Intellectual Ferment of a Different Kind
Breweries, beer gardens, beer halls
Guiding Lights A few years back I wrote a series that began with a post called Accounting for My Tastes in Beer and ended with a list of twenty-five beers that had caught my attention over the previous year. Last year I did something …
Every year of beer travel is special in its own way, and 2025 was no different. The past year is a mosaic of beloved places I hadn’t visited for decades, like Japan. Old friends like Munich for Oktoberfest or Bamberg for Bock. Cities I …
~If you’re in the vicinity of Bamberg this weekend, mark Thursday, 21 August to Monday, 25 August on your calendars!~ ~Update: 2026 dates for the Sandkerwa are 20 August to 24 August, and 19–23 August in 2027. Where the Altstadt Becomes a …
~Munich Beyond Oktoberfest~ The very sound of the word Munich is enough to conjure up fond memories for fans of German beer, memories of languid afternoons in beer gardens, of joyous and occasionally raucous beer festivals, of winter evenings in beerhalls drinking warming …
Forchheim is the gateway to Franconian Switzerland, a beer region with a density of breweries like no other. Yet if it weren’t for beer, you’d probably only know of Forchheim as a stop on the trainline between Nürnberg and Bamberg. But it wasn’t always …
~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 …