We’re in the process of some redesigning that should make the site more informative and interactive. Stay tuned. Still working –( Sunday Feb 28) –new posts coming soon! Meanwhile, all the posts for the past several weeks are available — just click around in the blog section. Cheers!
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In the 1970s, Sally, our close friend and eventual godmother of our daughter, was a single mom raising two small children on a pauper’s private school salary, when she announced she was taking her kids to visit Ireland, the family’s ancestral home. We asked how she could possibly afford it. She said, essentially, “There’s always a way, but none of us will have these years together again.” Two years later, Ellie quit her job to get time off during the summer and, on a pauper’s private school salary, we set off on a two-month romp through Europe. We’ve gone over 30 times since. We’ve taken educators’ tax deductions, sold beer cans, acted as beer importing agents, haven’t bought a piece of furniture in over 30 years, and, oh yes, written books to pay for these trips. Sally was right, there is always a way.
These posts are dedicated to inspiring you to find it.
When Is a Kölsch not a Kölsch? When it’s American. Even so, DuClaw’s version is true Gold.
A fresh keg of Kölsch slides into place at Sion
February 19, 2016 Post 0016 It looks simple, the taste is subtle, and most of the the basic ingredients are easy enough to obtain. Yet it may be the hardest beer in the world to brew well. Kölsch. Almost every brew pub has one, or what they think is one. However, the real Kölsch brewers of Cologne are so protective of their process that while we know much about the style, truly family-held secrets remain.
While some accounts link it to the 19th century, Kölsch as we know it today is almost an accidental style.
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Hopping Around Europe: An Off the Tourist Track Traditional Brewery Restaurant in Hirschau Germany
February 8, 2016. Post 1013 Any travel plan that gets you off the average tourist route is likely to be a good one. We’ve run into people who search for sites referred to in works of fiction, people who “collect” waterfalls. Our search for beers has taken us to countless places that don’t see tourists and are delighted to see us. One such discovery was the Schloss Hotel Hirschau.
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Hopping Around Europe In America – Rail Ale Adventures, Durham, N.C.
February 4, 2016, Post 1012 Traveling in Europe includes many joys: great food, fantastic beer, and, for us, riding the rails instead of driving a car. We take it for granted we’ll rail Europe, but sometimes we remember we can have those joys of Europe in our own back yard.
Durham has enough beer for a great weekend of exploring and tasting and you can get to it pretty easily from the big cities of the Mid Atlantic. Hop on the Carolinian in Washington at 10:53 AM and
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Hopping Around Europe: A European Answer to an Existential Question – A Brief Guide to Survival in a Brew Dog-Eat-Dog World.
Waiting anxiously for the Feb 4th post? It will appear in the afternoon today.
February 1, 2016. Post 1011. The past 30 years have seen twin trends simultaneously operating in Europe: new breweries and brew ventures growing like mushrooms and old traditional breweries dying like weeds. In the US the process was cleaner. In the 20th century our economy practiced brewericide and dropped the number of independent breweries from the thousands to a few dozen. From the ashes, the craft beer phoenix has blessed us with more choice than we’ve ever had.
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