Biele Brennerei

The Story of Haus Biele describes the founding of a distillery (Brennerei in German) in 1804. The picture on the left is a label from a bottle of Kümmel. (see note below). A rough translation of the label is "Hovestadt's oldest Kümmel from the distillery of F. C. Biele in Hovestadt near Soest, founded 1804. The symbol on the label of the ax and the goose is said to be the crest of the Biele family.


​The center picture is of the distillery from a 1913 postcard. Written on it is "Kornbranntwein Brennerei F. C. Biele". The literal translation of "Kornbranddtwein Brennerei" would be "corn brandy wine distillery", but more generally just a distillery of spirits made from grain.

The picture on the right is another label. It is branded "Cousin Christian" with the tag line "Best Replacement for Cognac"


There was a website that listed Germany distilleries and it had a listing for Brennerei Biele from 1902.


According a liquor website:


Kümmel is a sweet clear digestive liqueur is distilled from grain or potatoes and flavoured with caraway seeds, cumin, fennel, orris and other herbs. Kümmel is said to have been developed by the Dutch distiller Lucas Bols in the late sixteenth century, with the first written recipe dating back to 1575.


It is said that Peter the Great was working incognito as a labourer in the Netherlands to gain shipbuilding knowledge with a view to building a Russian navy when he tried Bols Kümmel. He took the drink back east where it later reappeared centuries later as a sweet liqueur under the brand name of Mentzendorff.


​The origins of this liqueurs name lie in the generic names for the keys spices with which it is flavoured. In German caraway is called Echter Kümmel and cumin Kreuzkümmel, while kummel is the term for caraway and cumin in Dutch and the same is true of kimmel in Yiddish. Although this liqueur's origins are thought to be Dutch, Russia is now the largest producer and consumer of kümmel.


Of note, according to the Story of Haus Biele, Frederick Biele who founded Haus Biele was Dutch.