From now on, visitors to the celtic spa in bad salzungen and spa guests in the sudthuring district town can purchase a noble drop directly on site. The new bad salzunger gradierbrand rhon is a special drop, because the original spelt schnapps spent part of its maturing period in the gradierhaus and benefited from the rooty brine vapors.
Small distiller lothar bold from neuwirtshaus near hammelburg had started the brandy last year. Spelt was mashed and mashed at about 75 degrees. Then it was heated in a pot still before being poured into the cask. It was then hung in a wooden barrel for nine months in the bad salzungen graduation house. The ramsthal distiller adolf keller filtered and evaporated the brandy so that it now has a good drinkability of 38 percent.
Then he filled it and labeled the 0.35-liter bottles. Only 160 bottles were filled in total. The brandy impresses already in the bottle by its bronze color. "The longer the brandy matures in the barrel, the more intense the color becomes", explains keller. From the spelt brandy could even mature a real whisky, if one gave him instead of one year three years time. But even after a year, its malty-rooty taste is already a delight. The french national association of fruit and small distillers also found this to be the case: it awarded the grading brandy a gold medal.
A similar grading brandy had already been successfully produced in bad konigshofen – but at that time only as a product of bavarian rhon.