1 kg cleaned mussels (only closed ones!), 2 onions, 1 stalk of celery, 1/2 l dark whole beer, salt, freshly ground black pepper, 3 egg yolks, 150 g crème fraîche, 25 g butter.
Peel and finely chop the onions, wash the celery and cut it into small pieces. Melt the butter in a casserole, sauté the onions and celery until translucent, deglaze with the beer, pepper, add the mussels and cook, covered, until the mussels open. Lift out with a slotted spoon (discard any that remain closed!), and remove the top shell of each mussel. Arrange the shells with the clams on a large platter and keep warm in the oven at 50°. Carefully pour the cooking liquid, without the sandy dregs, through a fine sieve and boil down vigorously. Heat ¼ l of it in a small saucepan. Whisk the crème fraîche with the egg yolks and slowly stir into the broth, continuing to stir on the stove until the liquid binds and thickens. Pour over the mussels and serve the rest in a saucière. Serve with the beer in which the mussels were cooked.
What's new: beer from the farm
In the third generation, the family owns the 90-hectare farm in Bad Homburg, and Hans-Georg Wagner also takes care of renewable raw materials on behalf of the Hessian Farmers' Association. However, he does not just talk smart about it, but sets a remarkable example. His three sons will one day, if everything does not go wrong, not be able to complain about the perspective that is offered to them. Because the new farm of the "Kronen-Wagner" (because the family was once the court supplier of the landgraves) works on the basis of circular economy, it stands on the three legs horse husbandry, agriculture and brewery. The connection is created by the farm's own combined heat and power plant, which runs on rapeseed oil ("Ökodiesel") from the farm's own fields and biogas.
It is not so far-fetched that beer is brewed here today, as Hans-Georg Wagner himself grew malting barley for many years - until he lost interest in it as a result of the seemingly unstoppable drop in prices. Many colleagues had a similar experience with bread grain. Meanwhile, farm bakeries have long existed, and Wagner is a pioneer with his brewery.
The malting barley from his own fields is turned into malt in a plant in the Bavarian Rhön, the hops come from the Holledau, and the water, which is just as important for a successful beer, is supplied in top quality by the Bad Homburg Braumannsstollen, since there were once three breweries in the city. On top of that, Wagner brought the brewmaster Bodo W. Paul into the house, who studied in Weihenstephan and comes from Bamberg, the center of Upper Franconia with its multitude of traditional and mostly smaller breweries.
So the Kronenhof beer brewed according to the old fathers' custom turns out to be a most pleasant refreshment compared to the ubiquitous standard hop broth. You can taste the malt and the hops, but not only the hops. The two varieties, Hell and Bernstein-Hefeweizen, are wonderfully drinkable, with a delicate bitterness and fine aroma. You can drink the beer in the courtyard or in the pub, where you can also eat, with the brew kettles in front of you. Or you can carry it home in traditional swing-top bottles. What the brewery has to do with Graf Zeppelin is not lost on the guests. The quality of the unfiltered beer has spread so quickly that they were literally overrun, Wagner can proudly report.
Beer makes you hungry, and consequently the "Buch zum Bier" published by Eichborn Verlag also contains recipes, for example for mussels in beer sauce. It comes from Belgium, where people love brown, strong barley juice. When the mussel season starts in September, a dark beer will also flow into the glasses at the Bad Homburg Brauhaus.
Bad Homburger Brauhaus Graf Zeppelin
Hofgut Kronenhof
Hans-Georg Wagner
Zeppelinstr. 10 (opposite the Landratsamt)
61352 Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
Tel.: 06172-288662
Open daily from 10 am to midnight
from Waldemar Thomas