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

 

 

 

 

 

 

               The craft beer revolution has finally invaded Germany.

German brewers have been toying with new flavors and intrepid brewers have been pushing the limits of the Reinheitsgebot for a decade or more.   The difference is that not just newpubs, but long time traditional breweries are jumping on board the craft beer wagon and producing a range of styles that Germany has not seen in living memory.

Brauerei Schlössle in Neu Ulm is the picture of a traditional 19 century local brewery.   It has a beautiful garden, wood paneled dining rooms and a fine menu of the kind of cooking you hope for at a South German gasthof.   But there’s nothing either expected or traditional about the range of American-style very hoppy beers that it’s now featuring.   See our Beer of the Day for January 16 for notes on their Schlössle High Five Hop Ale that was their most heavily promoted beer when we visited last summer.

The revolution started as an evolution.   We’ve encountered really interesting beers in a number of pubs and breweries in recent years.    The old tired approach of  “House of 100 beers” or “House of 617 beers” (the numbers seemed to vary, but the selection did not) has given way to real beer bars offering real craft beer.

Berlin’s Das Meisterstrück near the Gendarmen Markt area was one of the first we encountered.   We found beers from Munich’s Crew Republic that we had never seen in Munich.   You didn’t have to go to a specialty bar, though, the Flessa Brewery is as inventive as it is small and boasts of its range of craft beer. Stone knew what it was doing in choosing berlin for it’s first European brewery.

The Altes Mädchen Braugasthaus is worth the cab ride from the center in Hamburg for its remarkable selection of German Craft beer.  Munich’s craft scene leader is Tap House Munich a ten to fifteen minute walk from Rosenheimer Platz or the Ostbahnhof.

The real shock this year, though, was a festival in Munich celebrating the 500^th anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot.   We expected lots of Reinheitsgebot-ty traditional lagers and weizens; we did not expect the range of pale ales and IPAs that seemingly every other brewery was touting.   Unfortunately the festival was cut short by the Munich August 20016 shooting – the entire city was shut for the night on the first day of the festival and it never reopened.   We missed our chance to taste dozens of new style beers, but we learned plenty about them in the few hours the fest was able to show them off.

The Reinheitsgebot still applies to German brewers brewing for the domestic market.   German brewers can brew beers that are not according to the law, but they can’t label them as “beer.”   So while there have been some remarkable “malt beverages” with flavors added, most brewers have found ways of producing modern craft beer tastes while still complying with the letter of the law.

It’s hard for us to tear ourselves away from the big gardens that pour helles from the wood, but increasingly we find we just can’t ignore the remarkable creativity of the German brewers who have joined the craft revolution.   Prost!