The "Beer Me" Blog: Saturday, 26 April 2008: Hirschbrauerei Flözlingen

Here are some notes from my recent trip to Germany, and an accompanying map.

Friday, April 25

Up at 7:00am, on the road by 8:30, got to Omaha just past 10:00. The flight to Atlanta left half an hour late, but I had plenty of layover time to spare, and we got out of Atlanta on time. No beer today until we were in the air, then two Heineken (five bucks a can, but not too bad when it's fresh) and a couple of nortriptylene put me right to sleep.

Saturday, April 26

Landed in Zürich about 10 minutes late, at 8:03am, and the gate was miles from the airport's train station. I hustled through passport control and customs, and zipped over to the Bahnhof to get my ticket to Singen, where I'm supposed to meet Paris on our way to Flözlingen. I stood in line at the ticket office, and when they ran my credit card, their printer broke. But "alles OK", and I made the 8:48 train. I made two connections and still beat Paris to Singen.

We continued on another train to Rottweil, then took a bus to nearby Zimmern. Normally, the 7478 bus runs all the way from Rottweil to Hirschbrauerei Flözlingen, but today's a Saturday, so it only runs halfway. To finish the trip, Paris had to make a reservation for the "RufBus" (roughly: "bus you have to call") this morning. We waited at the bus stop for the requisite 45 minutes, during which time a taxi pulled up. The driver checked his watch several times for five minutes or so and finally started to drive away. But he stopped and got out and asked us if we were waiting for the RufBus. I said that we were, and he started ranting (in German) about what the hell did we think they were going to do, send a big bus on a Saturday, and that this taxi is the RufBus, etc etc etc. But he finally realized that we weren't from around there, and immediately got very friendly and explained the whole situation and drove us to the brewery. A good laugh was had by all.

I had visited Hirschbrauerei Flözlingen on my last trip, February 27. Owner Rolf Schittenhelm is such a great guy and showed me such a fun time, I wanted Paris to meet him too. She was not disappointed. I noticed after we had taken our seats that we had mistakenly occupied the Stammtisch. Rolf didn't seem to mind, and because of that, neither did the gent that was already there. We talked with them both all through lunch, and enjoyed the new batch of Hefeweizen.

It was nearly time to catch the "RufBus" back to Rottweil, but Rolf insisted that Paris see his neat old brewery. Plus he had a couple of glasses of his excellent Dunklesbockbierlikör for our enjoyment. We either missed the RufBus or it didn't show up, but in any case Rolf's bartender (whose name I'll fill in when I find it) said she and her sister could take us to the train. So we had time for a couple more beers, and we bought a mug and a bottle of Dunklesbockbierlikör for my dad, and another for ourselves.

There was time for a Paulaner Hefe-Weißbier at the Rottweil station before making our way back to Konstanz. Once there, we had a Flammkuchen for dinner at Brauhaus Joh. Albrecht, along with a couple of their beers.