Guten tag deutsche freunds and fellow BAs who have visited Germany in recent months or years. So… here’s the thing, I have a good friend living in Frankfurt I’d like to visit but also make a more lengthy stay in the beautiful city of Wiesbaden. Shortly put, I’ll plan things up myself and more than likely fly from Paris CDG to Frankfurt and either stay a night in Frankfurt first when arriving or just when leaving. This has yet to be decided. The two cities via S-bahn (train) are close anyway. Overall, Wiesbaden is more known to « Sparkling wine » thermal spas than for beers, but I’m optimistic I’ll also find some beer shops and also any great German beers anywhere along the way. I realize it’s not at first sight the ideal city by the look of it for a beer-cation, but I’m mostly looking to enjoy both cities for what should be a four-five days stay at most this coming winter if everything goes as planned. If you guys have any recommendations about beer stores in either city, or fine bars/restaurants to hang out. I’m listening and following this one with interest. Thanks!
In Wiesbaden, a Kloster Andechs location is in the Ratskeller. Weihenstephaner also has a gasthaus on Taunusstraße (excellent food too), and Der Kleine König on Mauergasse typically has several good beers on tap. Ludwig on Wagemannstraße is an excellent restaurant that typically has Augustiner helles and apfelwein on tap. Enjoy your visit!
Sorry, can't really help you with Wiesbaden and Frankfurt except that Bierothek is a pretty famous bottle shop in Frankfurt. Stupidly expensive though.
You got good recommendations from @jeebeel. I lived there 22 years ago, much has changed. Last visit was 2018. Looking on Google Maps, some of my favorites didn't make it though COVID. Many of the restaurants carry the industrial Pilsners such as Jever, Bitburg, König, Warsteiner, and so on if you like Pilsner. Some Czech beers can be found, Zum Schweck is one place, but I haven't gone there after several changes of ownership.
Excellent! Thank you, I’ve got all these areas and places immortalized in this thread now. Quite helpful. No problem. Fortunately unless I do something really stupid I shouldn’t ruin myself over the course of a five days stay in those cities, but if Bierothek happen to be somehow on my way, I’ll no doubt visit! Thanks. Nothing good came from Covid-19, and the massive impact on smaller establishments like those has unfortunately been awful. Not any prettier here. Thanks though, also the Czech beers would be really an asset to an already quite spoiled country regarding beers and breweries. Prost! I’ll keep the thread updated.
Don't know if it's close enough, but Maruhn in Darmstadt is said to have a great selection. ... https://maruhn-welt-der-getraenke.de/ Prosit!
This is presumptuous that you wouldn't know this, but I'll ask anyway. Did you search the Places feature for Frankfurt am Main? A simple Frankfort won't get you any returns for some illogical reason. There are only 23 Places in the database, but it's a start. Most have outdated ratings/reviews, so this gives you the opportunity to live it up and update everything.
Frankfurt was not known for beer 22years ago, and looking on Google the top hit was a Brewdog place! There is some local cider culture down in the Sachsenhausen district. The one i have been to was Wagner, the cider was too tart for me. Mainz has a few places. Ive been to the brewpub Eisgub a couple of times. The last time all the beers had an unpleasant finish, a house flavor if you want to call it that. Hope they got that cleaned up, food was decent.
The area you are referencing is a beer wasteland. Sad but true. As @hopfenunmaltz mentions, Frankfurt is really known for Apfelwein, which is extremely dry cider. It's frequently blended with a "schuss" of mineral water or Fanta to make it more palatable. Sachsenhausen is one of the nicer areas in Frankfurt, that should be on your list. Wiesbaden is really getting into German wine territory, the few brewery owned spots that @jeebeel listed are going to (likely) the extent of any beer worth seeking out.
Maruhn is a great beverage store easily reached south of the Frankfurt Flughafen just off the autobahn. Tremendous selection of local and regional German beers, along with many international brews. Other beverages as well. Highly recommend a visit! You will not be disappointed!
I forgot to mention in my first post that my only beer place that I visited in Frankfurt was Paulaner am Dom, and I enjoyed it. I wrote a review in Places. You can't go wrong with Paulaner beers.
When I pass through the Frankfurter Flughafen, I often stop at the Paulaner at the Squaire right next door. Good food and Paulaner Bier. It can fortify you for that long hour or so flight back to Paris! "https://paulaner-thesquaire.de/en/" The Rewe supermarket in the Squaire also carries a few brews, mostly mass market, but there are a few local brews occasionally. Also, don't forget to try the Frankfurt Green Sauce "Grüne Sosse" - a local favorite. As for Wiesbaden, it is one of the last US Military communities in Germany. Where there are young soldiers, there is, inevitably, beer. Not necessarily good bier, but bier. However, there appears to be a craft bier establishment in Wiesbaden - the Wiesbadener Braumanufaktur "https://www.wiesbadener.beer/" You might try that location during your visit. Expect to hear some American English spoken downtown - particularly in the bier establishments.
There used to be a Paulaner restaurant in Wiesbaden, now it is closed I see. The amount of American soldiers has gone up in Wiesbaden as other bases have closed and consolidation happened. Wiesbaden also has many civilian expats working for their companies in Germany.
I'm certainly not a Frankfurt expert, but I have visited a few times. And I have family near Mainz, so I've visited the area on a number of occasions as well. For bottle shops, everything mentioned above is correct. I can definitely recommend Maruhn, if you have a car. It does have an excellent German beer selection. In the Wiesbaden area, Getränke Stumpf in Ingelheim am Rhein is also definitely worth the visit (if you have a car...). Aside from a fairly good "normal" selection, they have a decent "craft" section as well: Frau Gruber, Verdant, Lervig, etc.... But some of their cans flirt with the "best by" dates, so a bit of caution is required. As for pubs, the area is fairly basic and nothing really overly exciting. I've never been to Naiv, but I know it is well thought of by some on this forum. I always stop in at Haus Wetheym, since they often have Kulmbacher Eisbock on tap, which is a rarity. I also enjoy Dauth-Schneider, which is actually an Apfelwein place, but it also has an excellent Dunkel on tap, as well as normally Weihenstephaner Weizen on tap (which is also a rarity in these parts). Those are the places I frequent, but I generally don't got to either city for beer.
@Shanex I live in Frankfurt (FfM) and know almost everything about beer, etc that you may be interested in knowing. Been here since 2008 and used to be a very active contributor here on BA, though for the last few years I haven't had too much to add to most discussions. I can write you directly or on this thread as what to do beer-wise. FfM is actually a very good craft beer city now. We've 5 craft beer bars/restaurants to choose from, and a couple of really well stocked bottle shops, both of which you can get excellent traditional German beers as well. You don't need to go out to Mahrun as others have mentioned. You first need a car, and second it's 30+ minute drive on the Autobahn. There are much more convenient bottle shops within the city that have either equal or better selections. Hit me up and tell me when you'll be blowing through town, and I can give you some tips. Also, if you come any time before Dec. 22nd, there's also the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) either here FfM or in Mainz that are really good. Glühwein! Finally, AFAIK, the S-bahn is still not directly running between Wiesbaden (WI) and FfM due to a autobahn/train bridge that collapsed last year. You have to get off somewhere and take a bus to get into WI... super troublesome... so takes much longer than the hour it previously took. The bridge isn't set to be replaced for years to come.
Danke @JHDStein und @boddhitree basically you can write to me here or in private. Don’t mind either at all. All of you wrote is definitely interesting and helpful. The friend I’m supposed to meet in Frankfurt did mention about the Naiv bar and supposedly the place to be for having a couple more beers in the evening. I wrote that I wanted to go in winter but that may be delayed a bit to early spring instead. No rush. Weather in April should be more pleasant, I’m not sure yet if I’ll rent a car. In a different country it’s always a bit challenging especially in a major city like Frankfurt. Prost!
I had not heard about the bridge collapse, and wasn't in Hesse on a recent trip. There are two S-Bahn lines to Wiesbaden, those run on different sides of the Main. The failure would have had to be close to either end. Off to see what Google says. Edit - the Salzbachtalbrücke was in danger of collapse and was demolished. That carries the A-66 over the tracks south of the Wiesbaden station. Ive gone under that bridge, and driven over it. There were articles saying train service was resorted fairly quickly, bridge construction is ongoing.
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