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

Gold Metal Winning Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale Returns!

Join us at Dynasty Brewing on July 17 between 3PM and 8PM to savor the first batch of Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale in almost five years. We’ll be there signing books at a huge discount and the brewery will be pouring the beer that was created to be “Hoppy enough for Bob and balanced enough for Ellie.”

It hasn’t been easy to resurrect Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale, winner of a gold metal at the GBBF in the ’90s when well hopped beers were rare and almost non-existent in the east. We’ve collaborated with Dynasty’s head brewer Favio Garcia, the brewer who produced the last batch of Tuppers’ Hop Pocket at Old Dominion to reproduce an authentic version of the original. Dynasty is in Ashburn, Virginia– almost within walking distance of the Old Dominion brewery that brewed the first batch just over 25 years ago.

NOW PLAYING: on Beer of the Day— Some great beers in the San Francisco Bay area. Scroll down below this entry to find the featured beer of the day. >>>>>

Later — in July we resume some great weekend destinations for beer travelers that we’ve found researching our guide to breweries and inns of the Mid Atlantic. Whether you’re looking for a turn of the (20th) century 100 year old quaint and slightly rickety hotel, an engaging B&B or a magnificent survivor of the great era of railroad hotels, we’ve found hem– within walking distance of a brewery. We’ll present more previews of the book’s best here rolling up to Pennsylvania before we’re through.

At Pub 27 in Pompeii

R

Date: November

The Story—

The Beer—

Value —

This week we feature a half dozen really good European beers that we found in the United States. We make pilgrimages to some of the best beer stores in Eastern America once or twice a year and we also just bump into incredibly good beer in places we don’t expect. Not all of these are on the shelves, but beers much like them are.

Next week we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night. Look for it in 2019.

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.

This week we return to HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE– Surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.” The best we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.) We’ll shift back to great American beer finds next week.

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