Concierge Blog

The Mayor Klaus Runer didn't want to miss the opportunity to personally deliver the congratulations to Susanne Luderet for such an extraordinary anniversary: it has been 50 years since she first was a guest at Hotel Sparerhof in Vilpian. And he did, with all the honors: a diploma as a thank you and a gold pin in the shape of an asparagus.
And so the anniversary was celebrated in the Hotel Sparerhof: floral regards and South Tyrolean sparkling wine.
At the celebration also gave space to memories: 50 years ago the family from Munich drove over the Brenner pass to spend for the first time a short vacation in South Tyrol. They stopped at the Hotel Sparerhof; then a small pension with only five rooms. For the first night, everything was already occupied. Willy set the wheels in motion to find a solution. And he succeeded: he brought the family to stay at a private house. Since then, they have come as guests year after year and declared the Hotel Sparerhof and Terlan as their second home; so to speak.
Susanne and Barbara, the daughter of the house, who have known each other since they were little girls learned and enjoyed playing together (especially Susanne remembers "huge" sand castles) and so a wonderful friendship emerged over the years. And over the years, not only grew the friendship and the two girls, but also the Hotel Sparerhof. Susanne remembers the opening of Willy's gallery and the works of art that she loved to buy there again and again.
Susanne continued to come to Vilpian even after the death of her parents, also twice a year. Indeed Susanne and her partner visit the Sparer Family both during the asparagus season, as well as in the golden autumn. Today they live in Dresden and are both state officials.

Stay Tuned!!!!

...thanks to our friend Hedwig

wedding reception

In addition to the production of beer the brewery in Vilpian had operated a small malt house for their own use. The brewery was sold in November 1924, the SAPLO (Società Anonima Produzione Lavorazione Orzo, which stands for anonymous society for production and elaboration of barley), which completely transformed the brewery in a malt house. The famous Forst brewery from Algud has been a main shareholder since 1934.
Malt is germinated and dried by a malting grain, primarily barley.

The malt is produced in three steps:

Course: For the duration of 2-3 days, the grain is soaked in water, the grain takes in 35 - 43% water.

Germination: in the thus soggy grain the creation of certain enzymes occurs after 4-7 days, the grain begins to germinate.

Kiln-drying: The sprouted grain is dried, depending on the length of the malt kilning which changes the malt in color and flavor, producing several malts. Pale malts are at 75 ° - 80 ° C kiln-dried, dark malts at 105 ° - 120 ° C.

The most common are the Pilsner, Vienna and Munich malt, all of which are made only from barley. The Pilsner malt forms the matrix of pilsner and lager and light beers. The Vienna malt is darker, the color is due to longer roasting of barley, and used for the production of beer for special occasions and designated times of the year. Even darker the Munich malt and Caramel which are used to produce dark beers. Some older fellows from Vilpiano certainly recall the strange sweet smell in memory, which originated in the manufacture of particularly strong Caramelmalt and was perceived very intensely on some days.
The brewery Forst in Algund was from 1928 the main buyer of malt from the malt house in Vilpiano. For the first order, it was a load of Pilsner malt. Until the closure of the Vilpianer Malthouse in 1986, Forst Pilsner, Munich and Caramel malt were obtained from the malt house in Vilpian for the brewery.
Following the closure of malting, the entire area passed into the possession of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, where the regional fire school has been built, still maintaining some original buildings.

Text by Dr. Arch. Irmgard Mitterer provided by the society for culture and home care in the Adige Valley.

In 1897, the brewery was equipped with an electric power plant and decreased in autumn 1899 by the Imperial District Administration.

Basic features of the system:

Derived water amount from the Möltner Bach (pond): 200 lt / sec
Residual flow: 60 l / sec back in the Möltner Bach
Length of the cross cut: about 180 m
Case Height: 80 m
Inlet pressure: 8 bar
Diameter pressure pipe: 300 mm
Many steel components of this system are castings, they are still perfect and flawless. The entire plant has been used from the beginning until the closing of the malting plant in 1986. The power station in Vilpian was equipped with a state of the art turbine of the Pelton brand. This type of turbine is named after the American engineer Lester Pelton, who patented it in 1880.

Pelton turbine allows the water flow through a nozzle at high speed on the blades of the impeller. The blades are divided into two half-blades, in the so-called cup. Thus, the performance of the inflowing water is improved.

The control apparatus transmits a pulse through the connecting rod to a pin in the nozzle, which regulates the amount of water and thus the necessary energy requirements. The flywheel produces a uniform speed. Via the clutch, the torque is transmitted to the generator. There the mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy. For the generator to work, it requires a separate exciter. About the terminal box of the power generated reaches the end user and sets the machine in operation. Electricity is generated by converting water power into electrical energy.
In the electricity plant of the brewery and later the malthouse until 1930 a co-corruent flow with an output of 38 KW has been produced. From 1930, a three-phase generator by the Elin company from Vienna was used with a power of 77 KW. The alternating current generated by the alternator had after the so-called current dispute between the American Thomas Alva Edison (inventor of the electric power, insisted on the DC) and the Serb Nikola Tesla (inventor of alternating current) prevailed at the beginning of the 20th century more and more.

Text by Dr. Arch. Irmgard Mitterer provided by the society for culture and home care in the Adige Valley.

Photo of Helene Huber © Helene Huber

The emergence and development of brewing in the southern Tyrol of the 19th century is closely connected with the coming of the Austrian Jewish Schwarz family.

Ernst Schwarz and his brothers William, Maurice and Jacob took in far-reaching activities in Tyrol. They leased the brewery in Gossensaß and the Carlische Brauhaus in Gries, called Klösterle brewery. In 1849 they founded the steam beer brewery in Vilpian. The Schwarz family bought the meadow at cold cellar property and let build the brewery. It was operated by Jacob Schwarz, who was a learned brewers. From 1863, William took the brewery. Brewed was for "Münchnerart" the so-called Porter beer that originated in the English room. At the opening of Bozen - Meran local train on October 4, 1881 beer from the brewery of Brothers Schwarz was served at the station in Vilpian.

The Vilpianer brewery was one of the largest in South Tyrol, owned a mill and in 1897 equipped with a power plant. The Schwarz family was among the pioneers in the field of technical renovation. Particularly enthusiastic about technology was Sigmund, one of the two sons of Ernst Schwarz. Sigismund was born in 1849 in Hohenems and was later located in Bolzano, where he died in 1919. The power station was built according to the latest state of the art with a turbine of the Pelton brand. Sigmund Schwarz was also one of the main promoters of the local railway construction in South Tyrol. 1915, the brewery by brothers Arnold and Sigmund Schwarz was converted in a limited liability company (GmbH). With the onset of the First World War and after the death of Sigmund Schwarz in 1919 the brewery slowly lost its importance. In 1924 merged the Vilpian brewery with that of Blumau.

Text by Dr. Arch. Irmgard Mitterer provided by the society for culture and home care in the Adige Valley.

Today, the power plant with it's turbine of the former brewery was introduced to the public on the path to the Waterfall in Vilpian. This unique monument of historic civil engineering returns after successful restoration back to its original point and can be seen there at any time.

more to follow shortly, Stay tuned!

A bicycle trip to Merano is also an opportunity to observe the farmers who collect the first apples of the season. ...

Many of the varieties that will be collected in our areas and among them we mention:

Golden Delicious, Gala, Red Delicious, Fuji, Granny Smith, Braeburn, Jonagold, Topaz, Morgenduft, Winesap, Idared, Elstar, Pinova, Pink Lady, Kanzi, Rubens, Jazz, and Modi.

While being guided by bike between the apple orchards, we reach the racecourse, where it is in full swing Fifth Day / Summer Autumn Meeting (08/17/2014 - Opening hours 12:00 - 15:35 hours before the race).

Program: Cocktail obstacles / plan (ie 3 and 4 trials);

The day also includes a second round of Cross-Country where you challenge gentlemen, Amazons and licensed FISE jockeys and ... we also met a welcomed guest that is ajockey (who would have thought??)

I wonder if he and, or the horse won?

Will we let you know ...? Stay tuned !!!!

The young manager of the Circus Stefan Brumbach is advertising his family business..

Come and spend some time and have fun at the circus.

16.8.214 Saturday at 18:30 and Sunday, 17/08/2014 at 15:00. Location: Haus des Apfels, Terlan

This was by far the best hotel experience I have ever had. You feel like family the minute you walk in the door and Andreas greets you. The rooms are lovely, the food is fantastic and the location is perfect. The details in the decorations throughout the hotel are exquisite. We spent 4 nights here and looked forward to coming back from our day trips each evening to sit outside and have a few drinks and enjoy Andreas sense of humor. We were very sad to leave and know we will return one day--this is a very special place.

Review from Nsclark on TripAdvisor stayed June 2014