Staying in Dusseldorf and thinking of having a beery day trip somewhere. Have already been to Cologne so thinking of maybe Aachen or Bonn but having trouble coming up with any useful pointers. Any recommendations gratefully received.
Aachen is nice, but not much special in the way of beer necessarily. Personally, I'd head to Monschau and the Felsenkeller Brauhaus/Biermuseum. Great Zwickelbier, and the town of Monschau is lovely and very relaxing to walk around in. There's a thread about it here: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/schleiden.126092/#post-1974793
Not mine. But it's hard to take a bad pic in Monschau. Really one of the most beautiful small towns I've been to in Germany.
In Bonn I can highly recommend http://www.pm-getraenke.de A very great and chaotic-full bottle-shop with lots of German craft-beers (modern as well as Franconia). And next to it there is the Haribo-Factory-outlet (one block away - you can see it around the corner).
I would suggest Maastricht, but it's about 2.5 hrs each way.... It does have 3-4 great pubs, though - Frape, Pothuiske, Knijnspiep.... and Take One, if you like surly owners. ;-) Prosit!!
+1 to Maastricht - beautiful city. But from Düsseldorf it is only 110Km = 1:15h each way :-) (via train it takes about 2:20h)
