Starkbierfest 2010 – Day 1

I recently took a trip to Bavaria with 14 excellent people – most of them old friends. Great friends, the great beauty of Bavaria, and the great beer, made the trip a huge success and a personal blessing for me.  Since many of my other friends who love Bavaria weren’t able to be with us, I will try to tell you all about the trip:

After a strenuous journey, I arrived in Munich at about 7:30 on Friday, March 12. Some of the other guys arrived the day before and were greeted by a snowstorm that closed Munich airport for a few hours. Luckily, my flight landed on time and without incident. Waiting for 2 other guys to arrive, I took advantage of my extra time to buy some of our train tickets and to grab a quick shower (note to self – bring a towel!) at the airport. I met up with Chuck, Cris T, and Jersey Bill and we enjoyed a few Weissbiers at the Erdinger Sports Bar while we waited for the new guy, George, to arrive.

We traveled down to Goetheplatz to Hotel Herzog. A non-descript hotel on a small side street, it was clean and quiet enough, but nothing I would use during my regular trips. It’s main redeeming feature is that is located just a few steps from the Paulaner Brauhaus Brewpub! Once the home of the Thomasbräu, it was an excellent place for the group to meet up. We joined the rest of our little troop there for a little snack and another beer.

Our next stop was the Bier and Oktoberfest Museum in downtown Munich, between Weisses Brauhaus and Isartor. The host had a table all set for us to enjoy a blind taste test of the 6 Munich Helles biers. Mark P arranged the scoring and assisted the Wirt with serving up the beer.  I’ve always thought my favorites were 1. Augustiner, 2. Hofbräu and 3. Paulaner. I was surprised to learn that a voted for Augustiner, Paulaner, and then Löwenbräu! It was a lot of fun and got everyone (except maybe Daniel)  focused on really paying attention to the taste of the beer.

Zipping to the train station, we boarded the train for Murnau. Located south of Munich past Lake Starnberg, we were surprised to have Karl the Butcher and several of his nieces and nephews meet up at the train station. After saying our greetings and hugs all around, we turned around and faced a spectacular view of the Alps. We walked together to the small brewery called Griessbräu. Karl’s brother, Werner, asked me to check out this place since it belongs to a friend of his. We were not disappointed. Griessbräu is rather new, having been founded just in 2000 by the Gilg family. However, it is the same building  of another brewery which closed over 80 years ago. With shiny new equipment from Bamberg’s Kaspar Schultz, the optics are quite attractive. We enjoyed all the beers and were treated a private tour of the brewing operations and Zwicklbier and Schapps in the brewery.

Though I was dead tired, it was a wonderful evening and a great chance to catch up with some old friends!

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