May Meeting:

Members and guests met at the Celis Brewery on the 16th of May for a tour. The tour was at 5:30 and this was one time you didn't want to be late. Although I was late, I was the first in the beer line. The facility was completed in '92 and it obviously is a very nice place to work. Holly Lofland poured me a glass and filled me in on a few details. For over 500 years, Belgian 'white' beer had been brewed in the village of Hoegaarden. A local favorite, the beer was brewed by the Tomsin family, fourth generation Belgian brewers. This was Austin's first brewery since 1907, when Pierre Celis imported three copper kettles that were hand-hammered in Belgium during the 1930s.

Celis Brewery is owned by American Specialties which is owned by Miller Brewery which is owned by Philip Morris. Philip Morris also owns Kraft Foods, a land development company, a credit corporation, and some European food firms. Kraft owns Maxwell House and General Foods. They have Celis White, Golden, Pale Bock, Grand Cru, and Raspberry. Holly poured me a sample of another brew. They have a small gift shop where you can buy T-shirts, books, and caps. Tours are conducted Tuesday through Saturday at 2pm and 4pm following a sampling of their products. Besides being available on Pecan Street, their beer is sold in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Tennessee, New Mexico, Colorado, Kentucky, and Indiana.

Their brewing tanks make 6000 gallons of product at a time, and if you could find one for sale, it would cost over 1.5 million dollars. These kettles came from Europe about 15 years ago. The brewing time is from 3.5 weeks to 6 weeks for the Golden brew. Holly then poured me a Grand Cru, and it was good. Celis Brewery employees about 35 people. Although the brewmaster is the only official taster, almost everyone participates. They do not take volunteers from the outside. Holly says they operate more like a family with everyone pitching in to do many of the jobs, especially when someone is off. I tried the Raspberry draft and it was definitely different, but still interesting, and still good. I can't explain the good turn out, but we had 12 guests and 35 members for supper. I for one tasted all the samples and didn't find one lacking in body and aroma..

By J. Robert Howard