Intellectual Ferment of a Different Kind
Brewpubs, breweries, restaurants, liquor stores, events, home brew supply shops you won’t want to miss.
~Wine Culture for Beer Garden Lovers~ Exploring Europe’s beer regions is a fine way to experience a place up close. The beer, the food, the taverns, the particularities of one beer region compared to the next: all of this provides a window onto …
An Unassuming Street Beyond the bustle of the Grand Place and past the tourists trying to catch a glimpse of Manneken Pis doing his thing, the unassuming Rue des Alexiens slopes gently upward toward the heights of the Sablon district. It was on this …
~If you’re in the vicinity of Bamberg this weekend, mark Thursday, 21 August to Monday, 25 August on your calendars!~ Where the Altstadt Becomes a Bierstadt For five days in late August, Bambergers gather to commemorate the consecration of the tiny Chapel of …
~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. …
If you’re in Brussels for more than a few days, the bustling multicultural neighbourhood of St. Gilles is a treat. And so is Brasserie Verschueren, an elegantly faded Art Deco beer cafe that evokes the Brussels of yesteryear. En Route to Verschueren Well …