I’m looking forward to most is some “August´” on my lips … This was in the summer of 2002: the beginning of a love affair that’s lasted right up until the present day. After all: the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, they say – or to put it more accurately in this case, through his throat, sip by thirst-quenching sip.

A quintessential exemplar of Munich’s traditional culture

“August” is a nickname for the light full-strength beer brewed by Munich’s tradition-steeped brewery, Augustiner-Bräu Wagner KG. And it’s iconic, not only among students, and not only in and around Munich. But it’s in Bavaria’s capital that Augustiner(-Bräu) has its home, a quintessential exemplar of Munich’s culture, and pure life-affirmation – that enhances its mythic status, without any advertising at all, without any PR hype, nor any continual presence in the media.

Turnkey order for Krones AG: Augustiner upsizes its storage capacitiesAugustiner upsizes its storage capacities

Augustiner-Bräu is increasing its storage capacities: right on time for the summer season of 2015, the brewery is upsizing to 46,000 hectolitres. This is made possible by building a new storage cellar, which accommodates a total of 17 horizontal tanks, installed in a steel framework. This is something rather special, because in breweries the tanks are normally vertical. This is not the case at Augustiner, since as a traditionally-minded brewery they are rigorously sticking with the horizontal tanks they’ve always had: after all, the lower pressure inside then is also gentler on the yeast.

Turnkey order for Krones AG

The turnkey order for the 17 horizontal storage tanks was placed with Krones AG – including manufacture and transportation of the tanks, plus ingressing and on-site erection. In October 2014, the upsizing project began when the first five storage tanks were delivered: each of them with an outer diameter of 4.20 metres and a length of up to 28 metres, depending on the usable capacities involved.

Turnkey order for Krones AG: Augustiner upsizes its storage capacities

In two stages, the remaining twelve tanks were then ingressed by the end of November 2014. This always involved some nervous moments and cardiac palpitations, not least with the photography and video-recording work, some of which was filmed from a crane’s cage more than 130 feet up in the air, and with a drone. This resulted in two video documentaries covering this rather special project.

 

 

Sensitive expansion

Because Augustiner’s brick façade enjoys listed-building status, the storage cellar expansion project had to be tackled with due architectural sensitivity. The present steel construction, for instance, will later be concealed inside a new brick building. If everything goes according to plan, then Augustiner-Bräu will be able to start operation with its totally revamped storage cellar early in 2015 – in good time for the beginning of the season. Then it’ll be summer in the city again … and though I’m not a student any more, happily the good things are still there to enjoy: the very special taste and the very special feeling I get from my “August”.