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Heidelberg: Beer and a Kind of Homecoming

Heidelberg: Beer and a Kind of Homecoming

  Where There’s Students, There’s Beer Heidelberg is both a charmed and charming city. Its vibrant old town of picturesque squares, orange-red sandstone buildings, Gothic spires, and Baroque bridges was largely spared during the Second World War. The intactness of it all lends the cobblestone 

Beer Travel Vignettes: Päffgen, Cologne’s Neighbourhood Kölsch Pub

Beer Travel Vignettes: Päffgen, Cologne’s Neighbourhood Kölsch Pub

  When Päffgen opened its doors in 1883, it was just one of over a hundred small breweries in Cologne. Wars and consolidation exacted their toll on the other small breweries, but Päffgen soldiered on. Today, it one of the last small Hausbrauereien (“inhouse breweries”) 

Belgian Beer Café Vignettes: Poechenellekelder, Brussels

Belgian Beer Café Vignettes: Poechenellekelder, Brussels

  Cantillon with its cobwebbed rafters sheltering rows of barrels. The cheerfully riotous Delirium Café. Moeder Lambic with its rare beers. The Morte Subite, elegantly attired in art nouveau. You could spend days or even weeks in Brussels without coming close to exhausting your possibilities 

Talkin’ About a (Beer Garden) Revolution: Munich’s Waldwirtschaft

Talkin’ About a (Beer Garden) Revolution: Munich’s Waldwirtschaft

  That sweeping vista across the valley below! It’s the first thing you notice when you find a seat in the Waldwirtschaft’s expansive beer garden. Known locally as the “WaWi,” the Waldwirtschaft in southwestern Munich is nestled in the woods just beyond a residential neighbourhood 

German Beer Vignettes: Memories of Franconia, Mönchsambach Edition

German Beer Vignettes: Memories of Franconia, Mönchsambach Edition

  A Visit Long Overdue The stars finally aligned with bus schedules, opening times, weather, and my schedule for a trip out to the illustrious Brauerei Zehendner, brewers of the highly regarded Mönchsambacher Lagerbier. I arrived an hour early, so I turned the outing into 

Beer Gardens with a Dash of Spice: The Menterschwaige in Munich

Beer Gardens with a Dash of Spice: The Menterschwaige in Munich

  The sun was already low in the autumn sky as I finished up my beer at the legendary Waldwirtschaft (WaWi) and headed north toward the equally legendary Gutshof Menterschwaige. I’d been to the WaWi several times over the years, but hadn’t yet made it 

Tübingen: Beer on the Black Forest’s Doorstep

Tübingen: Beer on the Black Forest’s Doorstep

  Nestled amid leafy-green hills cradling the Neckar River, Tübingen is a mere thirty kilometers from Stuttgart but centuries closer to the Black Forest. Timber and stucco houses line the market squares where folks gather in cafes to while away the afternoon. Escher-esque lanes and