Piekfeine Brände by Birgitta Rust from Bremen's Überseestadt
Piekfeine Brände is Birgitta Rust's distillery in Bremen, opened on 11/11/2011 in an old wine warehouse at the head of the Europahafen. Today the glass-walled manufactory produces more than 50 spirits, from fruit brandies and fruit spirits to liqueurs, gin, rum, whisky, and Korn. It is the first and, to this day, the only distillery in the Hanseatic city.
Piekfeine Brände stands for craft-distilled fine brandies, fruit spirits, liqueurs, and spirits from Bremen. The manufactory was founded by Birgitta Rust, who now goes by Birgitta Schulze van Loon and worked as a management consultant before opening the distillery. “Gebrannt mit Herz und Hand,” distilled with heart and hand, is how Birgitta Rust describes her work – the phrase is printed on every bottle tag.
A schnapps date as opening day
The distillery opened its doors on 11/11/2011, what Germans call a Schnapsdatum, a “schnapps date,” and hardly a better choice for a distillery.
It was preceded by two years of training in Bavaria. Birgitta wanted to learn the craft completely, not just in parts: fruit science, the production process, spirits tax law, and marketing, all from the ground up. Anyone who comes from management consulting and wants to open a distillery in a city without a single one needs exactly that.
The location says it all. An old wine warehouse at the head of the Europahafen, in the middle of Bremen's Überseestadt, where for centuries the goods arrived that came into the country from overseas. The manufactory is built of glass, so you can watch the copper stills at work. Ten years later, in 2021, the house celebrated its first round anniversary, and in May 2025 the mayor came to visit.
That a Hanseatic city with centuries of trading history had no distillery of its own for over a decade says a lot about structural change in the trades. Bremen was always a hub for rum, coffee, and tea, but the distilling happened elsewhere. Filling this gap was the real founding idea – and it lay not in a market niche but in the city's history.
Along the way, Birgitta also got married and has since been called Birgitta Schulze van Loon. The company name still carries her former name, and her new one became the name of the whisky. Two children are part of the story too, which is no side note for a business that lives by harvest and batch.
From fruit brandy to gin and Hanseatic rum
Today the Piekfeine Brände range comprises more than 50 spirits, divided into fruit brandies and fruit spirits, liqueurs and bitters, gin, rum, whisky, as well as Korn, aquavit, and vodka.
It all started with the fruit brandies, and they are still the heart of the house. Around ten varieties from local fruit range from apricot to damson, plus the fruit spirits made from fruit that cannot be fermented. The Quince Brandy is made from apple and pear quinces from private gardens in Bremen, the Williams Pear Brandy from Franconian meadow orchards, and for the Wild Raspberry Spirit, wild berries are gathered in Romanian forests.
Then the other categories followed, one after another. In 2014 came the Triple Peak Gin, a London Dry based on wine alcohol instead of grain, with Earl Grey from Bremen's Teehaus Mehrtens and three Nordic wild fruits. In 2015 came VAN LOON, the first Hanseatic single malt whisky. Later came Alma Norte, the first rum distilled in Bremen, made from Guatemalan molasses and distilled in a pot still.
In 2017, Korn, Germany's traditional grain spirit, returned to the city. Bremen's last grain distillery had closed in 1999, and there had been none since – until the Piekfeiner Korn began aging in used VAN LOON whisky casks. Add to that limited creations, gifts, and aperitivo specialties such as the Rosalie Apero made from Frisian rose, strawberry, and bitter orange.
The difference between a Brand (fruit brandy) and a Geist (fruit spirit) runs through the entire range and is no hair-splitting. A Brand is made from fermented mash, which is why the fruit has to bring its own sugar. A Geist is made when the fruit has too little sugar or its aromas are too delicate: the fruit is then steeped in alcohol and only distilled afterward. Nut and wild raspberry take this route, quince and pear the other.
House distillates instead of bought-in alcohol
The principle by which the whole house can be measured concerns the liqueurs: they are based on the distillery's own brandies, not on bought-in neutral alcohol.
That is no detail but the most expensive rule in the business. An Orange Liqueur with Whisky needs a single malt aged three years, distilled in-house. Anyone who buys industrial alcohol instead and adds flavoring saves time, money, and taste.
Distilling is done traditionally in two runs, a stripping run and a spirit run, in small copper stills. The spirit is diluted only with soft Bremen drinking water, which the distillery treats as a quality factor in its own right. The house deliberately does without flavoring and coloring in its brandies. From sorting the fruit through controlled fermentation to distillation, everything is done by hand, says Birgitta Schulze van Loon about the work in the manufactory.
The raw materials come from where they grow best, and that is not always next door. Quinces come from private gardens in Bremen, Williams pears from Franconian meadow orchards, hazelnuts from Piedmont, wild raspberries from Romanian forests, and the molasses for the rum from Guatemala. Regional where possible, good where necessary – in that order, not the other way around.
It is also striking how often a distillate turns up again in the next product. The whisky goes into two liqueurs, the nut distillate into the cream liqueur, the used whisky cask into the Korn. Nothing is bought in that can be distilled in-house, and nothing is thrown away that still carries flavor.
Founders' award 2013 and gold for the sloe brandy
In 2013, Birgitta Rust received the Bremer Gründerpreis, Bremen's founders' award, as the city's most successful female founder.
In the same year, the sloe brandy won gold at the Sortenbrand des Jahres competition, and a year earlier the distillery had already received the MediaAward for its Bremen fruit brandies. The Rosalie Apero holds ISW gold.
Awards honor the distiller, not us, and Piekfeine Brände doesn't hang them on every bottle either. Still, it is remarkable that a founder with no family background in distilling got there within two years. Hats off.
The glass manufactory to visit
If you are in Bremen, you can visit Piekfeine Brände, because the distillery is set up as a show manufactory and offers tours, tastings, and distilling and sensory seminars.
That is more than customer loyalty. A glass manufactory has to be able to show every step, and anyone who can explain to visitors why nuts can't be fermented into schnapps has understood the craft. You can even have your own creation put together.
For everyone else, the way in is through the bottle. A good place to start is the Hazelnut Spirit. Its roasted nuts come from Piedmont, and it is flavored with cocoa and vanilla. If you are after clear fruit, you'll find it in the Quince Brandy; if you like a sociable evening, in the Rosalie Apero with tonic.
At Christmas time, the Xmas Egg Liqueur with damson brandy joins the range, at Easter the elderberry version. You can see what is currently in stock in the grid below, because the range changes with harvest and season. You'll also find North German distilling in its present-day form at Brennerei Ehringhausen.
