The whisteling brewery

LETTING OFF STEAM? WE DO IT EVERY DAY

Some traditions are made to be honored. Our steam whistle is one of those traditions. Every day, one of our four boilermen lets the steam escape, sounding the corresponding whistle. They might be working behind the scenes, but they’re essential for our brewery. No steam means no running engine rooms, filled CO2 bottles and heated brewing kettles.

The use of the steam whistle is about as old as the brewery itself. In the past, the whistle alerted the workers – usually active in noisy production departments – that it was time to start their daily task, take a break, or go home.

The rhythm of the steam whistle

Nowadays, the first whistle sounds at 6.00 AM for the early birds. An hour later, the signal for the day shift follows, and at 8.30 AM you hear the whistle for a collective break. At 5 to 9, the steam whistle sounds again, this time to announce that the lunchboxes have to be put away. At 9.00 AM the whistle lets everyone know it is time to get back to work. At 12.00 PM and 12.30 PM this is repeated for the lunch break. The final signal follows at 3.00 PM and announced the end of the day shift. On Fridays, you hear it half an hour earlier. And every Good Friday, the steam whistle would whistle for a full 15 seconds.

It’s likely that the steam whistle was used more often than this, but over the years some of the moments have probably gone out of use. Like the tradition to bake fresh herring and black pudding in the distillery every Friday, using the hot pipes of the steam boilers. It’s a shame that these traditions disappear, but then again, it probably wouldn’t be appropriate in a modern society where food safety has become much more important.

A whistle for every boilerman

Collective breaks like the ones in the past no longer exist, but the steam whistle tradition remains. In fact, if the steam whistle stops working, it is repaired immediately. “Hasn’t it blown yet?” is a question frequently asked when one of the boilerman sounds it a little later than usual. Some can even tell which of the boilermen is on call by the length of the whistle.