Our flat in Berlin is in Pankow, the former East. What’s amazing is that we are a stone’s throw from one of the S-Bahn stations. I can read the names on the shopping bags of the people standing on the platform. I mean it’s RIGHT THERE. But between us and the tracks is a little…
Category: Germany
The Buttenheim Kerwabaum
Where there is a Bavarian beer festival there are also remnants of the Germanic pagan traditions. Today in Buttenheim we witnessed one of these old tribal traditions at the St. Georgenbräu brewery in Buttenheim. St. Georgenbräu also happens to be one of our favorite breweries in the area. This is why: Fashion historians might also…
Bitter, Sweet, and Smoky
It’s time for us to leave, and it’s time for me to whine. Right now there is a festival going on in Bamberg called Sandkerwa (pronounced Sand-Curve-Ah). At first I was angry that the fireworks that end the festival start at 10 PM on Monday–and we have to leave around 9:30. Seriously, what a bummer!…
All Good Things
When we first got here three months ago, the wheat was waist-high. Now the fields are fallow after the harvest. The sun shone but the summer was never warm. We got a lot of wind, and too much rain. Even August has been cool. The fruit trees that were once bare now bear purple plump…
Annafest Forchheim
Holy shit that was fun! Annafest Forchheim has got to be the most attractive German beer festival I can imagine. It’s about two kilometers outside of Forchheim in the kellerwald, literally a collection of beer cellars (kellers) dug into forested hills. So basically it’s a beer festival in the woods. It is an incredible atmosphere,…
A Blissfully Beery Birthday
For both Josh and me, Zoigl epitomizes the romance of beer culture and tradition. Zoigl is challenging to find and as with lambic, there is a spontaneity involved even in the brewing process itself. In Falkenberg, we found out that some Zoigl is open fermented when the owner/brewer at the Kramer Wolf stubl invited us…
The Chickens and the Eggs
It’s rent day. Our landlords came to the door bearing two gifts: a bottle of local Franconian red wine (which replaces the South African bottle we drank last night) and a dozen eggs fresh from the farm. I’ve been meaning to write about life in Franconia. It would be redundant to say “rural Franconia,” because…
I Want My Mumme!
Josh’s beerdar was working in a coffee shop the other day when he saw a small can of “Mumme” on the shelf. When he got home he excitedly showed it to me, and quickly mailed another can to a friend. Yesterday we met two Ratebeerians from Finland who are here in Bamberg. They came over…
Serendipity: The Franconian Beer Festival
There is a great beer bar in Nürnberg called Hütt’n. I was there about five years ago, and then the knowledgeable server clued me in on a beer festival that was taking place at the time in Erlangen. I never would have known about this otherwise. Erlangen turned out to be my first Bavarian beer…
Passau’s Power Brokers…and Beer
A misunderstanding – we swear it wasn’t our fault – had us standing at the train station in the bustling metropolis of Plattling, in the far southeast corner of Bavaria. Our ticket agent had apparently assumed we understood the arcane rules and regulations with respect to travel on the multitude of different types of trains…
Ahhh…Bamberg
From our flat in the old town of Bamberg we can see Klosterbrau, and right now there is steam rising from the Schlenkerla brewery as they are deep into another brew day. The rooftops are clustered together densely and irregularly. St. Michael’s Cathedral is also visible from where I’m sitting. And except for when the…
Love and Barley 