While I’ve been in Germany, I’ve mixed up my trips to include mountain biking, “architectural touring,” and beer-related trips.  When I can combine the three of them, that makes for a great outing.  Three times before I’ve been to the brewery AND the monastery: Ettal, Zwiefalten, and Weltenburg.  This trip combined two of the three — architecture with beer.

Since November, I’ve visited eight different German monasteries/abbeys: Andechs, Bebenhausen, Ettal, Irsee, Maulbronn, Ottobeuren, Weltenburg, and Zwiefalten.  Six of these are still producing beers as part of their livelihood.  Today I visited three of these (Ottobeuren, Irsee, and Andechs), and I had a brew from two of them — Andechs and Irsee.

I have to say, hands down, I enjoyed the time I spent at Irsee a lot more than I did at Andechs.  Andechs was  a lot more commercialized than Irsee — it was very comfortable at Irsee … and the beer was amazingly good.

Today I had the Irseer Klosterbrau UrDunkel.  Very nice!   Oh, and you can see by the picture below that it was another successful trip … my wife must be getting tired of all the glasses I’m sending home! Ha!

Beer Mentor