AMAZING ATHENS: SO MUCH TO SEE, SO MANY TO DRINK… SUCH A SHORT WEEK.

It’s easy to get into a rut when chasing great beers in Europe.   England, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia and, increasingly Italy and Iberia beckon with bountiful brews from skillful and dedicated brewers.   Greece, we thought, might be a stretch.   The last time we were in Greece–long before the European Union changed so much—the law forbid imported beers.   Under the circumstances the Greek-brewed Amstel tasted pretty good – an ordinary Fix was the only easily available alternative.

Oh how the world has changed since then.   It’s still not Italy, which is pushing a thousand breweries, but we count over 60 breweries and the number continues to grow.

The impressive range of local beers mingles with a healthy range of imports.  The EU busted open the floodgates and it’s easy to find German and Belgian classic beers in bars that treat them well.

We’ll have a few posts on Athens during the year as we sort through material for our next book dealing with great beer near great sights in Europe.  Today’s post is just a start.

First:   Some travel tips that not all the guides include:

Staying:   Airbnb has some great Athens options, including a slew of attractive places smack in the center of almost everything.   We booked really late – the only hotel options were either way out of town or way out of our price range  ($400 to $600 a night).   Airbnb set us up with an apartment that overlooked the Temple of Olympian Zeus for about $75 a night.   Four different markets were within a ten minute walk, including one virtually at the apartment door, to provide superb breakfasts at a bargain price.

Arriving:  The cab ride from the airport is a flat fee, 35 Euros this summer.  To take Metro, you have to buy a special ticket that’s pricier than a regular fare.   Trains leave every half hour.   If you have a rail pass you can save a few Euros but taking the train toward the city and transferring to the metro at Holandri.  You’ll pay regular in-city rates from there.    There’s also a bus that takes you to Syntagma,  Parliament square.

Orientation. Athens is one of the most walkable of the European capitals, but you’ll save yourself blisters by buying a multi-day metro pass.   The passes are good for 24 hours, so it’s worth considering a series of single passes since you’re not paying for the time between the expiration of the first and the validation of the other.

Plaka is at the base of the Parthenon.  It’s touristy and crowded, but old and fun, and if you choose even moderately wisely, you can eat and drink well here.   Syntagma is an uphill hike, Monastiraki is a bit farther out, but still within easy view of the Acropolis.   Some of the best beer is much farther out – in Halandri.  It’s worth the adventure to go there if you there for more than a couple of days, but otherwise you’ll be drinking downtown and still drinking well.

Must see sights near the Plaka:

The Acropolis and the Acropolis museum.   Get a good guide to tell you more than we do here, but just to whet your appetite:

The Acropolis is only a part of what it once was, due primarily to Turkish cannons and British Thieves (they called themselves archeologists).   What’s left is still simply stunning.   There are two routes in.  We recommend entering by the gate closest to the Acropolis museum, taking the long hike up and then descending on the other side close to the old Greek and more “modern” Roman agoras.

The current Acropolis museum sits below the hill.  Opened in 2009 it’s a history course in a box.  You can spend forever looking at the details or get a perfectly good overview in a couple of hours.   There’s a dedicated part to hold the famous “Elgin Marbles” that still reside in the British museum.

Oh yeah—there’s beer there.  Check out our “Beer of the Day” for a few of our favorites, but Athens Beer, 20 Nikis, is a great starting place.

Just a few minutes from the heart of the Plaka, choose from street-side tables or duck sort-of inside for sort-of cooler temperatures when it’s hot.   A wall of beer bottles lets you know from the start you’re not in an ordinary bar.

A very nice range of local-centered drafts gives you more than enough to accompany a memorable dinner.  Return to sample the extensive bottle list; there’s plenty more on a menu that is clearly Greek, yet avoids or reinterprets stereotypical options.   [Post 0036  20170920]

 

 

SURPRISING FREISING: GREAT BREWERIES AND GREAT BEER

We’ve been to Freising several times over the years always as a day trip from Munich.   It’s a good excursion and we have both cabbed and walked the long hilly road up to Weihenstephan, the world’s oldest brewery.  This year we had two days between flights into and out of the Munich airport which is a bit less central to downtown Munich as Dulles is to Washington DC.   Freising, however, is much closer and we decided to spend the two days there.

We discovered that there is much more beer to Freising than Weihenstephan.  In addition to the three breweries in the town, there are other first rate gardens within cabbing distance.

We were surprised and pleased by the Hofbrauhaus Keller, Lankesbergstraße 5, uphill from the station and a fairly easy walk from the Marriott Hotel.   The original brewery dates back to 1160, missing the “oldest in the world” by just a bit more than a century.

The current buildings have a 19^th century look to them – the Keller is just uphill from the brewery and undoubtedly did begin life as a true “keller.”

We’ll feature some of their very fine beer on our Beer of the Day this week.

The brewery also now brews the beers of the Weissebierbrauerei Huber which operated independently from 1860 to 1976.   The former brewery site is now the site of the Wirtshaus Weißbräu Huber and it says the beers are still brewed to the former brewery recipes.   The location at General-von-Nagel-Straße 5, makes it one of the most convenient places to drink Freisinger beer; it proudly never takes a day off which certainly isn’t true of the next stop.

It’s a loooong walk to Freising’s other “other” brewery – you’d best get a cab or take the 623 bus from the train station.  Freisinger Gasthaus Brauerei will put you up and feed you – if they’re open.  (They take a part of the summer off.)  It’s by far the smallest brewery in town and you won’t find the beers as sophisticated but it is a change of pace from the larger breweries.

Just a few doors down from the gasthaus is a lot where taxis are kept – you can get the number of the company from the door of the cab for the 15 Euro ride to Weihenstephan.   The Weihenstephan garden overlooks gently rolling farmland and is a spectacular place to drink in good weather.   The older rooms of the Bräustüberl beckon when the weather is nastier.

Our favorite source for biergarten hunting, (http://www.munichbeergardens.com/Main_Page) alerted us to a first class garden not far from Freising.   A fifteen minute cab ride in Germany is not cheap, but it’s a fraction of the cost of getting here, and delivered us to one of the best garden nights of the trip.   Schlossallee Haag, in Haag and der Amper (warning – there’s another Haag somewhat farther away.   The “allee” refers to a chestnut tree lined path to a now demolished Schloss, but many of the trees still stand and it’s easy to find shade among the 3,000 seats on a sunny day.  Some ponds and unusual plants remain from the castle grounds as well as an old brewhouse that produced the Jäger bier for about 200 years before production shifted to Hofbrauhaus Freising.

The Jäger is the best of three very fresh very good Hofbrauhaus Freising beers pour from the taps and  the food stands run by local merchants provide unusually good choices.  Kids frolic in a huge playground while their parents frolic in their own way nearby.   A strolling accordionist brightened the mood when we were there and larger acts occasionally play on the substantial stage.

Be sure to get a card from your cabbie on the way out and give him a some extra time to retrieve you.

Staying in Freising instead of Munich can save a pot of money on a hotel; rates for an excellent hotel like the Marriott can be less than half the downtown tariff..   The half hour not-so-frequent S Bahns ride is annoying, though it’s quicker to get to Munich’s two best beer gardens – Hirschgarten and Augustiner Keller.

 

Starting Sunday, September 10, we’ll be featuring several of Freising’s best beers in our QOD Beer of the Day.   [Post 35 201`70909]

Wowzirr!!   Craft Beer Taking Europe By Storm

We spent a good deal of the summer researching places where ordinary tourists can find good beer.  We knew we’d find great beer in Munich without much effort, but were far less sure what we’d find in Greece and Italy.   We discovered a vibrant international beer community and a growing enthusiasm for distinctive beers that has left few towns of any size untouched.

From the back streets of Pompei to the hip areas of Barcelona craft beer bars are showing off a dazzling range of Europe’s 7,500 breweries.   Europe still has a lifetime of rewards for beer tourists in traditional brewing countries, but increasingly those focusing on the monuments, museums and great sights of Europe can end their day with great beer no matter where they are.

In the months ahead, we’ll share some of these treasures.  We’ll also feature some great drinking spots in beer-centered cities that didn’t make the cut into our first book.  Join us as we travel from the rolling hills of Freising, Germany to the sunbaked plazas of Pisa, Italy.   Below is a brief preview of blogs to come.   [Post 0034 20170902]

 

 

 

 

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ ON THE COAST OF VIRGINIA

Sea to Sea Lager Zwickel Lager “bi coastal brew”.   Green Flash, San Diego, Ca.    Abv  4.9  IBUs   23

Craft beer fans on the East Coast greeted the avalanche of West Coast immigrant breweries with mixed feelings.   On one hand, very good beer would be available at, ultimately, a better price and presumably fresher brew dates.  On the other hand, these well-financed large craft brewers would put pressure on our local friends and neighbors.  It’s hard to predict whether choice will expand or contract, but our money’s on the latter.

Still, it’s hard to get upset about the availability of relatively consistently high quality beer.  These big guys got big by avoiding mistakes and making beers people would return to.

When we first visited Green Flash’s San Diego brewery in 2006, neither we nor their brewers would have put them on a likely list for Eastern expansion, but they’ve produced a huge range of very hoppy and very tasty beers that have sold well in the east.   Their purchase/merger with Alpine has given them some additional street cred and some additional top shelf beers for their portfolio.   Their Virginia Beach tasting room has a mix of Alpine and Green Flash beers from the West Coast as well as house brewed flagships from the east.   As far as we know, however, this “bi-coastal” brew is only brewed in California at the present time.

Zwickel beers were once hard to find in Germany, but there are dozens of them there now and an increasing number in the US.  They’re always unfiltered and usually lagers.   The tastes vary greatly according to the brewery’s house yeast, but most are smoothly chalky rather than the fruity funk of some unfiltered ales.  Green Flash has chosen a session lager for their zwickel-  lower in alcohol than most of the zwickels we’ve found in Germany, but nevertheless with a satisfying rich taste;  the yeast helps round out the mouthfeel and make up for the relatively low gravity.

Tasting notes:  Chalky, yeasty, and mild, but with some fruity Hallertau hops.  Even, softly sweet and clean flavors ride throughout making it an sasy drinking session beer.   Ellie found a persistent metal bitter but also noted the cleanness of the brew.  Those Hallertau hops pushed my rating higher than hers, but we both thought it was an above average lager.

Food Pairings:  This is a good warm weather beer and would be a fine addition to a summer picnic.  If you can find a beach that still allows fires, this beer would be hard to beat with stick-roasted hot dogs.   It’s got enough flavor to match an opening course of cheese and fruit, however, and would leave some liver capacity for bigger beers with the main course.   Beer Review # 0112    20170531

NEXT WE’LL FEATURE A RIDICULOUSLY GOOD STOUT FROM BROOKEVILLE BEER FARM