Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Munich, Day Three

Not so many pictures today. Ended up drinking Glühwein at the Christmas markets for most of the evening. So when I do a Glühwein blog, maybe I'll post some pictures.

This is Isar Bräu in the old Isartal train station to the south of the city center. They brew a nice wheat beer here.






The also sell beers from Hofbräuhaus Tronstein. I had their zwickl. It was not up to the quality of the other twoI had. (Hacker-Pschorr and Paulaner-Thomasbräu). Drinkable but that was about all I could say.


They were brewing when I left, but unfortunately the light was all wrong.



Keeping with the wheat beer theme, I stopped in at the Schneider Weisses Bräuhaus. Until WW II this was the home of the Schneider & Sohn brewery.


This is "TAP7" -- the original Schneider Weisse. They offered it both on tap and from the bottle (for purists).



Also on draft was Aventinus. I had a small. A large would have put me under the table.


And some haxen being cooked on a spit -- for some this is "pork porn" -- you know who you are.

Munich, Day Two

Just pictures for now, words later....



































Monday, November 29, 2010

Munich, Day One

After the beer at Augustiner it was time to check in to my hotel. After checking in, getting my computer set up and unpacking a bit, I decide to read for awhile. Big mistake. Three and a half hours later I woke up to find it getting dark outside.

I decide to walk over to the Hacker Pschorr Bräuhas for dinner and a beer or two. This is a "brewpub" run by the Hacker-Pschorr brewery (you'll see why the quotes in a bit). It is right across the street from the Theresienwiese -- the park where the Oktoberfest is held.


 

They had two beers on the menu, a Zwickl and a Weisenbier. I started with the Zwickl


It was clearly unfiltered and had that nice "fresh" taste you get from a good unfiltered lager. A very nice beer.

The menu said they sometimes have a seasonal beer, but not this time, so I went with the Weizenbier




It was decent -- a typical Bavarian wheat beer but nothing to write home about (but I guess I am doing that anyway).

The 20 hectoliter brew system is right in the middle of the main room.  It didn't look like it had been used recently (as it was covered in Christmas decorations), which started to get me a bit suspicious.




Down in the basements (where the restrooms are) was big glass fronted room with a sign "Gärkeller" (fermentation cellar). There was a row of rectangular, stainless steel open fermenters. All were empty. So either they are about to run out of beer or it is brewed elsewhere.



I'll leave you with a couple pictures I took of the Christmas Market near the Marienplatz. Munich seems to go for Christmas in a big way.






Sunday, November 28, 2010

Second Beer in Munich

An Augustiner Vollbier Hell




That is more like it.

And I'm not the only one having a Sunday morning beer, which makes me feel better.

From the outside...




The sign in the window says the Hell is on gravity every day at 4pm. If I'm awake, I'll be back.

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Location:Römerstraße,Obernburg,Germany

First Beer in Munich

I arrived in Munich. I can't check in to the hotel for a few hours so I went wandering for a beer.

I thought the Augustiner Grossgaststätte opened at 9am -- it does except on Sundays when it opens at 10am.

So I wandered down to Marienplatz and found the Bayerische Donisl open. So my first beer is a Hacker-Pschorr Hell. Not my first choice but it does taste good after the long plane ride.




Oh, and here is the Bayerische Donisl from the outside:





More later...


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Location:Weinstraße,Munich,Germany

Friday, November 26, 2010

On My Way to Munich...

...for a very quick trip. It really is a "mileage run" (a trip whose primary purpose is to earn frequent flyer miles) but the purists among the mileage runners would dispute that label because I am spending a night (actually 3) in Munich. In a pure mileage run you never stay in a hotel.

It has been a while since I've done a pub crawl in Munich, so I am kind of looking forward to it. The weather will be cold and wet, so no outside drinking.

The trip is actually more complicated -- I am flying to Pittsburg first and will spend the night there, and then Saturday morning I will fly to Munich, arriving Sunday morning. "Why Pittsburg?" I hear you ask. Well, Delta (my airline) is have a promotion if you fly out of Pittsburg (and 3 other US cities). So by doing two trips, I hope to earn a bazillion or two status miles and redeemable miles (those that can be used for tickets). Plus I get to drink some beer.

So watch this space on Sunday for updates.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Walking Around Berlin -- Part II

Sorry for the delay in posting. I had an accident/problem with my memory card and lost a bunch of photos -- including most of the pictures from Berlin. I am still hopeful that they may be recovered.

Anyway, we visited a few more brewpubs in the afternoon, but nothing really was all that interesting. We went for dinner at Brewbakers and their beers were good -- and interesting. It definitely is on my list to visit again whenever I return to Berlin.

I was disappointed we didn't find any draft Berliner Weisse. Some have mentioned that it never really was widely found on draft, but after reading Ron Pattinon's descriptions of how it was in the "old days" (i.e. pre-reunification) made me really want to experience it. Oh well.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Walking around Berlin -- Part 1

Our main goal was to find draft Berliner Weisse. In this, we failed. But we visited a few nice pubs and a bunch of brewpubs and got to see some of the city, so overall it was a good day.

We started in the Nikolaisviertal on the advice of a friend who in the past spent lots of time in Berlin. First up was Zu Letzten Instanz -- which claims to be the oldest pub in Berlin. It certainly looked the part. No draft Berliner Weisse but some beers to try anyway.




We had a Schultheiss Pils, Kindl Jubäliums Pils and a Märkische Landmann (Dunkel). All were fine but not terribly interesting. The Landmann was the best of the bunch.









Just about around the corner was Georgbräu, a brewpubs along the river. Two beers, Hell and Dunkel. The Hell was Ok but the Dunkel was foul, nasty, infected and undrinkable. The smell alone was enough.to almost cause me to lose my lunch. Needless to say, we didn't stay long.











Next on the list was Zum Nussbaum, another quaint old pub. We had a Potsdammer Rex Pils (Brewed by Kindl) a Kindl Pils and a Kindl Bockthe Pils were ordinary but the bock was quite nice








We had one other place to check out -- the Alt Berliner Weissbier Stube but no draft Berliner Weisse and all the other beers we'd had so it was off to Alexanderplatz to find another brewpub. Along the way we saw a bunch of one man walking Bratwurst stands. I'm not sure I'd want to walk around with a propane pipe between my legs.




We soon found Brauhaus Mitte, a gait restaurant and brewery and surprise surprise they had four draft beers: Hell, Dunkel, Weizen and a Festbier. We skipped the Weizen for the first round.








All were decent, but the fest was too sweet. We had found enough of these overly sweet beer to think maybe it was a feature not a bug -- that must be what the locals liked. We decide to try the Weizen and it was OK but nothing special.




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Location:Berlin