The technical specifications are German
The Rethymnian Brewery (Ltd), which is located at the 12th kilometer of the National Road from Rethymnon to Spili, Crete, produces fifty thousand bottles per month. The basic shareholder is the German Bernd Brink, who is a qualified mathematician and a lecturer in the University of Stirling in Scotland. Rethymnian Beer is sold all over Greece in a bottle of 0,33 liters (black and lager), it is created on the basis of the German law 1516 “about the clearness of the ale” and has the hallmark of certification from the organization of biological products “ΔΗΩ”.
Beer is produced by water, malt, hops and yeast. The process is the following: malt is put in the mill to ripen. The seed simmers gently in the water tank of 38 degrees Celsius until it reaches 78 degrees Celsius. Due to fermentation, an enzyme is created which converts starch to sugar. Then, the product is carried to another tank where it is separated into its solid and liquid part. The liquid part boils with the hops. Later, the mixture goes through a special slate-shaped machine, where, when it gets cold, reaches the fermentation tank through pipes so as for the yeast to be added. The yeast converts the sugar of the malt into alcohol, carbon dioxide and vitamins. The initial intense fermentation is completed within a week and then the ripening period starts. The process of ripening must be realized in low temperature, the beer mellows and carbon dioxide is produced which is responsible for its full taste and character.
Curriculum vitae
Bernd Brink was born in 1969 in Arusderg, Germany and studied mathematics at the University of Aachen, close to the boarders of Holland and Belgium. As a student, he worked in small breweries while he was making his own beer at home. He finished his Ph.D studies in Scotland and he is a lecturer at the University of Stirling in Scotland. He met his wife in Scotland, as well, who she was there on holidays. Since his wife’s place of birth is Rethymnon, Crete, they decided to live in the island and in 1998 they launched into a business enterprise and the first beer production was available in September 2001.