Andechs is Heavenly!

Travel Writer Rick Steves discusses the great beer at Kloster Andechs and the wonderful atmosphere for enjoying this great beer in the Bavarian countryside.

Rick Steves on Andechs (MP3 file)

Pure Hapiness at Starkbierfest

Read all about our adventures to Starkbierfest in Munich in March 2010 – newspaper articles and radio interview are some of the traces we left behind!

If you don’t even know what Starkbierfest is, start at the main page here

Day 1 – Munich, Bier and Oktoberfest Museum, Griessbräu in Murnau

Day 2 – Ayinger Zwicklbiertag and Paulaner am Nockherberg Festival

Day 3 – Weisses Brauhaus Frühschoppen, Landshut, Kneitinger in Regensburg

Day 4 – Schneider Brewery, Kloster Weltenburg, Ottobräu and Kuchlbauer Breweries in Abensberg,

Day 5 – Händlmaier Mustard Factory, Weisswurst Frühstück, Regensburg Tour, Spital Brewery

Day 6 – Lammsbräu Brewery, Zunfthaus in Ulm

Day 7 – Leberkäse Breakfast, Kronen Brewery in Ulm, Berg and Schwanen in Ehingen and Kolb Brewery of Messhofen

Day 8 – Bad Tölz, Kloster Reutberg, Josefifest

Day 9 & 10 – Löwenbräukeller Festival

City Steam Brewery

he Residence Inn was directly connected to the City Steam Brew Pub. We quickly checked in and got seats in the pub. A huge bar with the beautiful backdrop of copper brew kettles starkly contrasted with loud, pounding music. We found a table in a quiet corner, near the fireplace and settled in for a few fresh beers. Starting with the Wheat beer, we were greeted by a banana taste with a horrible musty orange finish. The “Naughty Nurse,” their number one seller, was drinkable, but unremarkable. Our favorite was the Blonde Export Lager by far – this was a solid choice.  We also tried the Belgian style offering, Careless Love,  and the IPA – both were disappointing. The IPA was fully undrinkable – like hops in a blender with a bit of water – horrid, in fact. But the service was friendly – we tried hard to like this place, but, alas,  the beer disappointed.

Saturday morning we hit the

Thomas Hooker Brewery Visit

. We met three great people working there and the beer was much better, though not great. They are Connecticut’s largest brewery and are located in a non-descript industrial park. A young girl gave us a nice tour of the operation. What I didn’t like – they didn’t follow the Rheinheitsgebot with any of their beers and seemed to add a lot of CO2 to the process. On a good note, they had several lagers, not just Ales. Jersery Bill liked the beer more than me, so this one gets mixed review – but tops for friendliness.

Julia tells us about the brewery

Next stop was Brown University to watch my nephew, Evan, play hockey. Dartmouth came from behind and built a 2 goal lead. Unfortunately Brown stole the momentum toward the end of the 3rd and scores 2 goals in quick succession. Dartmouth regained their game in the OT and hammered them hard, but could not score. The game ended 5-5.

Providence Rennaissance

Afterward we checked into the Providence Rennaissance – an old Masonic Temple across from the Capital. A gorgeous place.

We taxied to Trinity Brewpub. The beer was very good – Jersey liked the Schwarzbier and I went after their many hoppy options.

Trinity Brewhouse

The food was good and the atmosphere almost Germanic – especially in the basement with lots of people engaged in conversation at many tables. We spotted a Stormy Kromer in red and black plaid and had a nice conversation with the lad from Brooklyn. The beers were, across the board, all good. If you love hops, there are a lot of good choices here, but also several other good options.

Jumping a taxi, we hit Union Station Brewery. This is big, open space and not as cozy as Trinity, but Jersey liked this one a lot. They had an awesome Cask Ale – the best of our trip. We hit two more bars on our walk back to the hotel, but nothing remarkable.

Willimantic Brewing Company

On Sunday, we drove back towards Hartford and stopped off at a real gem in Willimantic. They were sold out of many beers, but had a diverse range. We met some great folks at the bar and sampled a lot of their beer. Nothing outstanding, but all were solidly enjoyable. The locals were all enjoying the last of the IPA, which sold out in just a few days. I got only one sip! The atmosphere was here  really nice – the building used to be a US Post Office. Big, airy and sunny, it’s a great place to enjoy some good beer. Their Stein Club was a neat idea – bring in your own glass, and get it filled for the same price as a regular pint.

With just 29 days until Starkbierfest, we had a good training session at a Munich pace – 5 breweries in 50 hours!

This year’s jury voted for a creation from Nathalie Fumelli. She once studied graphic design at der Design-Schule München and in London.

Without further ado, the winner:

2010 Oktoberfest Motif

Second Place Winner

Third Place Winner

I like 2 and 3 a lot better than the winner, but I guess I’ll get used to it. Which one do you like?

Weisses Brauhaus Stammtisch

Almost every German Pub/Restaurant (Wirtschaft) has a table that is set aside for regular customers (Stammgäste). You will find a sign on or over the table indicating its status. Usually, this is the biggest table with the best location. If you are one of the regulars, you know you will always have a place in the Wirtschaft no matter how busy they are. And you know that some of your cronies will eventually show up, so there’s no worry about drinking or dining alone.  If no one is sitting at the Stammtisch, you may be able to sit there, but don’t be surprised if you are told to move. If one of the regulars comes to sit down, you should, out of respect, offer to vacate the table.  Most of the time, this sign of politeness and respect will be met with an offer for you to remain where you are.

In addition to the “regular” Stammtisch, there are other

Hofbraeuhaus Stammtisch

Stammtische that meet on some kind of regular basis. This is often a club of some kind that may meet once a week or once a month on a certain schedule. In this case, a temporary sign will be placed on the table.  The place with the most Stammtische is the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. You can see the whole list by clicking on this link. In many larger places, like the Hofbräuhaus, or the Löwenbräukeller, the regulars are even

Personal Beerstein at Hofbraeu

allowed to have their own beer mug kept at the establishment. There is a huge array of lockers, with keys, that house these beautiful beersteins. Next to the locker area is a convenient faucet for the guest to wash out his own glass.

Sometimes you can get lucky and strike up a conversation with someone at the Stammtisch, which might even get you invited to sit in one of the honored seats. I’ve had some great memories at various Stammtische:

Zunfthaus in Ulm: My friend Michael is a regular at this wonderful

Zunfthaus Stammtisch

Wirtschaft in Ulm’s Fisherman’s Quarter, along the Danube. Last summer, we camped out in this place for several days. We greatly enjoyed meeting all of Michael’s friends and the Zunfthaus’s friendly proprietor. Since the Zunfthaus is not tied to a specific brewery, we were able to enjoy Schneider Weisse, Augustiner, and even Andechs Doppelbock here. And the house special, only for insiders: Schwippschlapp - Schnapps with a big hunk of raw fish on the rim. OK, it wasn’t so great, but it was fun!

Kloster Andechs: Andechs is always a magical experience. In 2007, we met my good friend Karl and his friends there. After they gang from Böbing left, I fetched another Doppelbock. Right cross from the place the beer is poured, is the Andechs Stammtisch. The folks at the table looked pretty interesting and I was feeling pretty good, so I knocked on the end of the table – that’s the accepted custom when you would like to address the table. I asked if it was OK for my wife and I to sit with them. They were graciously accommodating and in no time they were sharing their food with us and we were having a great conversation. At the end of the evening, one of the ladies even gave us a ride down to the Herrsching S-Bahn station.

Weisses Brauhaus: I plan on applying for membership at this one. We have met so many of the regulars here

Good Times in Munich's Weisses Brauhaus

over the years, it is my absolute favorite place to visit when I am in Munich. Many of the regulars recognize us on sight and we are never alone when we wander into this place. They have a great Weisswurst breakfast, especially on Sunday morning after mass including live music.  The evenings in the Schwemme are also a ton of fun. Enjoying that great Schneider Weisse Weissbier – which the regulars do not accept on draft – they always ask for the bottle. We’ve seen it all here!

So the definition of Stammtisch is a a group of people that regularly meet in a pub. These are not organized meetings, just an informal group of friends who have gotten to know each other over the years.  I once met the Brewmaster of Paulaner and he told me that his Stammtisch was on Friday nights on the first floor of the Hobräuhaus. He was quite proud that his group of friends was an eclectic gang including a lawyer, construction workers and others.

The other great thing about these tables is the conversation. In the USA, we are often loathe to discuss religion and politics. In Germany, this is a favorite topic. People get very animated and quite passionate, but are anxious to hear your opinions. It feels great to have an open free-wheeling and meaningful discussion about weighty issues while throwing back the best beer in the world!Weisses Video

If you are like me, I can’t stand being served a drink with a napkin. Worse yet is when the bartender, knowing how inadequate a napkin is, shakes some salt on the napkin. OK, it helps a bit, but it’s all pretty messy and lacks style. Why don’t bars on this side of the ocean so rarely use coasters?

So, we created our own coasters as a marketing device and we’d like to have your help in getting them placed into bars and restaurants with clientele likely to visit Bavaria some day. We will be sending our BayernTrips friends sample coasters very soon. If you think you know a bar or restaurant who serves German beer, German food, or even good craft beer, we’d love to give them our coasters, gratis. Just let me know the address of the place and we’ll send them bunches of our coasters – I’d just like to be sure that they’ll actually put them to use.

So what do the new BayernTrips Coasters look like?

We created a set of 4 coasters with 4 different photos of Bavarian Scenery. We have Neuschwanstein Castle, The Löwenbräu Team of horses, St. Bartholomä church on the Königsee near Berchtesgaden, and a shot of the the Ochsenbraterei Spaten Tent at Oktoberfest.The opposite side on each are all the same – Bavarian White & Blue with our logo and contact information on it. And, most importantly, these are high quality, regulation size, and are extra thick and absorbent.

We’d love to send you samples – just email me with your address!

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Children dress up as the three kings who visited Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem. The kids knock on doors and offer to write a symbol of blessing over the top of people entry-way doors. In exchange, the “blesee”  is expected to give a small donation to the Sternsinger, an organization that does various charitable works around the world.

The formula is quite simple: the 20 and the 10 on either end signify the current year. The C+M+B stand for the names of the 3 wise men, Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar. I have also heard that C M B stands for the latin, “Christus Mansionem Benedicat” – basically, God Bless this House.

More on this theme:

German Wikipedia

English Wikipedia Article

From the Evangelisch (Protestant) Church (German)

Today, however, “Edelstoff” stood on the list. Lightly colored and richly smooth with almost no happiness. And, contrary to their other bee, no traces of additional CO2 – maybe a tad flat, but very tasty. I had a pint of that and followed it with an unremarkable witch maker ESB. I went back for a growler of Edelstoff. Apparently the brewer recently returned from Munich where he liberated the recipe for this libation – gut gemacht!

Shortly before our game, I dropped by the Thirsty Pagan for a Pagan IPA – not too bad of a beer and I went back for more after we won our game 6-1.

Firstly, German curiously love the English short-film “Dinner for One.” It’s the same procedure every year as this film, unknown to Americans, is shown on virtually all TV channels.

After the show, it would typical to enjoy “Karpfen Blau” – carp (fish) prepared so as to appear almost lifelike/raw – head intact, eye staring up at you..pleading you to not eat him…It’s actually pretty good, but most Amis can’t get past the look.

A flaming “Feuerzangenbowle” is also a tradition. This Rum punch laced with burning sugar is a festive addition, based on the popular 1944 film.

Ingo, Vonia & Hermann

The last Silvester I celebrated in Germany was in Füssen. A live band playing all those German party favorites, plus Glühwein, and crazy fireworks was an unforgettable experience. In the land of order and regulation, it was astonishing that any Tom, Dick or Hans could light off some major fireworks – often with the debris falling on your head and, yes, a wayward rocket here and there. All in orderly Germany – astonishing!

The name of the party in Füssen was the “Rutschparty.” Rutsch = Slide. The expression for wishing someone a “Happy New Year” is really cool: “Guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr” – Good slide into the New Year. Yeah, I’ve had nights like that…You?

Well, BayernTrips Friends – Vielen Dank für Eure Freundschaft. Knowing you and celebrating so many good times together has enriched my life. I can’t wait to see you again in 2010. Einen Guten Rutsch wünsch’  ich Euch!

- Scott Stephens

Feuerzangenbowle at Isartor

The World’s Biggest Feuerzangenbowle - making this concoction is really fun – one of the key things is to douse a giant piece of sugar – shaped like a cone – in rum, light it on fire and wait for it to trickle into the punch.

At the other end of town, on Karlsplatz, families, children and couples are skating on a temporary ice rink. It takes the place of the fountain that is usually here an is done up in first class style. For the beginners, they have some fun skating aids for th kiddies to lean on and push around the ice – the ice is filled with cute polar bears and penguins!

There are many other markets including a Medieval -themed market near Odeonsplatz. There are so many of them including Sendlinger Tor, the courtyard of the Residenz, Schwabing, Prater Insel, and too many more to be named. For a complete list, have a look at Munich’s Municipal Website.

Christmas Tram

Another neat tradition is the Christmas Tram. For a few euros, you can jump on the tram for ride around the old town inside a decorated streetcar. At the same time, enjoying a Glühwein – see my previous post on that topic.

So what have Vonia and her group done on Friday and Saturday? Vonia was really happy to have Jens and Uli with along with her in Munich. On Friday morning, they all enjoyed a city tour with Juliet, a guide from Munich Walk Tours. One of the owners, Eric, is a friend of Simone and Oliver’s and a regular at the Weisses Brauhaus. Speaking of which, that’s where dinner was on Friday night. And Vonia got to see her old Schnupftabak friend there for a moment. Sadly, Simone and Oliver were out of town on Friday. Vonia also took the group out to Nymphenburg castle and to the carriage museum there. The closing dinner was at the Alter Wirt featuring organic Duck.

Tomorrow is the day when all our guests go their separate ways. It’s always so hard to say to good-bye to new friends – and to Bavaria!

Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed my posts about The Christmas Markets. I’d love to have you post comments on my blog!

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