The history of FUR  Bryghus

The 128 ha area was German owned until 1977.
The moler clay (a unique type of clay) production started in the area around 1925. The factory is designed by an architect from Copenhagen and built in 1926.
Most of the moler clay was transported by small locomotives down to a bridge which was located by the portal at the entrance to the property. The locomotives are now back on Fur. 

The moler clay production in the West Hills continued until 1978 when it lost its productivity and was taken over by Damolin’s factory on East Fur.
There was a small trial run in 1981/82 – afterwards the entire factory and surrounding area laid untouched.

In 1997 Mogens Fog bought the property and immediately started renovating the buildings and the land including the outlaying buildings. The factory received a new outer shell consisting of 2.4 km of boards and the roof was patched.
It was difficult to find a useful application for the factory, everyone asked came up with the same ideas: Museum – Gallery – Exhibit – Show Hall. Suggestions such as hotel or bed & breakfast were not possible as the municipality did not wish to change the status of the building nor were they possible due to the close proximity to the 300 meter coastline restrictions - this also became an issue during the expansion of the kitchen in 2006.

In January / February 2003 Mildred & Mogens Fog decided that the building should contain a Microbrewery. MF didn’t at that time know much about the new trend in microbreweries but from his many business trips to Germany and Belgian was well acquainted with the culture.

Establishing the Fur Bryghus ApS (Fur Brewhouse Ltd.):

MiF and MF went ahead with their research to see if it was possible to establish a brewery in “The old red Factory”, which at that point still contained the machinery from the moler clay production days including some very dusty facilities. It was very important for MiF and MF to get some activities going as they wanted to bring benefit to the island of Fur.
The municipality showed great willingness and was on board right away not just for the brewery itself but also for the increase in tourism it would bring both to the area surrounding it and for the island itself. Everyone that could have the slightest influence on the project got involved and / or were positive.

The brewery is basically constructed by local trades people and workers – which has been a good experience by all involved and is “a job well done” that we here on Fur could pull off such a big job. The boilers and the fermentation vessels are fabricated in the Czech Republic – the conditioning tanks comes from Slovenia – although the last 2 from 2005 are Danish produced – the bottling process is Danish – the pasteurization unit is German produced.

Fur Bryghus opened Thursday September 30th 2004 – About 350 guests were invited and about 550 guests just came to our open house to see the new brewery. All 900 – 1000 guests enjoyed the day, the sun, the food and the free beer. A GRAND day for Fur Bryghus and for Fur.
It has gone very well ever since with lots of recognition and prizes for our beer.

Employees: Brewery: 4 employees including brew master – 4 sales consultants. Restaurant: 16 fulltime + 7 part time in summer. Administration 1 ½.

Brewing and Bottling Process:

Beer is brewed from:

Water: The water on Fur is very special, the chemical combination matches exactly the ideal water for beer brewing, the reason being that the water has filtered down through the moler clay and the mineral layers in that clay (a natural kiselguhr).
Malt: Mainly delivered by Weyermann in Bamberg Germany, who have specialized in delivering to small breweries (25 kg bags). We currently have 8 types of malt in our store room. We are basically speaking of barley here that has begun to germinate, germination has been stopped by drying and depending on type has been kiln dried or roasted – pilsner malt 80 to 85 degrees C and porter malt up to 200 degrees C which gives the dark malt look to e.g. the “Renæssance” and the Porter. We currently do not use malt from Denmark as Danish malteries only delivers bags of 50 kilos, larger bags or in tank wagons – plus Weyermann offers more selection.
Hops: Hops are the spice of the beer; they give bitterness and aroma and also work as a way of conserving the beer. We use 6 different types of hops from the Czech Republic, Germany, England and the USA – hops can be added up to 4 times during the brewing process and consists of both aroma and bitter hops.
Yeast: Two types of yeast – Ale (top-fermenting yeasts) – Lager (bottom – fermenting yeasts).

Brewing process:

The malt is crushed. The vat called a “mash tun” is filled with 1600 litres of water that’s heated to 50 degrees C (the container on the right). 400 kg of crushed malt is added though the shiny pipe from above. The water is heated to 76 – 78 degrees C over 1 ½ - 2 hours – during this process, natural enzymes within the malt break down much of the starch into sugars which play a vital part in the fermentation process. The soup is now ready to be pumped over into the “lauter tun”.
In the lauter tun (the vat on the left) the liquids are separated from the solids (the mask). In the middle of the vat there is a grate and anything liquid in the vat will run into the container underneath. You rinse the mask several times to get as much of the extract / sugar species. The contents of the lower vat is now ready to be pumped over in the container on the right again. The mask which is quite protein rich is used as cattle feed by a local farmer. The farmer picks it up for free but at larger breweries it is sold and calculated according to feed value.
Now when the rest of the soup has been pumped over in the right container , which is now called the copper kettle, the hops are going to be added – often different types – the kettle is heated to 100 degrees C which takes about 1 ½ to 2 hours.
The liquid or wort is then moved through a heat exchanger – it brings the top-fermenting type beer down to 18 degrees C and bottom-fermenting type beer down to 8 degrees C - to the fermentation vessel, the cooling process ensures that the yeast cells aren’t killed. The yeast converts the sugars from the malts into alcohol – and off course that’s where we want to go. The water from the heat exchanger will then be used for the next brew in the mash tun.
Ale a top-fermenting yeast beer gets its name from where the fermenting originally took place in the vessel – at the top – it typically takes 4-5 days. Lager a bottom-fermenting yeast beer gets its name from where it’s fermenting originally took place – at the bottom of the vessel – it typically takes 7-14 days in the vessel.
From the fermenting vessels the fresh or green beer is pumped over into the conditioning tanks, but only the beer not the yeast, the yeast can be reused from 4-6 times for which the brewery has a procedure.
The beer now has to sit in the conditioning tanks to do just that – condition – top-fermenting beer takes about 3-4 weeks and bottom-fermenting beer takes app. 8 weeks before its ready. If is should happen that the brewery is not able to sell the beer right away, it can be left in the conditioning tanks at minus 1 degree c, this does not age the beer nor change the taste.

Fur Bryghus has a combined storing capacity of 40,000 litres (only conditioning tanks) + 16,500 litres (conditioning tanks that can be used as fermentation vessels then conditioning tanks). Therefore a total of 56,500 litres in storage capacity.
The beer is now ready to be moved to temporary storage which is used prior to bottling, so the beer can run through a filtering system called a kieselguhr – not moler clay – this ensures the beer becomes nice and clear. The only beer not filtered is the wheat beer (hvede øl).
The next step is the bottling process: Kegs take up about 20 % of the production, the rest is bottled. This takes place in a very controlled fashion through a filter to take the rest of any last unwanted impurities, the beer is cooled down to avoid foaming, just as we work in a CO2 “atmosphere” as we’ll do anything not to get oxygen in the beer. Oxygen – oxidizes and ages the beer – and that’s the last thing we want.
The kegs are cleaned and readied on the “keg washer” so we are sure they are completely clean and the pubs and restaurants receives some real fine beer. The bottles – which are all new – are rinsed and filled with CO2 before they are filled with beer. The bottles are run though the system without labels the first time as they need to be pasteurized. This happens at 65 degrees C.
Then the bottles are run though the system again and the labeling is done – it’s important the labels are whole and without markings before they are placed in cases of 12 bottles each. The beer is ready to go on sale.