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 stairs ascend to churches and descend to the Neckar, where punt-boats float languidly past people strolling along the plane-tree promenade. Over it all rises the turreted Schloss Hohentübingen, an erstwhile fortress with magnificent views over the russet rooftops of the Altstadt.
Tübingen is a venerable old university town steeped in literature and science. Johannes Kepler peered through telescopes to study planetary motions, and the poet Friedrich Hölderlin spent much of his life here. (If you’re into German literature, be sure to visit the Hölderlin Turm on the banks of the Neckar.)
All good university towns need lively taverns to water the seeds of the ideas planted in the seminar room. Tübingen is as good as they come. During his short stay here, Goethe reputedly drank amounts of beer that equaled his prodigious literary output. These days, the chances that you’ll end up in a philosophical conversation as the evening draws to a close are far from zero.
The beer that fires these kinds of conversations in Tübingen is fine indeed. Neckarmüller is a classic Hausbrauerei (1980s/1990s-style brewpub) along the Neckar River. Freistil on the opposite bank is its craft beer alter ego. And with all that greenery surrounding Tübingen, it’s no surprise that you’ll find beer gardens that are a worthy match for the scenery. The Schwärzlocher Hof west of town is one of those fairytale beer gardens with a pastoral view.
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Old School: Fischer’s Neckarmüller
After my journey from the Oberpfalz to Tübingen and still feeling the effects of my long Zoigl hike the day before, I was beyond happy when I found a table overlooking the river. I ordered a few beers and some food and relaxed to the buzz of conversation mingling with the almost imperceptible lapping of the Neckar against its banks.
Founded in 1992, Fischer’s Neckarmüller is one of those independent brewpub-style breweries that sprung up in the 1980s and 1990s to challenge the dominance of big beer. Neckarmüller presides over a spacious terrace with a view of the Neckar River and a full-fledged beer garden one level down. Despite the arrival of craft beer in these parts, Neckarmüller has held the line on well-brewed traditional styles. The beers are all on point.
And so’s the food, for that matter. The juicy Brauerbierbraten is made from Schwäbisch-Hällischer Landschwein, a breed of pig once on the brink of extinction. Topped with Weissbier sauce and served with a side of deftly executed Spätzle, this may well be one of the best beer-themed meals you’ll eat.
The Weisse Hell makes a fine accompaniment to the Bierbraten, which is no surprise considering that it’s in the sauce. Gold with orange hues, this elegantly textured Weißbier features banana custard, clove, and allspice held aloft by cream of wheat and spiced bread drizzled with honey. Dry but not too dry, with a long and pleasant fruity aftertaste.
I ended my meal with a Maibock. Neckarmüller’s golden-bronze rendition evenly balances malt and hops, with a nice alcohol-honey viscosity that’s warming but not hot. Spicy and perfumed hops join with honeyed malt and white nougat in a quaffable beer that’s focused and sleek. Finishes dry with a hint of residual sweetness, along with a fruity grape note in the aftertaste.
If you’re like me, chances are it won’t be long before you’re back for a beer in Neckarmüller’s beer garden. Once you’ve claimed a seat under the leafy canopy next to the river, head to the Ausschank and order the Kellerbier, a beer tailor-made for beer garden afternoons. You might be deep in conversation with a friend, or maybe you’re dreamily distracted by the punt boats floating by. The beer is incidental, as every perfect beer garden beer should be. But when you do stop to pay attention, you’ll catch wonderful aromas of country bread, freshly mown meadows, and a twist of citrus accented by apple blossoms and a peachy yeast note.
New Wave: Brauwerk Freistil
It had started sprinkling while I was finishing off my Kellerbier at Neckarmüller. Several paces across the bridge and a few raindrops later I arrived at Freistil in a part of town that didn’t look too promising at first — that is, until I rounded the bend at the end of a block of nondescript buildings and caught sight of an elegant villa with a riverside beer garden.
I had just ordered a craft beer sampler when the server asked if I wanted to try a new beer they’d just tapped. It was a Helles that smelled of Cascade and Centennial, the brewers’ most recent attempt to graft craft onto traditional styles. We got to talking about what it means in a place like Tübingen to make a go of it with craft beer.
Freistil had only been open since 2021, but it had piqued the interest of younger residents of Tübingen. And indeed the beer garden and the chic, tastefully designed taproom upstairs was filled mainly with twenty-somethings. The server was relatively young, too — and, as it turned out, one of the owners. Not only that: he’s from New Zealand.
A few minutes later a friend of his came by, another expat attracted to this student city. Andrej’s his name, a Russian from St. Petersburg with Scottish and German parents. After he finished his master’s in architecture at the Universität Tübingen, he began working at the Arsenal Kino, one of Germany’s oldest cinemas. And so begun another of those epic evenings with beer fueling a conversation that ranged from Eisenstein and Tarkovsky to Bergson and Benjamin.
What about the beer? Turns out my drinking partner bore a striking resemblance to the young Michael Jackson (the beer writer), so when I mentioned that to him, he didn’t take it amiss when I scratched down a few notes. The Aotea Roa New Zealand Pale Ale was too subtle, especially considering what New Zealand hops can do. The Wanna B NEIPA was the best of the four I tried, a decent stab at the style with tangerine and passion fruit and a lightly honeyed malt backdrop.
Even if these aren’t the best craft beers I’ve had in Germany, Freistil has novelty on its side. And that’s no small advantage in a university town.
Downtempo: Hofgut Schwärzloch
Just a few kilometers west of Schloss Hohentübingen, Schwärzlocher Hof is home to an idyllic beer garden overlooking emerald hills and meadows. There’s been a manor house on this estate since 1829, and it’s still a working farm.
One of the specialties here is Most, the intermediate phase through which apple juice passes on its way to apple cider. It’s the apple equivalent of grapes in the wine world: Sturm in Austria, or Federweißer in the Pfalz and Mosel regions. For curious imbibers, Schwärzlocher Hof helpfully bills it as an “alkoholhaltiger Apfelwein” (an apple wine that contains alcohol) on its menu.
The best way to get here is on foot, so do what multitudes of Tübingen’s students and Sunday strollers have done before you and walk the three kilometers from the old town. The route takes you through a quiet residential area that eventually turns to countryside. Rolling hills dotted with tufts of trees rise up on both sides of this pastoral walk through the valley. Soon you’ll spy the Schwärzlocher Hof farmhouse perched atop a hillock.
When I got here during Saturday lunch the place was filled with cyclists, hikers, and families out for a stroll. The occasional cries of a peacock wandering the courtyard of the farmhouse punctuated the buzz of conversation.
Food was in order after climbing up and down the hills of Tübingen all morning. Lentils with spätzle was just what the doctor ordered, an ample dish that took the edge of my hunger. And the beers light and dark from Schwaben Bräu in Stuttgart complement this regional dish well, especially the Schwarzbier, a relative rarity in these parts.
Schwaben Bräu’s Das Schwarze is a coffee-coloured Schwarzbier with chestnut hues and a frothy cap of foam. Smoky dark chocolate and coffee make common cause with dark toast and rye bread in this taut-bodied, perfectly attenuated beer. It’s this tautness that makes it so thirst-quenching on a warm day.
The Export Urtyp is a flavourful golden beer with lightly honeyed malt notes, a light spiciness, and a fragrance reminiscent of freshly mown hay drying in a field on a spring day.
It’s not too often you find a beer garden like this, so I ordered another Export Urtyp and savoured the view over the valley before heading back to catch my train to the Black Forest.
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All images by Franz D. Hofer
© 2024 Franz D. Hofer and A Tempest in a Tankard. All rights reserved.
Spent a Spring/Summer in Tubingen many years back and besides the craft bar it sounds like much hasn’t changed. I loved hiking out to that pub and much fondness for the Export Urtyp, I kept a bottle from my trip for many years after. Thanks for sharing.
I’m happy to hear that my article brought back some Tübingen memories for you! That’s one of the things I like about cities and towns in Germany: In beer terms, they don’t change too much, or too rapidly. Some places close (after-effects of the pandemic, or no one to take the reins when the owners retire), a few new places open occasionally to take their place. And you can almost always find your old favourites.