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 Vancouver “Sound”
I’m one of those people who needs to see live music, because I find it to be a salve for the soul. Nothing can substitute for the immediacy and the intensity of a live show, especially when it’s loud and you can feel it in your bones. And some bands are simply meant to be…
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…
The Heartland of Bavaria
Not much has changed in the Bavarian countryside since 1300, the date inscribed on the Neuhaus town walls. Neuhaus and Windischeschechenbach are two Bavarian villages close to the Czech border. These are the kinds of places that are so far out of the way that few outsiders visit. The people are rosy-cheeked and sturdy. They…
Into Bavaria
At some point between the heavenly experience of staring down all the dusty bottles and samples of myriad unblended lambics over the weekend and relaxing in the biergartens of Bavaria, I noticed that I am no longer 21 years old. I cannot handle this intensity the way I used to. We spent a day in…
Off my chest
I would really like to say the trip has been a blast so far. And it has been exciting, but for the wrong reasons. Missing out on Dublin was really sad, especially since we were supposed to meet a friend and enjoy a private VIP tour of the Guinness brewery. But, we went with the…
Love and Barley 