Intellectual Ferment of a Different Kind
Meeting the people who make your beer.
If you happen to have read some of the beer buzz coming out of Europe about a half-decade back, you might recall a Belgian brewery that made international headlines with its beer pipeline. That brewery is De Halve Maan, a centuries’ old brewery set amid …
~In Search of Belgium’s “Best” Beer Cafes~ Belgium is home to countless beer cafes ranging from hole-in-the-wall locales in the working-class districts of Brussels to beer pilgrimage destinations like In de Vrede, Westvleteren’s beer café in West Flanders. Many lovers of Belgian beer …
~Three short hikes punctuated by lunch at Brauerei Mager, a beer in the Bruckmayer beer garden, and dinner in the courtyard of the Brauerei Hufeisen.~ A rare day it was when I woke up on that glorious May morning in the “before times” after …
The Horns of a Bock-Like Dilemma Duke Wilhelm V found himself caught between a rock and a hard place in matters of beer. Despite the promulgation of what we now call the “Reinheitsgebot” by his forebears in 1516, and despite subsequent attempts to regulate …
~A Day Trip from Munich~ One of the (many) things I love about beer travel in Bavaria is this: I had just spent the morning hiking around Benediktbeuren and quenching my thirst in the shadow of its magnificent monastery when it occurred to me …
1838 in the Old Town: Düsseldorfer Altbier Düsseldorf is the informal capital of German fashion and home to some of Germany’s most cutting-edge contemporary architecture. Forward-looking as the Düsseldorfers are, the very name of their beloved beer points in the direction of times past: …
An entry from my beer notebook describes a day trip from Brussels in June 2019: “By shortly after noon, I had found my way to Het Anker, the ‘real’ reason for my visit to Mechelen. I love how beer, breweries, and their history get me …
Augustiner is Munich’s retro-hip brewery. That wasn’t always the case. Until relatively recently, Augustiner-Bräu was considered a dusty old brewery. There’s no denying its age: Founded by monks in 1328, Augustiner is Munich’s oldest brewery. But conceptions of tradition change. Today, the brewery’s use …
I’d passed through Traunstein several times on trains between Vienna and Munich and had always been struck by the beauty of its surroundings. The picturesque region is a place of flower-bedecked meadows, old wooden farmhouses, and cows grazing languidly in emerald fields. Situated amid …
For those who just want to get things over with and sign up for my Beerscapes Newsletter, here’s a link that’ll take you to the subscription form. For those who want to know what’s in store, read on! It’s been awhile since I …