Germany trip upcoming in June

So for my written portion of the trip report... I probably missed a bunch of stuff, so if any questions or feel like I completely forgot an amazing location, we probably did go but forgot to note it. Tried to keep it condensed as possible.

In a nutshell, the trip was incredible! Being a huge fan of German beers (both brewing them and drinking!), I could not wait to get to Germany to enjoy them at the source. I always imagined enjoying a Helles in Munich or Kolsch in Cologne. Bucket list stuff.

This trip was not only an epic beercation for us among other things, but also our first international trip to boot. Being huge into amusement parks, it also included some amazing parks in Germany and in the Netherlands. Seriously, if you enjoy amusement parks don’t miss out on what Germany/Netherlands has to offer. I won’t get into those details given this forum is about beer, but feel free to PM if you have questions! Puts US parks to shame in many ways.

I will try to keep my trip report here as condensed as possible… Still will be a bit lengthy! Finalized with some final summary notes with some pros/cons from the entire trip as a whole.

First, we flew into Frankfurt, picked up the rental and drove immediately to Cologne. Our hotel was about a 10 minute walk to the Dom and city center, so we went right there and headed to Gaffel for our first Kolsch! I’ve always loved well done Kolsch, so this was a treat. As good as I had hoped and expected.

After Gaffel, we enjoyed Kolsch at Muhlen, Gaffel, Paffgen, Peters and Gilden (if not one or two more I forgot) along our two or three days in and around Cologne (Koln or one of the many ways you can spell it…). As far as a favorite, Paffgen might be it. Peters was the most unique due to Vienna or a Biscuit malt used heavily in it, but it was so different from every other Kolsch it almost felt like a different style to me. Still awesome, though, greatly enjoyed them all. No complaints here!

Cologne in general was great fun. Beautiful city, easy to walk. We didn’t drive or train anywhere, just drove to our amusement park stops outside of the city on the days we did head out. The area along the Rhine was beautiful. Ate some amazing food, as well. White asparagus is incredible, by the way!

Stopped at Craftbeer Corner and enjoyed a Uerige Doppelsticke. Phenomenal beer! Sticky, chewy raisin and dark fruit. Almost barrel like notes, big complexity. Had a Bitburger or two around town as well, along with various other Pils and beers at the WarPigs Brewpub and Delirium Café.

After a few days of amusement parks, we headed to Düsseldorf for the day. We enjoyed Alt at Fuchscen, Uerige and Schlosser. Fuchschen was a bit more caramelly, Uerige a bit more roasty. Schlosser was the most neutral, probably the one I liked the best. But honestly, I wasn’t a big fan of Altbier in general. It was good, but Kolsch is the easy winner in my book. Sorry Düsseldorf!

As far as the city goes, Düsseldorf was similar to Cologne, but a bit more of a edgier/trendy, younger crowd. It was a little bit more dirty (not bad or anything) and more crowded/hectic it seemed. A few hours was good enough for us, next up we headed to Frankfurt for a quick overnight hotel on the way down south to Rust for Europa Park. Of course, enjoyed a few beers along the way at the park (Erdinger Hefe and Doppelbock, O’ Mackays / Guinness at an Irish Pub at the park, Dortmunder Kronen, Menabrea Bionda).

Then it was time for the motherland about half-way through our trip in Munich. Arrived late evening and our first stop was Paulaner for a Pils, Dunkel and a Hacker-Pschorr Helles. Then we headed to Auustiner for a Lagerbier out of the wooden cask, which was heavenly! Followed up with a Hefeweissbier, Pils and Maibock. That concluded our first night in Munich.

Back to the hotel for the night, we had a date first thing in the morning at Schneider Brauhaus for Weisswurst and a Tap 7. Weisswurst is heavenly… I will admit though; I wasn’t exactly blown away with the Tap 7 here. Big Hefe fan, but I just didn’t find this one to be as good as I had hoped. I preferred others on the trip more.

Stopped by Ayinger for a Lager Hell, Pils and Kellerbier. Delicious all around. Made it to the Augustiner Biergarten for a liter of the Lagerbier from the barrel which was stunning. Could drink that beer all day long!

We decided to head to Paulaner Nockherberg, which is the big fancy location of Paulaner in Munich, which was beautiful. Had a few beers there, along with dinner. Really happy with that call, the food was amazing. White asparagus soup we shared for an app, followed by a pork knuckle for me. Yum!

Our final day in Munich, we headed to Augustiner-Brau for Edelstoff and a Dunkel. We had walked through Hofbrau on our first night (just to see it, no drinks) but I really wanted to try out the Helles as I have it here in Cleveland pretty often. We found out there was a second location in Munich, Biergarten Hofbraukeller! We made our way there and I got my Hofbrau Original in the Biergarten. Stunning. Honestly, probably one of my favorite Helles outside of the Augustiner from the barrel. Very rich maltiness and complexity, it was just delicious. It may not be the most popular of the big six (likely due to the touristy main location, but come here to enjoy it in a far better atmosphere!), but they can produce killer beer.

We stopped by a craft beer bar (Frisches) to see what they had… I got a Trumer Pils and the girlfriend got a Moe Hazy Pale from Braukollektiv. It was OK. We had a few various local IPA options along the way, all sub-par compared to what we get in the states, aside from one exception to be noted later.

We finished off back at Paulaner where I enjoyed a Salvator and Helles, complete with dinner again of course. We did eat at other places, usually splitting a pretzel or sausage plate here and there, but not breaking into that much detail, ha.

We left Munich and headed for one of our favorite breweries, Weihenstephaner! Grabbed a 1516 Kellerbier, Hefeweissbier and Vitus. Beautiful. The Hefeweissbier beat out the Schneider as well, for what it’s worth! 1516 was great, not quite what I recall from when we got bottles last in the states... But still a fantastic brew. Vitus was a treat, as always.

We continued on to our final city, Bamberg. Our hotel Nepomuk was right on the river through town, 5min walk from Schlenkerla… So naturally, we bolted off right there!

I was surprised to find only two beers available, the Marzen and Krausen. I somewhat expected to be able to get their Helles, Smoked Hefe and another one or two possibly as well, but no luck. A bit of a bummer, but the Marzen was delicious. The Krausen was a bit warm and under-carbonated, so one one done for that one. Headed off to Mahr’s Brau for the “aU” and then to Keesmann for a Harren Pils which was incredible. Best Pils of the trip. Reminded me VERY much so of my beloved Prima Pils, just a little less bitter (perhaps the new version will be even closer to this Herren!).

Stumbled to Spezial for their Lager Rauchbier and Kellerbier, which IMO, the Lager was probably a highlight in Bamberg. Just a tiny bit less rich than the Schlenkerla Marzen, but just as beautiful with the smoke intensity. Had a few of these during our three days in Bamberg! After ****ial, we headed back to Schlenkerla for dinner (stuffed onion!) and another Marzen. Oh, Bamberg, you have my heart.

Woke up the next day, back to Spezial! This time, to try the Marzen and Weissbier. Both delicious. The Weissbier wasn’t as smokey as I had hoped, but still really nice.

Headed to Weyermann for our tour and enjoyed a few of their beers on tap afterward! The tour was fantastic, really cool to see where all my delicious malt comes from for my lagers here back at home I brew! Well worth it. Here, we tried a Rauchbier, IPA, Roggenbier and Red Lager.

Over the next day and a half, more ****iel, Schlenkerla, Ambrausianum (Their Helles is fantastic!), Greifenklau, Fassla, Keesmann… A highlight was right next to our hotel, Klosterbrau, I believe the oldest in Bamberg. Finally found a Schwarzbier! It was flawless, to boot. Enjoyed every last drop of that (along with their Rauch! Muhahaha). Highly recommended.

Bamberg was just unreal. As good as we hoped and a highlight city, for sure. So beautiful, clean and easy to navigate just on foot. Would love to get back here, for sure!

On the way to the airport for our final stop, we went to Brauerie Kundmuller which was 20 minutes outside of Bamberg. The reason? Our local brewery, Fat Head’s, the brew master Matt Cole has gone here and brewed their flagship IPA and DIPA with them and the brewery has it available. Head Hunter and Hop JuJu being favorites of mine, we just had to stop in and see how the German variant was! Grabbed the Hopferla (Head Hunter clone) and a Rauchbier. Hopferla was easily the best IPA of the trip, no contest. Just as good as the one we get here, if not a hair better, but might be due to the location and such But really, it was phenomenal.

Back at Frankfurt Int’l, the night before our flight was to leave, there was a Paulaner right by our hotel. Naturally, we enjoyed a few beers there and dinner. Then the flight was cancelled that night, so we had our extra day in Frankfurt. We woke up, got our train ticket and headed into town. Long story short, Frankfurt is dirty, creepy and no fun at all. Stopped at the two beer locations recommended that we found online, Naiv and Braustil. Enjoyed a few lambic bottles at Naiv, but the beers on draft were just “meh” and expensive. Braustil had a nice Witbier.

That concluded our trip before boarding our 777-200 the next morning which was empty, 25 our of 260 seats filled. Amazing flight, worth ‘suffering’ in Frankfurt for that plane ride! Haha. If you can’t tell, we really didn’t like Frankfurt!

So that concludes my shortened trip report of our trip. Now for some thoughts on the beer/culture as a whole…

Some general notes:

1.) The beer is amazing, quality is fantastic everywhere you go. It’s also cheap, which is a plus.

2.) I enjoy the tipping culture in Germany, just round up to the nearest Euro or throw in an extra buck and you are all set. Not having to do the 15-25% tipping was quite nice!

3.) I like that servers leave you alone. It was weird at first, as you always have to wave down or catch your server for a check, but once you get used to it, it was quite nice.

4.) The cities are beautiful (aside from Frankfurt!). People were friendly, smoke good English for the most part. No real issue there!

5.) The public transportation, utilized a LOT in Munich, was awesome. Could only wish the US had a system as good as theirs!


Some complaints:

1.) Lack of water. In the US, you can easily get water everywhere. Not the case in Germany. You buy it, sometimes for as much as 2x as much as the beer! We ended up finding an Aldi and stocking up on tons of water to last our entire trip and taking it with us. But then don’t bring it out, because the serves will often harass you for it or tell you to put it away, like they did in Dusseldorf. Kind of wacky, IMO.

2.) Cigarette Smoking. This is the biggest gripe of the trip, bar none. It’s disgusting and constant, as well as being everywhere. You can’t escape it. You are constantly battling second hand smoke while trying to enjoy your beautiful beer, inside or out. We walked out of a few places just simply due to the intensity of the smoke inside of it (being carried in from outside). It’s extremely bad, everywhere. I get it’s the culture and all that fun stuff, but damn, so happy the US is the way it is in terms of where smokers can be.

3.) Air Conditioning, or lack of. Thankfully, our trip had beautiful weather in the 70’s most of the time, but still, even with AC in our rooms and such, they hardly do anything. I sleep hot, so I always have it cool and need a fan. Hardly any AC, no fans. Small gripe though, it just got uncomfortably hot in a few places. I don’t like to be pouring sweat, inside, while enjoying my beer.

4.) Kind of a known ‘issue’, was variety. As much as I love German beer, after two weeks I was ready for IPA, stouts/porter, sours, etc… I would not be able to drink Kolsch, night after night, year after year. While you get more variety in say Munich of Bamberg, the same thing applies. I guess I really enjoy being here in the US with such amazing variety!

5.) Service… We really miss sitting up at a bar, chatting to the bartenders and people around us about beer and whatever else. In Germany, that doesn’t really occur. Cultural thing, I guess. We did speak with some people, but overall, groups are far more to themselves and you never really have a chance to chat with the bartenders and staff. Not saying it’s everywhere, but we miss that ‘closeness’ you get here in the US at so many places!


Final Thoughts:

We absolutely loved our trip to Germany and will definitely be going back! Amazing beer, beautiful sights and plenty to do. It was great fun.

As far as the beer goes, while there was some absolute stand-outs, but perhaps I’m spoiled a bit with some of my German-style homebrew and having high caliber places nearby. I don’t think I had a beer while over in Germany that I thought, “Damn, we never get something this good back in the states!”. We do make beer just as good, no question. I’m sure it depends on where you live and such of course, but overall, I don’t have the opinion that you NEED to travel to Germany to have the best “insert style here” you will ever have.

We are spoiled in the US (most of us), that's for sure! If you are a German beer fan, you need to make the trip some day. Can't wait to go back!

Pictures to follow in the future once I get them uploaded and sorted!

 

Everything was *awesome* in Bamberg, don't get me wrong! Aside from the Rauchbier perhaps which I love (in which I brew quite a few of them), I don't recall anything else that you could only experience in Bamberg. Herren Pils for example, I find it very close to Prima Pils. Schlenkerla we can buy bottles of here, and taste about the same. Out of all the beers, it probably is the Rauchbier that you will have the hardest time finding local in the states of course... Wish more breweries did them!

 

@steveh

I do love the Hof Dunkel! Agree, it's probably my favorite as well. It's always on point at the local Hofbrau here in Cleveland!

We did hit the one countryside Brewery in which the collab was done with, their Rauch was killer! As well as their IPA collab. If I wasn't driving, would have loved to try more. But we had one beer a piece to share.