CulturAle Press

Schönbuch Pils, Schönbuch Brauhaus & Biergarten in Böblingen, Germany sampled at Historisches Braühaus  Staigers Wald Horn, Plochingen, Germany

Date:  December 7, 2018

The Story—  Sometimes you can just about throw a dart at a map of Germany and find a cute town with good beer.   We found Schönbuch Pils from Schönbuch Brauhaus & Biergarten in Böblingen,  at Historisches Braühaus, Staigers Wald Horn, Plochingen.   The old brewery no longer brews, but the garden is still good for a fine summer evening.

When we first visited Germany the historical brewery in Plochingen was still brewing and we had the chance to taste their good if not dramatically exceptional beers at local fests.   They’d be happy to have you think they still brew, but when you get there, it’s clearly a Schönbuch outlet.   Which is sort-of OK.   Schönbuch is a good middle-of-the-road not quite regional (though they would like to be) Stuttgart area brewery.  We weren’t going to get to Böblingen on this trip so we were happy to find a place with an historical setting and a good range of the Schönbuch beers.

A side note –Plockingen’s a cute town with some other interesting beer outlets.   If you go there, don’t miss the Hundertwasser apartments.   If you’re familiar with what Gaudi has done in Spain, you’ll be dazzled by what Hundertwasser has done in Germany and Austria.

The Beer—This pilsner engages a balanced dance between clean pale malt and soft but effective fruity-herbal noble hops. Tettnanger hops show a really nice bit of spice as it drinks.   Ellie’s comment was “fresh is good.”  She’s right and although they don’t brew on site any more, Böblingen isn’t far away.

Value — Very good.   Of course you expect good value in a small German town.   At about $10 a liter, you could get very fond of this beer.

 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 feature HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE–  Some of the great beers we’ve found in our European travels. Some of these are the specific beers readers of Drinking In the Culture wanted us to include in that book.   A few may be some of the surprisingly good beer we’ve found in “bad beer cities”  as we researched our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)

Next week we’ll return to the US and 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.

COMING LATER IN DECEMBER:   THE TEN BEST OF THE LAST FIVE YEARS.  We count down to the New Year by thinking back on some of the greatest beers we’ve found in the last five years of hunting.   These beers are in our top 0.2% of the beers we’ve tasted in those five years.