Sticke Warriors

I had the great pleasure of accompanying Fred Waltman @FrankenBier and friends on their annual fall beer adventure. This year the schedule consisted of:

• Prague
• Bamberg
• Düsseldorf
• Antwerp
• Amsterdam

Bamberg, Düsseldorf and Antwerp are always on the itinerary. The first and last cities change from year to year.

Since this tour revolves around Sticke and the German sub-forum is the only place I visit on BA, I'm posting it here.

Oct 6-10 Prague

I've been wanting to visit Prague ever since I saw Michael Jackson's Beer Hunter series on the Discovery Channel in the early 90's. I ran across the Sticke Warriors a couple of years ago and kept in the back of my mind as something I'd like to do. When our vacations plans fell apart this year and I saw the itinerary included Prague I decided I wanted to go. I got my wife's blessing and contacted Fred. I was good to go!

The first thing I noticed while walking through the Prague airport was this:



I took this a good omen (although I realized later that I never tried that beer).

I met up with Fred and a couple of other early arrivals and we headed over to a new brewpub, Pivovar Cobolis. Fred was doing research for his Prague Beer Guide (http://beerguideapps.com/prg) so we tried all the beers. They had several American style beers. The beers were pretty good for a new brewery.

From there we headed over to the Pivovar u Bulovky which is also known as the RIchter Brewery which specializes in German Style beers.



I needed to head back to the hotel after that. Later in the evening I met up with group at Hostomická Nalévárna which is the tap room for a small local brewery. Excellent beers, among the best of the trip!

The next morning four more people joined us and we started out a modern local pub called Beer Story. They were actually promoting Oktoberfest and had several German beers on tap. I skipped those and had a couple of Czech Beers. The best one was a dark lager called Černá Barbora. Delicious!

From there we moved on to a new brewpub in the touristy Old Town area called U Supa. They only had two of their own beers on tap. The most interesting thing about this place was that they had a glass mash tun.



We had dinner at a restaurant with a beautiful view of Prague.



We finished the evening back at Hostomická Nalévárna.

The next morning I got to check off a bucket list item, U Fleků! I've been wanting to try their beer ever since I saw the Michael Jackson video I mentioned above. The beer wasn't as good as I hoped after waiting 25 years, but it was still pretty damn good!



From there we traveled to Sousedský Pivovar Bašta, where we had lunch, Zlý Časy, which is a cool basement pub, and První Pivní Tramway which is a little bar at the end of one of the Tramway lines. They had unfiltered Pilsner Urquell on tap. I'd been wanting to try that (I had two). The Tramway was one of my favorite stops. I'd never have found this place on my own.



We then ventured on to Kulový Blesk where had dinner and then tried to end the evening at Hostomická Nalévárna again, but it was packed (it's a fairly small place). Oh, well.

We started out our penultimate day in Prague at Putica, an Indian restaurant that had a tankovna beer, Ůnětické Pivo 12. My first tank beer! From there we checked out OSSEGG Praha, a new, very modern brewpub. In the same neighborhood was The Craft and Gastropub 20 PIP. We stopped at both since it would have been rude not to! At the latter I had Koutská Desítka 10. This used to be a great beer, but it was a diacetyl bomb. Very disappointing. We moseyed over to Once Upon a Beer, another basement pub and then back to OSSEGG for dinner (and more beer, of course).

Our last day in Prague began at Lokál Dlouhá where Tankovna Pilsner Urquell was available.



From there we took the tram across town to Budvarka, Budweiser Budvar pub that had most of their beers on tap. I got to try their Dark and Special which was a krausened lager. The next stop was a small local craft pub called Pivní Jistota. We also visited Kavárna Zasekávák and Pivovar Bubeneč (I really can't recall these two places, I guess I should have taken more pics).

Our last dinner in Prague was at Lod' Pivovar, which is a brewpub on a boat.



The beer here was just okay, but Evan Rail joined us for dinner. I've read most of his ebooks and his book The Brewery in the Bohemian Forest inspired my first foray into the Czech Republic. He was a very interesting guy to talk to, and of course we had to ask him about Anthony
Bourdain.

We ended the visit at Krkonošská Hospůdka.

I enjoyed my first visit to Prague. I saw some of the sights, drank a lot of beer and ate some good food. I need to make another visit and bring my wife (who likes beer) and do more sightseeing.

Next Installment - Bamberg!

 

I was going off my Untapped check-ins. Somehow that one is out of order. I remember the beer (more specifically the glass) and I thought it was before dinner. Some of these places I don't remember, although if I saw a picture of the place, I probably would.

 

October 11-14 Bamberg

We took the Deutsche Bahn Bus from Prague to Nürnberg and then the train to Bamberg. We checked in to Brauerei Fässla. This was the view from my room:



So we immediately went across the street for my favorite Bamberger bier, Spezial Lagerbier! Delicious as always.



It was a beautiful evening so we headed to Spezial Keller for dinner and more Lagerbier. There's always a beautiful view from the Keller:



I think I want my ashes spread here. Do you think the Germans would allow that?

We finished up the evening at Schlenkerla and their Urbock.



A treat as usual.

The next day (Friday) we took the bus out to Merkendorf and Brauerei Wagner. We ordered all of their beers. My favorite was the Dunkel. The Marzen and the Pils were very good too.



Then we headed over to Brauerei Hummel which is around the corner and down the block from Wagner. It's my idea of what a German village Brauerei should look like.



We again had all the beers and lunch. My dish was excellent! One of the best meals of the trip. I really enjoyed the 1162 Rauchfestbier. The Zwickelbier and the Kellerbier were also very enjoyable.



If you're ever in Bamberg, a trip to Merkendorf should be on your list. You can take a bus or it's only 6 miles each way by bike.

Between Bamberg and Merkendorf is Memmelsdorf. Memmelsdorf has two Brauereien, Drei Kronen and Höhn. I thought the Kellerpils and the Lager Bier were the best two at Drei Kronen. Herr Straub is always a delight to talk to. Höhn only has one beer, Görchla. It's decent and I liked it more than I had in 2013. If I only had time to visit only one village, Merkendorf would be the clear choice.

That evening we had dinner at Fässla. Even though we were staying there, this was the only time during our time in Bamberg that I had their beers. Fässla just doesn't excite me, there's other places in Bamberg and the surrounding area at which I'd rather spend my time. They're plenty busy, so they must have a following that would disagree with me. But, if you've never been to Bamberg, you should still visit Fässla and form your own opinion.

Saturday, we started out the day at Cafe Abseits for lunch (HUGE schnitzel sandwiches). Herr Schoolmann four Berliner Weisses for us to try. Three from Schneeeule and one that came from a Polish brewery. The third beer from Schneeeule, Inge, could strip the enamel from your teeth! One of the most sour beers I've had. I thank Herr Schoolmann for the time he spent with us and for being a gracious host.



The theme for the rest of the day was a Bock Walk. We started out with a draft Rossdorfer Bock at Cafe Abseits. From there we walked over to the Wunderburg area, the home of Keesmann and Mahrs. Both had Bocks so we drank them!




At Keesmann we met up with @Jason_in_Bamberg and he accompanied us over to Mahrs. I thought both Bocks were pretty good. IIRC, I had two at Mahrs. My wife likes Keesmann's Herrin Pils so I bought a couple of bottles to bring home to her. Unfortunately, only one survived the trip home.

We stopped by Eckerts for a quick beer and then it was back to Schlenkerla for dinner and more Urbock! I also managed to squeeze in a Märzen. While Matthias Trum did buy us a round, I didn't get a chance to meet him. Maybe another time.

A couple of us walked over to Der Pelikan for another beer and some Foosball to wrap up the evening.

Sunday was a fairly quiet day. A day to do laundry and some sightseeing. I walked over to the Bootshaus in Hain for a beer and to enjoy the beautiful day. My wife and I had tried to visit here in 2015, but it had been a gloomy day and the biergarten wasn't open. The biergarten is in a park along a river and it's beautiful setting. They serve Weiherer beers.



The group got together for dinner at Spezial. I finally tried their Ungespundetes, but I finished up with my favorite, the Lagerbier. It has become a tradition that my last beer in Bamberg is the Lagerbier.

After that it was time to return our rooms at Fässla and get ready to move on to Düsseldorf.

This was my fourth visit to Bamberg since 2010. It's one of my favorite places on Earth. I get to return in September and I can't wait!

 

That did help with 3 of the 4. Actually it was your descriptions that triggered my memories.

 

I was kidding.

 

We just sat outside and pretty much just drank the Bock. If any U was drank, I didn't hear any negative comments about it.

 

Düsseldorf - October 15-17

The plan was to take the train from Bamberg through Frankfurt and on to Düsseldorf but this had happened over the weekend:



So we had to take a northern through Dortmund on regional trains. It ended up costing us a couple of hours.

A tradition among this group is to stand in front of this webcam at a set time after arrival in Düsseldorf: https://www.duesseldorf.de/live-bilder-aus-duesseldorf/webcam-marktplatz.html

So we did.



This tradition started back before things like Skype. It may not make as much sense as it used to, but it's still a fun tradition. Nancy took the time to look!

Anyhow, time for a beer! So we headed here for a beer:



We were having another beautiful day, so we stayed outside.



We headed over to Füchschen for dinner and more Altbier. I finally had Schweinhaxe!

Füchschen always has great advertising. This was just down the street from our hotel:



After that it was back to Uerige for a couple more.

Tuesday was Sticke Day! We got to Uerige early and this sign was there announcing it was indeed Sticke Day.



So went inside and ordered some. I was surprised the place wasn't busier. I commented that if this was back home, people would be lined up out the door waiting to get in.

Anyway, the beer was 6.2% and they used Hersbrucker hops for the first time. It was sweeter and much less bitter than the standard beer. I liked it better than the regular beer. We had a couple of more beers and then we split up with plans to go back to Uerige later in the day.

A couple of us walked down to an open air market. It was a chance to buy the best Düsseldorfer mustard, ABB. The market had a big lunch crowd and a lot of interesting stalls. The one that stands out in my mind is one that had close to 100 varieties of potatoes. Who knew there were that many varieties? How do you decide which one to use?

I took some time to take a walk along the Rhein River and enjoy another beautiful day.



Back to Uerige for the evening and more Sticke. We had two more people join our group in Düsseldorf bringing us to 11. Then we had several locals who know our group join us so we had over 20. A great time was had by all!

While it's not usual for two breweries to have back-to-back Sticke releases, it happens on occasion and this happened to be one of the years. Schlüssel released their "Stike" on Wednesday. They even had a special glass for it.



But before we headed over there, we started across the street at Schumacher for one beer. Schlüssel's Stike seemed to be a bigger version of their normal beer. Since Schlüssel is my favorite Alt, I really liked it. While we were there, one of the locals with us was able to arrange a tour of their brewery.




The brewing kit is brand new. There were finishing touched that still need to be completed.

After the tour and lunch we went to outside to sit and enjoy a couple more. A couple more locals joined us and brought some homebrew. We had to hide it from the waiters, but we still drank a lot of Stike.

Some of us walked over to Kürzer, the newest Altbier brewery in the Altstadt. I was there in 2013 and it was pretty good. Since then I haven't heard much good about it. So we ordered one and it was pretty good so we had another. Hopefully they've figured it out and will be more consistent in the future. BTW, my hotel room backed up to their brewery. I got to listen their glycol chiller all night long!

Then it was back to Uerige where they were still pouring Sticke. But it ran out while we were there and it was back to the normal Altbier. We finished up that evening at Holy Craft Beer Bar which is basically across the street from our hotel.

This was my fourth visit to Düsseldorf. The three previous times the last beer was at Uerige, so the next morning, before heading to the bus, I stopped at Uerige for one last beer.



Later that day - Antwerp!

 

My wife probably wouldn't take my ashes over there anyway. They'll probably just end up in the backyard with the cats.