Reporting on Starkbierfest 2018

Munich’s Starkbierfest (Strong Beer Festival) happens every year during Lent, the 3rd Thursday after Ash Wednesday to be exact. Each year, I take a small group to the best venues in Munich and the region. For a history of Starkbierfest, see my blog entry: http://www.bayerntrips.com/tips-tricks-treasures/bavarianculture.html#Strong%20Beer%20Festival

What follows is a report of our activities at this year''s Starkbierfest:

This year we were able to visit the Aying brewery for its “Zwicklbier Tag” when you get to drink the unfiltered Helles directly from the Lager Tank. Upstairs, Weisswurst and Preztels are being served up while a traditional band bangs out a little Oom-pah music for atmosphere. In the tasting room, you get to sit among the brew kettles while enjoying the music, the beer, and the view towards the Alps outside. After several hours here, our little group made an unplanned stop at the Forschungbrauerei in Perlach to try out their fabulous Pilsissimus and Gottfried Jakobs Blonder Bock. In the evening, we had reserved seats in the Festival Hall at Augustiner Keller. There we enjoyed Augustiner’s Maximator while dancing on the benches to the music of the party band, 089. It’s been a few years since we were up in the Festsaal, but Augustiner Keller also regularly has music downstairs during the Starkbier season in their beautiful Keller.

We then took off to Bamberg for a few days. With a stop in Nuremberg, we sampled many of the Franconian beers at Hüttn – a great place to eat with a daily beer menu featuring many small franconain breweries. Continuing on to Bamberg, we stayed at Brauerei Faessla and sampled the beers at Spezial across the street. The next morning, several of our group members sampled Fässla’s beer when the magic window opened at 8:30 AM. We took a day trip over to Rotheburg ob der Tauber – lovely, but pretty much a beer wasteland. Upon our return to Bamberg, we had a reservation at Café Abseits, which has a fantastic selection of small breweries and German craft beer.

The next morning, we took a historical walk, with a beer stop at Eckhart’s (brewed under license in Memmelsdorf), and had lunch at the storied Schelnkerla: Smoked Märzen and the Bamberg Onion. In the afternoon, we stopped at Greifenklau, Mahr’s and Keesman, before returning to our home brewery of Fässla to cap of the night. The younger generation has taken over at Greifenklau and he’s putting out even better beer. Sadly, we missed his Red Bock by just a few days – last year’s was amazing. Things at Mahrs and Keesman seem quite the same as usual – great ungespundetes at Mahrs and Keesmann’s Herren Pils.

Journeying back to Munich, we went directly to Kloster Andechs. The weather was unexpectedly warm and sunny and wasn’t busy at all. We all enjoyed ther famous Doppelbock, but also their Winterbier – a nice malty dark beer. After filling up on Schweineshaxe (Pork Knuckle) and Dampfnudel, we returned to Munich and spent the evening at the Bier & Oktoberfest Museum. We took a private tour of the exhibits while sipping on Augustiner Helles from the Holzfass (Wooden Keg) before having a small dinner prepared by my friend and fellow BierSommelier, Oliver.

Salzburg was our destination on the next day. We started with schnapps at Sporer, who now also offers craft beer on a rotating basis. We covered a little history and Sound of Music stories as we made our way to the Stieglkeller. Stiegl has really upped their game with their standard beer, but also many new craft options. This time they had a nice stout on offer and another BierSommelier Colleague offers us samples of Samichlaus, an amazing doppelbock now brewed outside Salzburg at Schloss Eggenberg. Our next destination was Salzburg’s best beer hall, Augustiner zur Mülln. Luckily, we had a reservation since the place was packed with football fans in town to watch Dortmund against Salzburg in Champions League action. Their Märzen (Helles in Austria) was a good as always – served up from a fresh wooden cask into your self-washed steinkrug, it doesn’t get much better. Since it was still Lent, they also had their tasty “Fastenbier” on draft.

Back in Munich, our next two days focused on the festivals. Friday night, we had reserved seats at Paulander am Nockherberg. The music was great and the crowd was having tons of fun while downing many liters of Salvator. There is a new “Wirt” in charge and the festival hall has been remodeled. Notably, they have raise the floor of the tables in the back so that every table now has much better view of the band. The following day, we toured the Spaten Brewery before claiming our front row seats at Löwenbräukeller. Löwenbräukeller offers traditional Schuplattler dancing early in the program and gradually ramps up the energy with a beauty contest for the ladies and Strong-man competition. After that, the band goes into full party mode until it all abruptly ends at 11:30 PM.

Just as well, since we were committed to be at Schneider Weisse at 9:30 AM for Weisswurst breakfast. We quaffed down several Tap 7 Originals as we enjoyed watching the traditional band. Around noon, we boarded the train for Füssen to see the castles, but made a quick stop off at Kösselbräu (Maria Hilfer) in Weizern-Hopferau to enjoy the tiny Hausbrauerei which is loved by the locals. In addition to their amber-colored Vollbier, several of our group enjoyed their Black Madonna, a Schwarzbier. In the evening we had amazing Wiener Schnitzel at Hotel Ruchti while enjoying the beers from Brauerei Ustersbach.

On our last day together, the group toured Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles. We were still able to sneak in a taste of König Ludwig Dunkel beer before returning for their last night in Munich. Most of the group did manage to get in a visit to the airport brewery, Aibräu, and got seated right next to Thomas Müller, of Bayern München!

I’m already planning for Starkbierfest 2019 – March 22 – 31, 2019. Consider joining us in Munich for an unforgettable time!

 

He did join us in Bamberg and all the fests in Munich - his best was only 3 liters without going - he says cold weather is his kriptonite!