Instead of doing a Trip Report, I'll just quickly recap what I had and where when my friend came to visit Germany for the first time. Beer or no beer, this was a fun itinerary: Heidelberg: Uerige Altbier and Ayinger Altbairish Dunkel as house beer, special ordered via The Internet (gasp!) for his arrival. Distelhäuser's seasonal (I think a Bock, I don't remember) when we went out to dinner. Finally a Kellerbier from the Kulturbrauerei as a pit-stop in the tourist district. Side Note: I ordered the beer over the internet on a Friday and my bank transfer payment went through on a Monday. The beer was delivered that week, and the Filled On Date on the bottles from Uerige was the Monday my transfer went through. So props to you, www.biershop-braugasthoefe.de/ Bamberg: OK, we had less than 24 hours here so give me a break. Urbock's at Schlenkerla, Spezial Rauchbier, and Klosterbräu's seasonal Helles Bock. The Bock was OK, certainly not bad, but their Maibock (also seasonal) is much better and I'd probably recommend their Schwärzla over this as well. Dresden: Dresden, if you've never been, is as pretty as they say. At least the Altstadt is, anyway. Highly recommended. I grabbed a local beer off the grocery shelves and it turned out to be quite good. Meissen Schwerter's Bennator. Really, really good bock beer. Then a Rauchbier at Matzke's in the Neustadt district. OK, but maybe a poor choice after coming from Bamberg. I think that was it for Dresden. Also less than 24 hours there to save room for... Berlin: A Berliner Kindl Rot, which my friend did not care for (he should be thankful I didn't give him the Green) and a six-pack of Störtebeker which included a Porter, a Roggen Weizen, a Bernstein Weizen, a Pils, a Schwarzbier, and a Kellerbier. The Roggen Weizen was the best of the group so far, but I still have yet to drink the Berstein Weizen. And last but not least a pair of Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkels. All in all a nice trip with some really nice beer.
Klosterbrau, as I mentioned before, has been having some QC issues recently. Did you make it to any of the Bockbieranstiche? Sounds like a fun, whirlwind trip! Soon you need to explore the villages around Bamberg. Whole new worlds of opportunity.... Prost!
Yeah, my friend was only here for a week and I wanted to give him the full(-ish) experience. Regarding Klosterbrau, it was not a QC thing, the beer was perfectly fine in its own right. I just prefer some of their other offerings more. There were no Anstich events going on the day I was there, but that was OK. Maybe next time. Visiting the areas around Bamberg would be great, but with no car and one 14-month old, we tend to stick to the main train stations. As it is, Bamberg is a 3.5 hour train ride from Heidelberg (with two connections). But the Zoigl threads and small town brewery threads always get me dreaming. For right now, it takes a bit of effort just to get to Bamberg.
