Intellectual Ferment of a Different Kind
Breweries, beer gardens, beer halls
~The Lay of the Land~ Munich. Beer gardens. And beer hiking. Three things I can’t get enough of. Put them all together and you have a ramble that takes you to some of Munich’s most beloved and most illustrious beer gardens. For years I’d …
Zoigl: More Than a Kind of Beer It’s been way too long since I posted about the Oberpfalz, one of my favourite beer regions in Germany. Sure, beer in nearby Franconia is the stuff of legend. And there’s no denying the sublimity of …
~The Proverbial So Many Beers, So Little Time~ It’s travel season. Which means you might be looking for some good beers to add to your list. Remember that Fifty Beers for 2025 list I put together earlier this year? Well, there’s more. I …
At the Wirtshaus It’s early evening and you’ve just hiked over the hill from the next town. An elaborate wrought-iron sign marks the spot, an old wizened door beckons. Inside, the Wirtshaus echoes with the sounds of merriment and the clinking of glasses. …
So Many Beer Gardens … Let’s assume for a moment that you love beer gardens as much as I do. You’ve explored all that there is to offer in the English Garden, you’ve visited some of the iconic beer gardens in the center of …
~A Tale of Two Walberlas~ As I approached the summit of the Walberla, I couldn’t help but think that only the Germans would schlepp an entire beer fest up a mountain. And no ordinary mountain. The Walberla is shrouded in legends of witches’ sabbaths …
~Setting the Stage~ I’ve been saying for years now that I’d post some of my material about the Reinheitsgebot (Beer Purity Law). Turns out it’s been one of the more difficult pieces of work to get across the finish line—not because I’ve had writer’s …
~Evoking Gemütlichkeit at the Wirtshaus~ It was the early 1990s. I had only recently discovered what German beer was all about, and was doing my level best to try as many of them as possible. Occasionally, my friends and I would find our …
The Chiemsee Region of Upper Bavaria Sunlight twinkles on the rippling waves, the lapping of water against the shore the only sound as I dangle my legs over the jetty and snack on pastries. Chiseled mountains rise up across the lake, framing emerald fields …
The Town Garmisch and Partenkirchen were separate towns before they joined together on the eve of the 1936 Winter Olympics. Partenkirchen, which found itself along the Roman trade route that ran from Venice to Augsburg, was long the more prosperous of the two towns. …