Intellectual Ferment of a Different Kind
Breweries, beer gardens, beer halls
Salt was once white gold in the region spanning southern Bavaria and northern Austria. Like Salzburg and Hallstatt, like Bad Reichenhall and Traunstein, Berchtesgaden was built on a mountain of revenue from the salt trade. Founded in 1102 as an Augustine monastery and raised …
Secluded Forests and Rolling Hills in Franconian Switzerland Bamberg is the epicenter of Franconian beer, but hidden gems await the wanderer willing to plunge into the verdant landscape of Franconian Switzerland, a region that owes its name to its scenic landscape of rolling hills, …
Beer before hops, Or, What Is Gruit? Gruit conjures up images of medieval goblets and mysterious mixtures of herbs and spice. Gruit is also a reminder that the ale Europeans drank right up to the dawn of the early modern era was worlds …
~Or, what do Melville’s white whale, a cathedral in Prague, and Weihenstephan’s Vitus have in common?~ I’ve been drinking Weihenstephan’s lush and expansive Vitus for years now, especially when the weather turns cool. I can’t get enough of that subtly spiced honey and …
We arrived in Murnau to a golden autumn afternoon perfect for wandering through this landscape famed for its light and colours. Since all good beer hikes need a certain beverage to make them what they are, we made straight for the shimmering Staffelsee lake …
~Travel has picked up again, and beer gardens in Bavaria are in full swing. If you’re traveling to Germany in the near future, chances are you’ll end up in a beer garden at some point. Here are some tips on how to make the …
~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: …