Schwarzwald Summer Trip

My wife and I enjoyed staying, drinking and eating at Kulturbrauerei during our brief time in Heidelberg.
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It's located in the old city where the streets are very narrow, so having a car will be difficult. I don't think they even have space for parking.

 

Agreed, not a huge area known for beer, more so a wine region. I did spend a good amount of time in Bad Schussenreid, my school buddy's family owns Bad Schussenreider Brauerei, they have a very interesting Bierkrugmuseum and the beers are all very solid. Especially in the Brauerei Gaststätte on site they have a very typical (and affordable) menu of beer and food.

Otherwise I always liked Freiburg in general, and throughout the area is Rothaus and Alpirsbacher available, two of my favorites.

 

I don't know Germany geography at all, but if the Schmucker Brewery is in your travel area, this place is worthy of a visit.
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We were hosted my a German family to enjoy a tour of the brewery and a sampling of their beers in a hospitality room after the tour, so I don't know details about schedules or if there is a cost. They offer some tours in English, but I don't think it's everyday. I really enjoyed their beers.

 

Most of these cities, I can't help out with much. I have been to Freiburg, and can highly recommend it. But I spent most of my time at a local craft beer pub (BAR am Funkeneck). They have traditional stuff too, but it's mostly focused on German craft. I also visited Schlappen, which is in the city center, very traditional with good food and a decent beer selection. And the Hausbrauerei Feierling (also in the city center), which has a nice brewpub atmosphere and decent beer. In fact, there are a few brewpubs in Freiburg, but those were the only places I visited.

Heidelberg, on the other hand, I am well-acquainted with (I've been here over a decade).

In the Altstadt area, there are several very good options. But as @PapaGoose03 noted, you definitely don't want to drive in this area. Narrow roads, lots of one-way, and the parking garages are both ridiculously narrow and very expensive. Better to park in a garage on the edge of the Altstadt and tram/walk in.

• Kulturbrauerei makes some nice beer, and the restaurant is basically upscale, hearty and traditional German fare.
• Around the corner is the Gasthof zum Roten Ochsen, which serves Kulturbrauerei beers in a very old student pub. The tables all have carvings from student patrons going back decades. Cool, albeit touristy, pub.
• Vetter's is my personal favorite, also a brewpub. Not far from the Alte Brücke, which is something you will likely want to see anyway. Really good beer, and traditional German food. Or you can just drop in for a hot pretzel and beer. Gets crowded in the summers, and there is very limited outdoor seating.
• Löwenbräu has a restaurant very near the University Square (Universitätsplatz). The food is fine, but the beer selection is the selling point. They have virtually every Löwenbräu beer on tap, including the Triumphator doppelbock and the normal Dunkel. And as you might already know, finding dark German beers on tap outside of Munich is a rare experience.
• As for tourist highlights, in the Altstadt it is pretty simple: the Castle and the Alte Brücke and everything in between.

If you like hiking a bit, across the river from the Altstadt is the Philosophenweg, which is a historical walking trail with wonderful views of the Altstadt. And if you want to get away from the tourists, and are across the river anyway, a stop at Neuenheimer Marktplatz is never a bad thing. It has a few nice little restaurants and plenty of outdoor seating for locals. The Dorfschänke (has Dachsenfranz beer) or the Marktstübel (don't remember the beer affiliation, but they have an interesting unfiltered pils on tap) are both quite traditional in beer and food.

A bit further north, but well-worth the time, is the neighborhood of Handschuhsheim. You can get there with the tram, but a car is rather necessary for the interesting bits. In the "center" itself sits the Tiefburg, which is an old (13th century or so) ruin of a castle/noble's house. But driving up the hill is the real value. Next to the parking lot is an old watchtower that you can climb that has fantastic views of the Altstadt and castle. Not far from that is the Thingstätte, which is an open-air theater built into the hillside by the ****s for events, etc... It holds about 8-10,000 people and just oozes with all the wrong sort of history. And further up the hill from there is the 11th century ruin of the Michaelskloster (St. Michael's Monastery), which also has great views, but out over the Rhine valley (not the city). This is an area that doesn't get alot of foreign tourists.

If you need a beer to break up all of the touristing, there is a small outdoor restaurant on the hilltop with all of the normal fare and a smallish beergarden. For food and beer in Handschuhsheim, there are a number of decent choices. I basically lived at Gilbert's Goldener Adler, which is a dark, old student pub with decent food and small outdoor patio. Alte Hendesse is a similar sort of restaurant, but with a bigger and nicer outdoor area. Neither are anything special, beer-wise.

As an aside, you might be tempted in Heidelberg to visit the Klosterhof Brewery just outside of town. I can recommend the trip for the Kloster itself and the surrounding countryside. I cannot, however, recommend the beer. If you need a 2nd opinion, I'm sure @Gutes_Bier can back me up, as well as add in his own thoughts, as he lived here for awhile as well.

Naturally, if you are in Heidelberg, feel free to send me a PM if you want to meet up for a beer.

 

Every time I had a Klosterhof beer I found myself wondering what I had ever done to them.

 

I've been a lot of times to Böblingen/Stuttgart @ IBM. I haven't seen a lot there but https://www.brauhaus-schoenbuch.de/boeblingen is a nice place. I enjoyed "Jäger Spezial" in frozen mugs

 

The Schwarzwald region provides some freebies to visiting lodgers with KONUS card, paid by hotel tourist tax(https://www.schwarzwald-tourismus.info/planen-buchen/konus-gaestekarte/). I agree that Freiburg is an interesting city, possibly with less interesting beers. You receive at your hotel the KONUS card which (with some restrictions) includes free public city transport and local trains throughout the region. This could come in handy if you plan a day of carousing and aren't within walking distance of destinations. We stayed in Freiburg suburb Bad Krozingen, which also provided with KONUS a day's free entry into their spa, a welcome respite. Investigate these benefits before you go, and plan accordingly. Also consider visiting Basel (local train to the border with Switzerland) and the nearby Vosges region in France (by auto).

 

wish I could help more. I don't know this region very well. I do know, tho, that pounding fresh Rothaus in Freiburg and the Black Forest (esp around Schauinsland and beyond) is a very pleasant way to spend a few days.

 

I lived in HD from 2010 - 2014, and have not been back since, so take everything I say with a grain of salt, or you at least might want to confirm that some of the things I'm talking about are still there, I know a few places I used to frequent are no longer operational (I did what I could to support the local establishments). @JHDStein is obviously a great resource, I will touch on a few things he said and add what I can remember.

Heidelberg's Hauptstrasse and much of the main tourist district is a Pedestrian Only Zone, so cars are not much help, as others have said. Down one of the Haupstrasse alleyways is a restaurant called Der Schnitzelbank, which is a somewhat upscale restaurant named for a wood carving bench (I remember their Escargot, maybe called Schnecken, was good). They serve mostly regional white wines, which have a good reputation. The only Bier they serve is Rothaus Tannenzäpfle, which is Rothaus Pils in a 330 ml bottle. Please note, that is the only difference, it's still Rothaus Pils, just by another name. As @herrburgess says, if you were to drink nothing but Rothaus on your entire trip, you'd probably be OK with that.

Rothaus Pils is definitely the best Bier of the region IMO. Unfortunately Heidelberg area Biere do not enjoy a great reputation. Heidelberger is inoffensive, Klosterhof is not. Eichbaum (Mannheim) is a sort of local Industriebier. Welde is what the students tend to pound and to be honest, if you can find Welde No. 1 Pils on draft somewhere, if it's fresh, it's actually pretty good. Fürstenberg I think was a local brand and their Bier was not too bad.

Most restaurants will have just one brand of Bier on tap (most often a Pils and an Export) with maybe a major label wheat beer such as Paulaner on offer in bottles. I think Zum Weissen Schwann had a lot of different types of Bier on offer, including Schlenkerla's Märzen. I think Hemingway's also offered Schlenkerla. Those two places were definitely the exception, though.

Vetter's and Kulturbrauerei are the two local brewpubs. I liked the food and Bier at both places quite a bit. Get whatever is the seasonal Bier at Kulturbrauerei. Usually there is a sign by the door that says "Unser Braumeister emphelt: " ("our brewmeister recommends") and then the seasonal Bier name. If the Braumeister doesn't emphalen the seasonal Bier, definitely don't get it. I made that mistake once. Vetter's had a good Hell and their Fleishkäse (literally "meat-cheese", sometimes translated to English as "meatloaf" but is not really what you think of as meatloaf) is really good. Fleishkäse (aka Leberkäse, or "liver-cheese") is a pork-y, hot-dog-y flavored slice of meat served with mustard, and is really good. As an entrée it's usually served over potatoes, but you can often get a small Fleischkäse sandwich from a Metzgerei for a few Euro, and that and a Brezel is a great, on-the-go, cheap-street-food meal. But I digress.

The Marktstübel and Dorfschänke are both good, I preferred the latter. As JHD notes, those two restaurants are both across the river from the main tourist district, so you may need to plan a little bit. I think there is also a Marktstübel in the tourist district, I don't know if they're related or not.

The Philosophenweg is a great hike, with great views of the city. I will just add that I think you can get to the top of the Tiefburg by hiking up the mountain from the Philosophenweg (along a marked path, follow the signs to the Thingstätte). I wish I knew you could drive up there, lol, that is news to me. If you are not a hearty hiker, there is a funicular from the castle that goes up to a Biergarten which also offers a nice view of the city. I forget what Bier they serve there but it is likely Heidelberger.

Otherwise for Bier I'd say that there are two major Getränkemärkte, although neither is particularly convenient to tourist district. I preferred the one on the across the river from downtown, mostly because it regularly (but not always) had Schlenkerla Märzen. I think both had multiple Andechs offerings and I think both carried Augustiner's Lagerbier Hell, which I guess we can't get here in the US, so if you wanted to try one or grab one or two for the suitcase, that could be your best bet. You might also see Alpirsbacher, recommended by @einhorn and whose recommendation I second. You will see the Biere stacked in cases at the Getränkemärkte, but you can pull one Bier out and pay for a singleton, it's no problem. You can also stop into the local REWE, which is close to the tourist district, and check out what they have on the shelves, although the selection and freshness is usually a little better at the Getränkemärkte.

In Stuttgart I would recommend drinking only water and hitting the Porsche Museum if you're into that sort of thing. There used to be a Wine store that had a few Cantillon selections believe it or not, but I make no promises on that anymore. In fact, I probably should not have even said that out loud. It was Weinhandlung Kreis if memory serves, and it doesn't appear to be on their website anymore.

With a car and in that location, you might want to consider a drive down to Strasbourg, The Paris Of The Other Part Of France.

Of course, my number one recommendation as always is to scrap everything and just hang out in Düssefdorf until someone forces you to leave.

 

The Alpirsbacher Weissbier is quite good, maybe the best out of this region.

 

So I'm not familiar with a lot of places that were mentioned outside of HD. Do you think Alpirsbacher Weissbier will be easily found in restaurants and bars in the towns @yemenmocha mentioned? Not in HD, I don't think, although he may be able to find some in a drink store. Around HD I would think he will only find big (i.e., global) brand name wheat beers in restaurants. Although every restaurant should have a wheat beer on offer, unless the town brew pubs don't carry one, I'm not sure.

@yemenmocha : not to take you too far out of your way, and it sounds you have an itinerary well planned out, but Miltenberg is reachable from HD by car, and the Faust brewery is there. Faust makes real good beer, both traditional and a little bit of Crafty stuff. Their pilsner and dunkel are both favorites of mine. It's also a pretty little German town. If you can't make it there, Getränke Fein in Wieblingen usually carries their stuff, and Wieblingen is like one town over from HD, looks to be about a 10 minute drive per Google Maps.

 

I couldn’t agree more about Miltenberg.
I wasn’t really tracking where you were headed, but when Gutes_Bier mentioned the proximity to Miltenberg I had to jump on and throw a shout out for that town & brewery.
My son & I did a 2 night stay in the village & toured the brewery. It was fantastic! Not only was the fresh Faust beer first rate, but the brewery & tour were great. The head brewer gave the tour. Prior to the start of the tour, while sitting in the beer hall, she approached my son & I and apologized saying the upcoming tour would be given in the homeland language, but that she would add a few points in English for our benefit.
She was a great tour guide & a wonderful person!!

I can’t say enough about the good time my son & I had at the brewery & around town. Also, every meal we had was fabulous!!

Enjoy your trip wherever you venture to! Cheers.

 

Alpirsbacher should be available in that general area, I'd check out any larger Getraenkemarkt or even grocery selection in the area. It's going to be found more south of Heidelberg so you could check on your travels.

 

Alpirsbacher is generally available around HD in the supermarkets and definitely in most Getränkemärkte. Getränke Fein in Wieblingen definitely has them, and is very easy to get to by car in HD. It's the best Getränkemarkt in HD by far.

Weissbier is easy to come by in HD, but generally only in the bottle. Not that many restaurants have anything other than a Pils/Helles/Export on tap. Dark beers are rare even in a bottle, and I can count the number of restaurants/pubs in HD with a dark beer on tap on one hand and still likely have a few fingers left over.

The good news is that you can window shop at most restaurants, as they all have to display their menu outside. So you can normally see what beers they have on tap/bottle before you commit.

 

Munich is a major airport/station entry-point, so many pass through, but not a particularly nice place to stay IME. When we were last there in the evenings very large intimidating groups of (non-European) young men would all be hanging out around and in the main station for no obvious reason, which brought in heavy policing. Not a problem for most people, just really not a nice vibe if you had to go via there back to your hotel esp later at night.
We found Nurenburg, not far away by train, a much more relaxed, historic and welcoming alternative. I'd happily return there again, but would not choose to return to Munich.
[Written from perspective of living for 3 years in Berlin and doing domestic side-trips].

 

well...there's much more to München (or any city, really) than the bahnhofsviertel....