I had a great Christmas — spent it with my lovely bride and two daughters (and friends!). We took a little walking tour around the village in which we lived in Germany: Queidersbach.

This is just a quick entry … here’s my beer for Christmas: Gaffel Koelsch

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Beer Mentor

Happy Christmas Eve … Santa Claus brought me a sweet gift basket from my friend!  Check it out!  Seven different beers I  have not yet tried — it was like entering the “twilight zone” or “Area 51″ — yes!!

Today’s beer was a Bitburger!  Yes, a normal beer, but everyone should drink the normal ones too.  Bitburger is also a very good pilsner.  Megan and I (you can see Adrienne is here as well!) enjoyed this nice “local” beer.

Beer Mentor

Megan and I enjoyed a little trip today … we stopped by Schloss Lichtenstein and down through Zwiefalten again.

Today I had a nice Konigshoeven Quadrupel.  It was a very big beer — great flavor though–but the alcohol was very prevalent in this beer.  You better be ready to be knocked around with this one.

Beer Mentor

My daughter came to visit me for Christmas, so we went downtown to the Christmas market (because I picked her up at the main train station in Stuttgart).  We had a nice lunch together (nice picture, right?) and ended up the evening at a local restaurant.  I went back to the Stuttgarter Hofbrau line of beers: Buegel Pilsner.

This beer is called the Original because it is served in the “historic flip-top bottle” so it is served in a ceramic mug, nice creamy head, very robust flavor @ 5.3% ABV.

Beer Mentor

Took it easy today and dipped into my “stock.”  I had a Rochefort 8.  I’m not sure I’ve poured it correctly … it seemed to have crunchies/A LOT OF sediment in it.  It was good, but I need to try another and see if it, too, has a lot of sediment.  Either way, this dark Ale was awesome!

Beer Mentor

Wow. It’s hard to do this church justice … just check out this picture (and, even better) this link to get a feel for what we visited today.  This baroque rococo style is my favorite architecture.  Amazing!

Before we visited the church, we stopped in at the Brewery guest house … this place was right by the brewery.  You can see in these two pictures that the “gaststaette” is connected to the brewery.

Once inside, we were treated to wonderful service (by Olja) and enjoyed an excellent Klosterbier … their Pilsner.  I even had a little “schnapps” made from hops.

Man, it sucks being me and being here.  You can also see that I brought home another 6 pack of Klosterbier to pad my total number of different beers.  If you get a chance, this place is worth the visit … or should I say, both places.  LOL

Enjoy!
Beer Mentor

Oh yeah, it snowed here — and not only did it snow, it was COLD today … try in the single digits cold.  So … today I just chilled in my room until supper time when I went next door to the new restaurant.  I was able to enjoy another new beer … a Malteser Weizen — this beer is a Kristall Weizen.  Although this beer is made by a large brewery (Stuttgarter Hofbrau), it is brewed following a recipe from the (what else) Klosterbrauerei Amberg in Bayern (Bavaria).  LOL — I had another Klosterbier without realizing it … just my luck (smile).
What a great flavor, and typical for this style.

Beer Mentor

Tonight I went to the new restaurant here where I live.  They had a very nice Czech beer — this one was a “brunette.”  Of course, as all should know, brunettes are my favorite … and this one was no exception.  This beer is called Krusovice … this brewery has only been making beer since 1581.  They are new to this! Apparently, according to this article, this beer used to suck, but when they went back to using regular beer ingredients, it got better.  Amazing!  I enjoyed it!

Just a note about today’s beer — it is number 45!  So, I’ve been able to drink 45 different beers in 45 days — this means I’m 25% of the way there.  There is a short period in the middle of my trip where I will be out of pocket (say 3 weeks) … so I am going to double up a couple of days and post those for the period when I will be out of pocket.  I will keep it as a surprise … so although it may look like I’m having 180 beers in 180 days, it may be 180 beers in 165 days with a little internet magic to fix it.  Sorry, it happens when you have a job …

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor

Tonight I enjoyed a Leffe “Brunette.”  I have to say that the “Brunettes” are my favorite!  This brown beer had a wonderful flavor — well balanced, nice bouquet … and it was a Kloster Brew!  Another Belgian if you can believe it.  This beer is brewed under the auspices of the “Abbaye Notre Dame de Leffe” located in Dinant (see the picture at the top of my blog).

This particular brunette is called the Leffe Dark.  I recommend it …

Beer Mentor

Yes I was back down at the Whiskey bar on Wednesday.  That may end up being my normal Wednesday hangout location! LOL.  We’ll see.  I did have another beer there — an original Pilsner … from Pilsen: Pilsner-Urquell … the original Pilsner.

As you might expect, it was exactly to style and it tasted wonderful.

Here’s a little history on this beer from the Pilsen Website:

“Brewery

Beer has been brewed in Pilsen almost since its foundation. The first record related to brewing dates back to as early as 1307. It is the testament of Wolfram Zwinilinger, bequeathing his brewery and malt house to the church of St. Bartholomew.

Later on, beer was brewed only in the houses which were granted the brewing licence by King Wenceslas II. in the 13th century. In the 14th century, this privilege was only given to the houses inside the city gates. Brewing was a free burgher business unrestricted by guild regulations. The license was granted to 260 houses altogether, and therefore their individual manufacturing technologies and varying ingredients caused great differences in the quality of beer.

A milestone which changed the beer history was the year 1838 when 36 hectolitres (i.e. 6 335 U.K. pints / 7 606 U.S. pints) of poor quality beer had to be poured on the ground in front of the city hall.

This unfortunate event brought the beer licence holding burghers to the decision to ensure the everlasting quality of the Pilsen beer by building (by joint effort) a new modern brewery.

The builder Martin Stelzer was entrusted with the building of the brewery, and in carrying that task, he used the rich experience gained during his tours of the breweries abroad. While visiting Bavaria, he met the ingenious but very idiosyncratic brewer Josef Groll. Stelzer made him come back to Bohemia with him and brew beer there using the new method of bottom fermentation.

Groll succeeded in his task excellently and on the 5th October 1842, he brewed the bottom fermented light lager which became the prototype of all lagers. The brewery has commemorated this memorable day by an annual festival called the Pilsner Fest.

The manufacturing of the brand new lager with an unmistakeable taste and quality soon made Pilsen the beer metropolis. The popularity of the “Pilsner”, however caused extensive efforts among the other breweries to imitate it. The easiest way of imitating the Pilsner Urquell was the appropriation of the same name. Beers called pils, pilsner or pilsener appeared but their quality and sensory characteristics spoiled the good reputation of our genuine Pilsner beer. In order to avoid confusion with other products and to make sure that only the beer bearing this name is the oldest and only genuine Pilsner beer, the trade mark “Pilsner Urquell” was created in 1898.

The success of the beer from Pilsen and the prosperity of the brewery were unstoppable and the trademark Pilsner Urquell soon became the synonym of quality all over the world.”

Beer Mentor