Heading to Germany

This must be where I got the date of the 27th! It was the 26th and we were a day late. We had dinner and beers there and both were good. If not for the incorrect date, we might not have ventured out there. It was worth the trip.



This is the Hefeweizen and the Bock. We also tried the Hell and the Kellerbier.

 

Their beer was pretty good. Nutty with a touch of chocolate/coffee. Darker than most. Similar bitterness to Füchschen. Clean but soft.

It was interesting that it was being served by gravity from a glass cask that would be refilled via a pump from the bottom. They could enter how many glasses they wanted and it would pump in that much.

I'll try to post a pic, but photobucket is down right now.

 

Here's what Kürzer was pouring out of:

 

Kürzer doesn't seem to be going after the wooden barrel crowd. I think they're going after a much younger crowd. The entire staff was pretty young.

 

I visited all 5 pubs last week. Schumacher was full of tourists, Uerige seemed to have an older crowd, Schlüssel seemed about in the middle. Füchschen seemed the most irreverent, with the Halloween decorations and the advertising with the fox and Kürzer seemed to be going for the younger, "hipper" crowd. But that's based on limited observations. I didn't feel uncomfortable in any of them.

Füchschen's dining room:



Füchschen's Fox advertising:

 

Actually, I misspoke. It seemed full of businessmen with out-of-town guests. It's on one of the main streets of the shopping district, but not in the Altstadt. It's probably more convenient to get to than the others if you're not starting in the Altstadt.

 

I've been remiss in posting pics, so I guess I'll get started.

Day One - Miltenberg. We traveled to Miltenberg because I wanted to try Faust Schwarzviertler and it looked like a nice place to spend a day or so. So we decided the place to start was zum Reisen!



I ordered a Schwarzviertler and my wife a Faust Pils.



I had brewed a clone of this beer and wanted to see how it compared to my memory of mine. I think theirs was a bit crisper and definitely more smoky. I have to attribute this to the freshness of the rauchmalz compared to when I get it at home. To compensate, I added 50% more to my next batch. In any case, the beer is wonderful. I brought two bottles home with me.

My wife thought the Pils was the best Pils she's ever had. I tasted it and thought it was right up there. I also the Reisen Spezial there. It was good, but doesn't really stand out in my mind.

That evening we went to the Faust Bräustüble for dinner and more beer. The brewery doesn't have a tasting room, but the Bräustüble is right around the corner. The bar area has an American feel to it with bar stools at the bar and Jack Daniels signs everywhere! It turns out that while Faust owns the building, they are leasing it out to the Bräustüble. They do have all the Faust beers, though.

I started out with the Doppelbock while my wife had the Kräusen. The Doppelbock was roastier than I like, but still good. We followed those up with a Festbier and a Weizen Dunkel.



IIRC, the festbier was similar to a Wies'n as opposed to a Märzen. A little maltier than the Wiehenstephan Festbier I tried at home. I can't say much about the Weizen, I'm not a fan of the style but my wife enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure I have another Schwarzviertler here too, but I only kept track of a beer when I drank it for the first time.

More later.