Bamberg and Beyond

There are a plethora of both good and bad beer guides out there for when craft beer fans go a’ travelin’.  But I thought this post had a really good extension past just the city center out into the surrounding areas.

It so happens this city is Bamberg in Germany, famed for its rauchbiers but the point stands for any good beer city.  We should be looking a little outside the bubble for brewery gems.

Check out the recommendations HERE !

Dark-tober

This post isn’t sponsored by the Pumpkin Beer Alliance, but beer is pulled into history at many points, some of them not good.

The below video is labeled as the Dark History of Oktoberfest but I would say it is more bad shit that happened in history in Munich whilst Oktoberfest was happening.

Holiday Cheers – Day 30 – Winterhopfen from Landskron

Tine to get presents onto the sleigh or in the case of this beery advent calendar, for the beer to get loaded onto the truck. We might just need some German engineering here so we need to hook up Santa with brewery Landskron.

“The elegant festival beer for special enjoyment in the wintertime. A beer with a balanced aroma, in which the malt notes are harmoniously paired with floral hop scents. It promises a pleasure with a full, round body, in which a fine hop bitterness is perfectly integrated, and which ends with a full malt body.”

Santa’s Pint Glass – Day 4

Santa is off to Germany for his next pint from Landskron

“The elegant festival beer for special enjoyment in winter. A beer with a balanced aroma, in which the malt notes are harmoniously paired with floral hop scents. It promises a pleasure with a full, round body, in which a fine hop bitterness is perfectly integrated and which ends with a full malt body.”

Okto-gone

Well, the beer steins will be empty as it looks like Oktoberfest in Germany will be taking a break in 2020. That is a huge tourist dollar loss for Munich especially. And with that large domino falling, I expect that other big festivals are going to follow that lead.

Which means no festival for L.A. Beer Week, no Great American Beer Festival and those Anniversary parties will have to skip a year. Unless, of course, the Governor of Georgia has anything to say about it.

I would go so far as to guess, that any party on the books for 2020 would be on the chopping block. I know that seems far off and maybe overly cautious but all it would take is one sneeze or one cough in a crowded area to throw the fear of God into people. And this is before the probably inevitable round two when the virus comes around again because people didn’t quarantine enough the first time.

WeihenstephN/A

I am starting to believe my own hype.  I had a feeling that the N/A market was going to be a major one in 2019 and maybe beyond and now we might be able to taste how the Oldest Brewery does it when Weihenstaphan brings out their super low in alcohol offering. 

Review – Sommerweiße from Erdinger


I was intrigued by the bottle of Erdinger Sommerweiße that I saw on the shelf, so I grabbed a bottle to see what it would be like and I was let down. This supposed wheat – Hefe was sparkly and tasted like a sweet tart candy with a little metallic tinge at the end. The image wasn’t helpful at all as it poured a hazy brownish orange. It was nowhere near hoppy and just tasted weird. I can usually trust Erdinger to give me German flavors but this did not.