Travel and Tourism

Bavarian Brewery Tour - Day One - April 5, 2008 by Ed Pentis: Pages 2, 3, 4 , 5 , 6

Searching for Dark Beers in a Land of Wheatbeers and Pale Lagers:
I love thick, heavy, dark, smooth beer. I had heard that Munich, the capital of the German state of Bavaria, had a partiality for wheat beers. I had no idea until I arrived for an 8 day brewery tour how widespread that was.

Day One: April 5, 2008
Arrived in Amsterdam. Had my first European beer of the trip: a Heineken at a beerstand at the airport. It was the same bitter taste with light body on tap that I remembered from bottles in the USA. I drank it only because it was the local beer.

Then on to the connecting flight to Munich, after which we loaded onto our tour bus that took us 70km north along highways 9 and later 16 to our first brewery stop. On the way, beginning along highway 9 near Schweitenkirchen, we just happened to plow through the middle of the famous Hallertau region of Bavaria, where Hallertauer hops come from, the most premium hops in the universe. These were not vast fields, but scattered plots. Most were half the size of a football field. In them were rows of 7 ft. telephone poles, at a slight angle, in intervals of about 5 ft. In some plots, a half dozen men were walking down the rows, planting hops seeds. These fields were sporadic until they ended by Kelheim.

Arriving at Kelheim, we drove through the gates of the Schneider Brewery, where they make 7 kinds of wheat beer. Among them is a wheat dopplebock, Aventinus, with 8.2% alcohol. The alcohol taste was every bit as strong as it was in the bottle I had at home. Another example of how well beer travels between the continents. From this dopplebock they distill a liquor, Edelbrand, at 42% alcohol. Their version of rocket fuel.

Then it was back on the bus for a couple more hours north to get to Windischeschenbach, the home of Zoigl beer, brewed from a community brewhouse. About a dozen families take turns brewing beer with their own formulas. Then, they serve them at their own restaurants. I had a half liter of whatever Zoigl beer was available at four different establishments, and they were all basic pale lagers. Why they don’t get more adventurous I cannot say. My German is only good enough to order beers and ask for the check.

Next: On to Bamberg. Population 70,000 with ten breweries. Page 2

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