Intellectual Ferment of a Different Kind
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 …
“Edinburgh, where have you been all of my life?” That was my very first thought when I stepped off the train at Haymarket Station on that sunny autumn day. The stone buildings, bustling thoroughfares, and convivial pub terraces overflowing with people reminded me of …
~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 …
If you happen to have read some of the beer buzz coming out of Europe about a half-decade back, you might recall a Belgian brewery that made international headlines with its beer pipeline. That brewery is De Halve Maan, a centuries’ old brewery set amid …
Stuttgart’s Cannstatter Volksfest is the largest beer festival you’ve never heard of. It’s similar to Oktoberfest but unique enough to merit a visit in its own right, especially if you find the crowds at Oktoberfest to be a bit much. For starters, the Cannstatter …
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 …
~In Search of Belgium’s “Best” Beer Cafes~ Belgium is home to countless beer cafes ranging from hole-in-the-wall locales in the working-class districts of Brussels to beer pilgrimage destinations like In de Vrede, Westvleteren’s beer café in West Flanders. Many lovers of Belgian beer …
~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 …