Sample Chapter: Leipzig

November 19, 2015 by Tupper Leave a Comment

This is a sample chapter from “Drinking In the Culture.”

Quick orientation

Leipzig’s magnificent old Hauptbahnhof claims to be the world’s largest in floor area. It boasts 24 platforms and a dizzying amount of modern shopping mall. At the northwest edge of the old town, you can get from there to pretty much anywhere you’d want to go in the city by tram, bus, or the spanking new underground S Bahn City Tunnel.

Welcome to Brauerei an der Thomaskirche

The shape of the town roughly resembles a not-quite- inflated beach ball. The station was built in 1915 by two railroad companies; each got its own identical entrance. Exit from either one, and the old town lies in front of you to the south across a large expanse of tram lines and an even larger park, Willy Brandt Platz. Cross the park and keep walking away from the station, and you’re in the town cen- ter in less than 10 minutes. You can get to the spectacular Neues Rathaus on the other side of the old town in less than 20 minutes if you don’t stop to drink.

Station breaks

The multi-leveled and very modern shopping area that fills the Hauptbahnhof will sell you almost anything—except an interesting beer. Unless we’ve missed a hidden gem, here are your limited options.

There’s a small pils bar opposite Gleis 8 offering a light and dark Hasseröder from nearby Wernigerode and some international brands of draft, in a haze of cigarette smoke. To escape its smelly confines, cross Willy Brandt Platz in front of the station and head into the city center on Nikolaistrasse. On your left and down a set of stairs is the King’s Head English Pub (Nikolaistr. 40), which has Newcastle and Guinness and a few others on tap. We found it dark and gloomy, but others might call it atmospheric. It opens at 6 PM most days. On our last trip it was “closed for remodeling.” Goodness knows it could use it, but we’ve encountered too many “temporary” closures that never reopened to be confident about this place. For a more German experience, continue just past our three-block limit to the Gasthaus Alte Nikolaischule; see below.

We try to stay away from America when we’re not in America, but if you’re homesick, the Champions bar in the Marriott cooks up a good burger and you can wash it down with U.S.-style pitchers of Krostitzer Pils or Schwarz. For other options, walk past the Marriott headed into town, jink right on Brühl and then left onto Reich- strasse, and you’ll find a series of bars, all modern and all pretty dull. If you have the time to walk a little farther, skip all of these and head for the Brauhaus at the Thom- askirche. Several trams will take you there easily and the S Bahn drops you at the market in less than five minutes.

Read the entire chapter

Thanks, Chris Elliott:

Chris Elliott provides a wealth of useful information for travelers in his Washington Post column and other publications. Recently he included us in his article which you can read if you click here. His article talks about our time in Bologna- and you can read more about the beers there by clicking here.

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At Pub 27 in Pompeii

Beers that got us through the winter: Track 7 Poor Pitiful Me IPA, Sacramento, California on tap at Railroad House, Marietta, Pennsylvania

Date: April 24, 2019

The Story— This is another beer we found in the downstairs caverns of the Railroad House in Marietta. Pennsylvania. There is no way a bar this good should lie under a pretty routine B&B, but it’s a reason to go there, book there, drink there, and listen to the trains running just a few feet from the end of your bed. We loved the whole experience.

We’re happy that Sacramento, an early craft beer city, has returned to the fold with some nationally distributed pleasures. IPAs aren’t all that hard to brew, but with 7000 breweries in the countries, mistakes are made. Track 7 does this well. Ellie liked it, I loved it.

The Beer- A gold malt base with dried fruit and floral hops. Both grow and mingle with more yeast at the end. Dandelion, some Demerara sugars. Richness and hoppiness as it drinks.

Value — Good. Six and a half bucks for an American “pint”. The beer is good, the bed is near, Just get out your credit card and enjoy

About these posts: We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year. The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings. Values: “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.Next week we’ll return to visiting fun places to explore beer — and much more–a different destination each week. Our beers of the day will feature beers from this wonderfully wet destinations. For this week, though, we’ll take a quality break and give a shout out to brewers from all over that made the winter a bit warmer. The upside is that some of these beers may be available in a good beer store near you.

A caveat as always: the vast majorities of craft breweries may have a few beers that are usually available, but their most interesting beers are usual season or one-off brews that we may rave about, but you can’t find. Our specific beer descriptions, can tell you what sorts of beers the brewery does well; if you don’t find the exact beer on tap, you’ll probably find something similar.

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