The German-born brewmaster was laboring over the first batch of Heiner Brau Kolsch, the flagship offering from his Heiner Brau Brewery.  He had just opened the microbrewery inside a former Covington hardware store.

It wasn’t until the day before Hurricane Katrina that Orlik decided it might be prudent to batten down the hitches around ‘his family.  It only made sense that they would wait out the storm near the beer.

“The original owner here had built a bunker in the building,” Orlik said in his thick German accent. “It has 1 ½ foot cinder block walls.”

The fortification was, of course, another stroke of luck and not just because Orlik and his family made it through the storm unscathed.  It was also good fortune for local beer lovers.  Since his equipment wasn’t damaged, Orlik was able to resume brewing just as soon as power returned to the north shore.

“What else can you do if you’re a brewmaster but make beer?”

Orlik was explaining the logic behind opening Heiner Brau in the first place, but he could just as well have been commenting on the manner he chose to contribute to the storm struck region. 

For many, beer is as indispensable a sound roof in post-K New Orleans , and if you’re a beer drinker, Heiner Brau is a welcome arrival for reasons that go beyond its provenance. 

Orlik has been brewing beer since he was a teenager and before he enrolled as a student at the Doemens School of Brewers and Maltsters in Germany.  It was there he obtained the brewmaster credential that propelled him to the United State and, eventually, Louisiana where he worked as production manager at Abita Brewing Co. from 1997 to 2002.

Heiner Brau Kolsch, Orlik said, is a hybrid of a helles, Munich’s answer to pilsner, and traditional Kolsch, the pale, refreshingly aromatic beer of Cologne .  The quenching, golden-hued brew comes alive in the mouth and should not be dismissed because it’s sold in aluminum cans.  “The advantage of the can for a small brewer is the packaging is much easier, and the shelf life much longer” than beer sold in bottles, Orlik said.

Heiner Brau is small even by microbrewery standards. Although it’s been churning out beer for less than a year, Orlik expects Heiner Brau to reach its 2,500-barrel-per-year capacity in short order as local consumers continue to develop a for local beer.

At Heiner Brau. Orlik is nearly as interested in beer-making tradition as beer-making itself.  The brewery was designed to double as a museum chronicling Louisiana ’s German brewing history.  Staff shortages have made the museum, which opened in May 2006, less of a priority, but the brewmaster is still a moonlighting historian.  

“When people come by and we’re making beer, we’ll have them come in and give them a tour,” Orlik said. 

He recently filmed a segment on beer for “ Louisiana ’s Food Heritage,” Chef John Folse’s new Louisiana Public Broadcasting series.

Meanwhile, Orlik has expanded on the original premise hind Heiner Brau: “make one beer and make it good.”  He’s currently brewing four different beers, including a pale ale called Category 5, for Zea, the local restaurant chain.  The beers are being bottled for sale in the restaurants and, if everything goes as planned, at local outlets.

Orlik also has a “gentleman’s agreement” to brew New Orleans Big Easy Amber Lager, a line brewed by a Marrero brewery that closed in the wake of Katrina.  Just last week, he started making another Heiner Brau variety, this one hefeweizen, that he hopes to have ready for sale later this month.  He created the recipe 25 years ago when still a student at Doemens.

“It’s very fast fermentation,” Orlik said of his latest creation.  “And I’m very excited.”