I have to be honest with you … I didn’t think I could keep up with this blog beyond 2 weeks much less 2 months!  Wow, it has been something else.  The good beers just keep coming … I may be hard pressed to finish out the 180 cycle, but I have to be honest one more time, I feel good with 60!  So good in fact, that I tried a new beer today.  LOL

Today’s beer was a Karlsberg Ur-Pils.  Once again, a nice Pilsner served from the “Fass” (keg).  There’s something so nice and fresh about a good keg beer.  Oh, and I was enjoying it in the company of my wonderful family — that much better!

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Same place, different year!  We were visiting our great friends (Armin/Eva/Horst/Andrea/Marvin) and, once again, I had a little too much fun!  However, I didn’t have so much fun that I couldn’t distinguish one beer from another! LOL

This is actually the first Franziskaner Dunkel Weizen I ever remember having.  I consider the regular Hefe Weizen from Franziskaner to be the best Wiezen I’ve ever had–of course, I mean the ones I’ve had in Germany.  For some reason, as with the Bischoff, something is lost in the transportation of these beers to the USA.  This one was quite good too — I recommend it to you if you get the opportunity!

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For the second day of 2010, I had an even better Pilsner — a Bischoff Premium Pilsner.  This is my favorite Pilsner, not simply for the taste but for the experiences I remember (or mostly remember) when I was drinking it.  I was in a German cooking club when I was in Germany before (1995 – 1999) and I had many a glass of this Pilsner — and a had a grand time while drinking it.  Sometimes the beer is as good as the experience, but sometimes the experience makes the beer good!  I had this brew in the Cellar Bar of a really good friend … one I will remember for a long time …. aaahhhh, Ein Gruenes!

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We spent New Year’s Day with some wonderful friends so I thought it would be a great idea to kick off the new year with an old standby — A Parkbrau Pils.  This is an excellent Pilsner from a local Rheinland-Pfalz brewery … Prost Fruende!

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What did we do today to celebrate the last day of 2009?  We went to a Castle!  Yes, to Schloss Hohenzollern in the Swabian Alb.  It was quite impressive.

We all enjoyed ourselves, and I celebrated with a nice “Fuerstenberg Export” — “Eines der Besten Biere der Welt.”  Or so their website states–it was good … so maybe they do make the best beers in the world.  You should try it yourself and see.

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I have to tell you that this restaurant was fantastic.  If you are in Boeblingen and are looking for a great dining experience, I recommend Hotel Restaurant Ruessenstein.  It’s kind of out of the way but worth the trip.

They also had a nice Schoenbuch beer for me to add to my collection of 180 in 180 days: the Ur-Edel.  I will add a picture to this post later … got to get it off my daughter’s camera! LOL

Enjoy!
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Today we were cultured and went to visit the Linden Museum in Stuttgart.  It was a fabulous cultural experience.  I did have one problem … I accidently used my flash on this picture of Adrienne … but you can see on the other two photos of Jill and Megan that I had conformed and turned off the flash.

It was all very culturally significant; and speaking of culture — I had another Trappist brew!  This one was the last of the Rochefort … number 10.  It was a very flavorful, aromatic brown beer — kind of a murky brown, but you could definitely tell it had some kick to it.  Especially the next morning when I had to take a couple of Tylenol … maybe that was the 1 liter of Volksfestbier I had before finishing off the Rochefort!  LOL

Enjoy!

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Today I went back to the Zwiefalten Kloster bier: Dinkelbier.  This one is their organic brew.  I have to say that it was not one of my favorites.  I will definitely sample the other 5 of the Zwiefalten biers I have, but I won’t purchase this one again.  Sorry.

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I enjoyed today’s beer in Speyer, Germany.  This beer was actually very good … and one of my favorite GERMAN beers so far: Hannen Alt.  Of course, if you’ve been brewing your beer for 275 years it should be good.

It had a wonderful aroma, great color, followed by an excellent taste.  This beer gets an A+ from me, no matter what anyone else rates it.

Oh, and we saw some pretty spectacular churches today.  Here are a couple of pictures of them — or you can check them at this website.

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I find it difficult to come up with things to say sometimes.  I will say that we went to Trier the day after Christmas.  This is considered to be the oldest city in Germany with a church built in the 300 – 400 AD range.  Here’s a picture of the current “Dom” in this location. I’m also including a picture of the Roman Gate (Porta Nigra) that was the entrance to the walled city (obviously built by the Romans).

We were visiting Trier and our German exchange student and her family.  They were a lot of fun and exceptionally nice.

What else did I do?  I had my beer for the day! LOL  An Erdinger Hefe Weizen.  Right in style and good flavor.  It filled a requirement, who could ask for more?!

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