Wednesday, 25 March 2008: Berg and Ehingen/Donau

Yesterday: Bamberg to Biberach

We didn't plan on leaving Biberach and starting today's brewery tours until 11:00am, so Choo and I spent the morning wandering around town and checking out the view from the Weisser Turm.

Weisser Turm, Biberach an der Riß

Biberach an der Riß

"Spring, he says." Choo was led to expect nicer weather than we experienced this week.

A half-hour bus ride got us to Berg. We passed the Warthausen malthouse along the way. There used to be a brewery here, but no more.

Warthausen Malz, near Biberach

Brauerei Berg is a bigger brewery than I expected, in a very small town near the Danube River. The beers were pretty good, and the Maultaschen were excellent.

Brauerei Berg, Ehingen/Donau-Berg

Berg Original, UlrichsBier, and Hefe-Weizen

Berg Bräumeisterpils and Märzen

Berg Schäfleshimmel

Berg Spezial

Berg Kristallweizen

Berg advertises in Biberach

Brauerei Rößle in Ehingen/Donau is a small brewery in a bigger town, and it's just three bus stops away from Berg.

Brauerei Rößle, Ehingen/Donau

The brewer, the 7th-generation of the family that has owned the brewery since 1833, happened to be there, and he gave us a quick tour. It's an 80-hectoliter brewhouse producing 3000 hl per year, 80% of which is sold for distribution.

Scenes from Brauerei Rößle, Ehingen/Donau

They had three very tasty beers on tap today:

Rößle Helles

Rößle Dunkles

Rößle Edel-Ross

The plan was to catch a bus at Ehingen Bahnhof and head back to Biberach, but nature called us instead to the nearby Brauerei Schwert, which I had visited last year.

And at the end of the night, we had a glass of Zwiefalter Pils with our fajitas at El Poco Loco in Biberach.

Tomorrow: Neu-Ulm, Ulm, and Freising

Tuesday, 24 March 2009: Bamberg to Biberach

Yesterday: Bamberg

Our train from Bamberg to Biberach was scheduled to leave around 1:30pm, so we had a whole morning to kill. Paris unfortunately had to work, so she headed to the nearby Internet cafe, while Choo and I went into the Altstadt for some last minute souvenir hunting. She dragged me into a shop full of beer steins and spent a great deal of time carefully picking out her gifts.

Then it was my turn. But on the way, we ran into Brian and Liz one last time, on the upper Altes Rathaus bridge. We all traded pictures and said goodbye. Again.

Liz and Brian at the Altes Rathaus

Choo & me at the Altes Rathaus

Altes Rathaus, Bamberg

My first shopping-stop was zum Dominikaner, where we enjoyed some fine Gemütlichkeit late Sunday evening. They sell a "Bamberger Beer Basket" containing a bottle of beer from each Bamberger brewery, a commemorative stein, and some other goodies, and they even ship to America! So mine should arrive shortly after we get home.

Stop #2 was Schlenkerla, to pick up a Krug for KJ, who is doing a fine job as my beer salesman.

Finally, just down the street from Schlenkerla, is the Bamberger Trachtenstadl. With Bockfest 2009 coming up in Omaha on Saturday, I wanted some appropriate garb. I think what I got will do nicely.

Richard's Trachten, von Hut bis Schuhe

Choo and I got back to Spezial at noon, an hour after we told Paris we'd meet her there. (I blame Choo's dawdling at the stein store.) Paris was fuming because it turned out she didn't have to work after all, but at least she had some Spezial Märzen to calm her down. We had lunch and trudged to the Bahnhof.

Four trains and five hours later, we arrived in Biberach. Our hotel, Drei König, is conveniently located in the Marktplatz, and they serve beer from Brauerei Berg. I don't have any pictures here, because we're going to Berg tomorrow already.

Hotel Drei König, Biberach an der Riß

Tomorrow: Berg and Ehingen/Donau

Monday, 23 March 2009: Bamberg

Yesterday: Bamberg

We have an ambitious plan today: visit as many Bamberger breweries as possible to try all of the different Bockbeers available this time of year.

Our ambitious Bamberg plan

Our first stop was Fässla, directly across the street from Spezial.

Brauerei Fässla, Bamberg

Fässla Zwergla

Fässla Lagerbier

They didn't have any Bock, and we weren't ready for lunch yet, so we headed for Klosterbräu.

Klosterbräu Bamberg

Klosterbräu Maibock

Klosterbräu Braunbier

We did better here, and the beers were much better than they were when we last visited, six years ago. Then suddenly our new-found friends, beer drinkers, and card players, Brian and Liz magically appeared, and we had a few more beers and we played a few more cards. It got to be 5:00pm already, so we decided to eat at Klosterbräu too.

Choo, Paris, Richard, and Brian

There are a couple of beer bars in the area, so we headed up the hill to Tapas for a half-liter or two.

Tapas, Bamberg

Reckendorfer Kellerbier

There used to be a bar at the top of the hill in Laurenziplatz called "zum Ösi"; Paris and I had visited it in 2003. The bartender at Klosterbräu told us that it was a wine bar that had closed some time ago, but I remembered seeing references to a "zum Ösi" in a different part of town. Since it was on the way back to the hotel anyway, we looked it up, and it turns out that they had closed the one on the hill and opened a new bar with the same name. The decor was much more subdued — no witches nor skeletons hanging from the ceiling — but it is a nice place with real good beers.

zum Ösi, Bamberg

Huppendorfer Hefeweizen. (I forgot to photograph the Huppendorfer Josefi-Bock.)

The owner was working the bar, and I told him that we had visited the old location six years ago, which he found amusing. When I went to pay the bill a little later, I found him looking at a moderately-popular beer web site.

Beer Me! at zum Ösi

It turns out that he remembered us from six years ago, and we all had a good small-world laugh.

A walk in the rain back to Spezial finished yet another long fun night.

Tomorrow: Bamberg to Biberach

Sunday, 22 March 2009: Bamberg

I really need to catch this blog up one of these days. No time now, though: the brewpubs here in Bamberg open in a few minutes, and today (Monday) is the only full day we'll have here. We arrived yesterday (Sunday) early in the afternoon. We're staying at Brauerei Spezial, and of course we had to try all of the beers there. Several times. We met a couple from Colorado and got into a Schafkopf game. Gaststätte Stilbruch for a couple of beers. Enjoyed a few Rauchbier at Schlenkerla. Meant to visit Brauerei Ambräusianum, but got there minutes after closing time. (They're not open Monday, so it will have to wait until next time.) Accidentally found zum Dominkaner and had plenty more beers and Schnapps before calling it a night.

Choo on the train from Flughafen München

Röhrl Edler Sud from Yorma's in the München Hauptbahnof

Zirndorfer Landbier from Döner Point in the Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof

Brauerei Spezial, Bamberg

The view from our hotel room at Spezial, facing the brewhouse. The keen-eyed observer will note the tub of spent grain in the lower-right of the picture.

Spezial Märzen

Spezial Lager

Spezial Ungespundetes

Liz and Brian, beer drinkers and Schafkopf players from Golden, Colorado

Schlenkerla Holzfass

Gasthaus-Brauerei Ambräusianum, Bamberg

zum Dominkaner, Bamberg

Tomorrow: Bamberg

And a good time was had by all

I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout last night at the Brass Monkey, where we re-introduced our Impromptu Pale Ale to Omaha. More importantly, Chief Monkeys Kevin and Maria seemed pretty happy with the beer's reception as well. Kevin said he'll probably need a couple more kegs this week already; I'll have to take them Friday, since I'll be in town anyway.

Thanks to everybody who showed up! We'll do it again just as soon as KJ lines up another account for us.

On Tap at the Brass Monkey

After a years-long absence, Gottberg beer has once again found a regular home in Omaha! I delivered two kegs of Impromptu Pale Ale along with the last keg of Wrecking Ball Weizenbock to the Brass Monkey, located at 36th & V Streets in South Omaha. This is the same batch of Pale that Kevin and Maria (the Brass Monkeys themselves) brewed with me on January 29.

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Appropriately, we're having an Impromptu release party there this evening, and with luck, we'll have an Impromptu polka band on hand as well. If you're in town, stop by for a pint!

The Wrecking Ball is the bad-assest tap handle ever.

Thanks to KJ Harnack for his persistence in lining up our wholesaler, and to Kevin and Maria for their patience!

Bavarian brewers strike

This could be very bad news indeed.

In terrifying news for Weißbier fans, Bavarian beer brewers staged temporary strikes on Monday morning in an ongoing wage dispute with employers in the southern German state.



Some 40 workers at Munich’s beloved Augustiner brewery walked off their jobs at 5:30 am, along with 50 at the Spaten brewery and others at the Kulmbacher brewery, the union reported.

Read the whole story at The Local.