Another trip downtown, another new brew!  Tonight’s beer was a German Kloster brew (see, I can alternate Belgian Monk’s beers with German Monk’s beers).   This is a nice Hell (light) beer from the Andechs Monastery in Bavaria.  Here’s how they describe this beer on their web page: “Clean malt flavor, gently hopped and fresh. Only 4,8 % Alcohol at 11,5 % Stammwürze, it’s a pleasant beer pleasure, a classical Bavarian country beer.”

Stammwurze is equivalent to the Original Gravity and directly relates to the Plato value.  For this beer, 11.5% means that the original gravity was about 1.048.  At 4.8%, the final gravity probably wasn’t too low, so this beer is not extremely dry.   I have to agree with their own assessment: this is an easy drinking beer that doesn’t knock you over the head!  A nice one …

Beer Mentor

Oh yes, another blonde!  Tonight I was at dinner and realized there were no new beers I hadn’t tried on the restaurant’s menu … so I had to dip into my Trappist stash here in the room.  Tonight’s choice?  An Achel Blonde … what is it with me and blondes lately?  Oh well, I think I will have even more fun when I sample all the Trappist Brunettes … I mean Browns.  I have one more blonde to go (I think) … and then on to the Browns.

This Achel blonde is 8% ABV … a high octane beer with quite a nice balance of hops and malt.  It is a good one … really!

This evening a friend and I took the train downtown (Stuttgart) and decided to visit the Whiskey Bar I mentioned in a previous post.  Although we were somewhat focused on tasting whiskeys (Springbank 15 year old, Old Malt Cask Laphroaig 16 year old, Edradour 1996 / 13 Year old / Natural Cask, see the trend?) I knew I had to have my 1 beer to keep up my streak!

So, I went with a local (Black Forest) beer – “Tannenzaepfle.”  This means (in Schwabisch slang) “Pine Cone.”  It is from the Rothaus brewery in the Black Forest.  I bet you could guess what this one was … but I won’t leave you hanging — yes, it was a Pilsner.  But it was quite refreshing, and since it was sandwiched in between some very nice whiskeys, it was the right choice for the evening.

Beer Mentor

Yes, I am continuing my Trappist theme a little while longer.  Today I have pictures of beer from two of the Trappist monasteries.  First are pictures of my “haul” from Westvleteren this weekend.  The Abbey of Sint Sixtus only sells their beer to individual customers.  You must look at their website, find out the times you can call to order your beer.  When you call they will then give you the time and day you can pick up your beer.  When I called to order this batch I had to keep redialing for about 45 minutes.  Once it started ringing I let it ring 24 times!  I kept thinking, maybe I should hang up; but, they finally answered and I scheduled the time and date to pick up my two crates pictured here.

After I picked up my crates I went over to the Cafe/shop “In De Vrede.”  This is the only other (legal) place you can buy Westvleteren beer.  They will sell you a six pack (one per customer) of whichever beer they have available.  This trip they hand the blond and the Westvleteren 8 available.  Since I wanted both I opted out for their “gift box.”  It had two 12s, one 8, and one blonde (plus a glass).  As I’ve stated before, they don’t use labels, so you can only identify the beer by the bottle cap…

Finally, my beer for today is a blonde AND another Trappist beer.  This one is from the only Trappist brewery in the Netherlands and the only one I haven’t visited yet–Koningshoeven.  I enjoyed this one immensely — I really do like (so far) all of the Trappist blondes I’ve tried!

Beer Mentor

Today I drove to Belgium to pick up my 2 cases of Westvleteren 12 from the Sint Sixtus abbey.  I will actually be picking it up tomorrow, but it was a 6.5 hour drive so I came today.  I’m staying in downtown Poperinge which is only 4 miles away from the Abbey.

While sitting in the bar at my Hotel (Hotel De La Paix), I met a man who owns a hop farm (Eurohop) here in Poperinge.  Tomorrow I will go visit his farm (he’s compressing hop flowers into hop pellets … what fun!)

Because I was in Poperinge, I decided to have their local brew: Hommel Bier as my beer for the evening.   “Hommel” is the local word for Hops in Poperinge–and it has plenty of them in there!  It is a quite flavorful ale … and at 7.5% ABV, it doesn’t take many to feel the effect.

I took a break today … whoa.  It’s been pretty much non-stop since I got here and I took the day to recuperate and just unwind a little.  No big outing, no visit to a castle, no visit to a brewery.  Just me and the room … thank goodness!  However, I feel pretty rested and ready for the big drive back to Westvleteren tomorrow (6.5 hours).  Tonight I “relaxed” with a few brews; but the real beer for today is one from Westmalle.  If you recall from an earlier post, I had the “Monk’s brew” — the extra from Westmalle.  Tonight’s option was the Tripel … and boy was it good!

Beer Mentor

Today I went down town in Stuttgart and tried to go to two places: Biddy Early’s (an Irish Pub) and Sophie’s Brauhaus.  Obviously, since it was a Friday night, both were extremely crowded.  (I will hit both of these places during the next few week to add their beer selection to my quest.)  Since they were so crowded I took my friends over to this hole-in-the-wall Whiskey Bar.

This place has somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 whiskeys (if not more).  The one I had last night was Blackadder 1989, 16 year old.  Wow.  Very nice… but the beer I had? Jever.  Again, a nice Pilsner.  I couldn’t get a picture — forgot my camera.

Here’s their English advertisement on their web page: The beer like the land.
Jever comes from Jever. And Jever is located in Northern Germany, or more accurately Friesland. Because here in Friesland our water is really pure and soft, we can add a little more hops when we’re brewing our beer to create the slightly bitter Friesian taste that distinguishes Jever Pilsener from other beers. Jever.

I do like the fact that this beer is a little hoppier than some of the Pilsners in this area.  More more flavor actually.

Beer Mentor

This month has just zipped by!  Wow–as I expected, it’s getting harder and harder to find a different beer for every day.  I know I have quite the selection of Belgians in my possession, but I’m trying to hold some of those for real emergencies!

Since I have to take the opportunity to have a new beer when I can, sometimes I don’t have my camera with my to verify/validate.  Today was one of those occasions.  I was out for lunch and found a beer that’s been around since 1597 — yes, 1597.  Only 400 years + old.  I guess that one is good enough for me.  As you might expect, it is a Pilsner: Gold Ochsen

This beer was spot on for style and characteristics.  It had quite a robust flavor … so much so that I went back to this place for dinner as well and had a couple of more! LOL

Here’s a little picture of it from the brewery’s website … Enjoy.

Beer Mentor