The August Ernst company stands for 125 years of experience and success in the spirits market. In 1898 master distiller August Ernst founded the distillery named after him in Bad Oldesloe. The house specialties, Oldesloer Korn and Oldesloer Kümmel, will soon find friends in the near and far. Today, August Ernst GmbH & Co. KG offers enjoyable products from the world of spirits under the brand names Oldesloer, Greizer, Specht, Meeraner, Romanza Amaretto, Stern-Marke, Holborn, Zinnaer Klosterbruder and Scharlachberg.
Legally grain brandies can only be made from rye, wheat, barley, oats or buckwheat using the whole grain. Korn may only be produced in those areas of the EC where German is an official language and where this drink is traditionally produced.
The grains are ground wet to a fine grist. The resulting grist is made into a paste with approx. 3 – 4 times the amount of water and, after adding malt, heated to approx. 75 – 80°C, then cooled and yeast is added. By adding malt or enzymes, the starch contained in the grain is broken down over two phases into malt sugar or glucose. This is necessary because the yeast is not able to convert starch directly into alcohol.
Anyone in the gastronomy of the Kornland Schleswig-Holstein who is looking for a good, cool Korn will always find an Oldesloer almost everywhere. Because he always stays the way he is, he has gained more and more confidence every year. And that for over 100 years. No wonder Oldesloer Korn can count on millions of loyal friends. Anyone who has tried it knows why.
Korn is called Schnaps in the colloquial language. But by no means every schnapps and every Klare is a Korn. Because corn really has to be made of corn. With us from wheat grain. The art of distilling made its way from Arabic to Europe in the Middle Ages, was refined by alchemists and captured the spirits of nature in bottles, where they promised healing powers and enjoyment at the same time. The vernacular coined the recipe that has become famous: Schnaps is good for cholera.
1507 Kornbrand in the north of Germany is on record for the first time. Flemish grain distillers flee from Duke Alba to Germany and bring their trade with them. 1879 saw the big upswing. Phylloxera, imported from America, is destroying European wine cultures. Cognac and brandy are becoming scarce, but the desire for spirits remains. Korn jumps into the breach and delivers what he promises. Since 1884, Bismarck’s laws have promoted grain distilling in small farms. The condition is that the residue, the protein-rich stillage, is fed to their own cattle and the nutrient-rich dung is plowed under on their own land.
1898 August Ernst, master distiller and farmer, founds a corn distillery with attached farm in Oldesloe.
August Ernst GmbH & Co. KG
Industriestrasse 27/29 • 23843 Bad Oldesloe
Tel: 04531-807-0
E-Mail: info@august-ernst.de