Intellectual Ferment of a Different Kind
Meeting the people who make your beer.
A Beer Like No Other Over twenty years had passed since I stopped off briefly in Bamberg en route between Prague and Heidelberg with an old friend on a crazy road trip in my grandma’s rickety Renault 5. On that sunny afternoon in the …
I headed out to Stone Brewing’s Berlin outpost in Mariendorf with less than great expectations. Stone’s arrival in Berlin had, after all, been anything but auspicious. During a press conference in 2014, co-owner Greg Koch presided over the destruction of a pallet of main-stream European …
You’ve just arrived in Prague and have had a look at “Beer in Prague: A List to Get You Started” during your train ride. You’re thirsty after that long journey and need to fortify yourself before you brave the crowds of the Castle District, Charles …
It’s late 2008, about a month after I had arrived in Berlin to conduct research on Germany’s recent efforts to commemorate the Second World War. Another leaden gray winter afternoon, mist hanging low enough to obscure the landmark TV Tower on Alexanderplatz, leafless trees shivering …
~Oud Bruin? Rood Bruin? Flemish Red? It’s all foeders to me~ Only an hour by train from Brussels, West Flanders is renowned for its picturesque medieval towns replete with belfries and beguinages, sandy North Sea beaches, verdant open fields, and a harrowing First …
So here we are again. One more turn around this mortal coil, drinking to forget the follies of an old year and toasting the auspiciousness of the new. For me 2017 has been extremely enjoyable, uncanny parallels between the 1930s and the present notwithstanding. I …
Paulaner may well have become one of the world’s leading brewers of Weissbier in recent decades, but Paulaner’s Salvator Doppelbock remains inseparable from the history of the brewery’s famous Salvatorkeller beer garden atop Munich’s Nockherberg. A Church Bell Named Salvator The Süddeutsche Zeitung …
It’s that time of year. Thousands of you have just moved halfway across the continent and are settling in at one of the universities or colleges in the Finger Lakes region. Even more of you live in one of the large urban areas within three …
Cantillon needs no introduction. Even if you’re not yet a convinced imbiber of wild-fermented beers, chances are you’ve at least heard of Cantillon, that legendary Brussels brewery of mythic proportions and mystical imaginings. If lambic and gueuze producers in Flemish Brabant merit pilgrimages, Cantillon is …
When you think of beer destinations in Central Europe, certain cities and regions stand out as iconic. Rauchbier from Bamberg. Budweiser from Budweis. Kölsch from Cologne. Pilsener from Pilsen. Altbier from Düsseldorf. Berliner Weisse. Gose from Leipzig. Light and dark lagers from Munich. And the …