Kloster Mülln Pilgrimage

Salzburg is one of Europe's most beautiful cities, and always one of our favorite travel destinations.  And I never visit Salzburg with out a trip to Augustiner Bräu at Kloster Mülln.  This monestary is the location of Austria's largest Biergarten and beer hall, and whether you are inside or outside in the shade under the chestnut trees, it is one of Europe's greatest beer drinking experiences.  Located just west of the pedestrian area of the old town, one can get there via a narrow walkway around the steep cliffs (approx. 15 minutes), or, if you visit the Festung high above the town, you can stroll down through the Mönchberg park to the entrence (approx. 30 minutes).

Kloster Mülln is a very traditional beer hall.  It is exclusively self service - so patrons select a half liter or full Maß (no glass, only Stein) from the rack, give it a thorough cleaning at the cold water rinse station, pay the attendant, and finally get their beer.  There is only one type of beer served - a Märzenbier.  And it is still brewed by the monks, and it is still served in front of you out of weathered wooden kegs.  Truly a treat, and truly a great, world-class beer.

I've only visited Salzburg in the summer, so I usually sit outside in the Biergarten, but this year it was dreary and rainy, so everyone was inside in one of the two main halls, which are masterpieces.  I sat in the the Stockhammersaal (hall), which was the inspiration for the design for my basement.  The color scheme, dark wood paneling, bench, table, wall painting, Steinkrug on the wall, etc. were all ideas inspired by this room.  But I must admit, my basement is not even worthy of a 1000:1 replica of this magnificent beer hall.   But I have to work with what I've got.

The Hirschgarten

Greetings from the world's largest Biergarten - the Hirschgarten! I'll have to update this latter, because I don't have the stats with me, but I believe the grounds seat around 8,000 beer lovers. Augustiner is the favorite beer of people from Munich - and here they serve it directly from the Holzfaß. (wood barrel) In the 1800's this park served as a place where deer (Hirsch) were raised to be released for the royalty to hunt. It is near the Nymphenburg castle, part time home of the Wittelsbach, and at the time in the countryside - outside of the city of Munich. Now this park is part of Munich proper, and the deer need not be too worried - they are fenced off to amuse the children while their parents drink Maß after Maß of Augustiner Bier.



We concluded our day here after hiking all morning and afternoon through the Bavarian Alps. Elfi and Stefan took us up to the Rotwand (near Spitzingsee) for a wonderful hike with spectacular scenery that was somewhat subdued, or possibly enhanced, by the thick fog. After two hours of hiking through land that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, we popped into an Alm with a large Gaststätte packed full hikers drinking beer and enjoying a lunch of bacon dumpling soup. That is one of the things I love about Germany, no matter where you go, and no matter how remote, you can always find a good meal and a great beer!

Biking Through Munich

We have spent the last weekend in Munich enjoying time with our German friends Elfi and Stefan, and their son Stefan.  They were nice enough to arrange for a couple of bicycles for Joycelyn and I, and on Friday afternoon they led us on a 30km tour of Munich and the Isar river.  We rode from their house near the Rotkreutzplatz across town and down the river to the Waldwirtschaft Biergarten in Großhesselohe.  Elfi and Stefan were married in one of the banquet halls here, so it holds a special place in their heart.  It is a beautiful setting nestled on the west bank of the Isar up above the river.  We had a couple beers there and ate a small lunch.  I think most Americans expect great beer from Bavarian Biergartens, but what many don't realize is that the food is also consistently excellent.  The proprietors take great pride in serving the freshest beer, and serving high quality, traditional dishes.  Our lunch was excellent.  The Waldwirtschaft is usually packed with a jazz band playing in the center, but this day the crowds were kept down due to the cloudy weather and a brief rain shower.  Our timing was perfect since we were under an awning enjoying our second beer during the shower.

On the way back to the Rotkreutzplatz, we saw several floats drifting down the Isar.  I've included a picture so you can get a feel for what they look like.  They are flat log rafts (that are broken down for their truck ride back up the river) with a couple of guides, Blasmusik (um pa pa bands) and of course plenty of beer on board.  Everyone appeared to be having a great time - and it is something I'd like to come back and do some day.


The Isar flows chalky-white through Munich north toward the Danube river.  It was interesting to get up and close to one of the beer world's most famous rivers!  Its highly carbonate water is perfectly suited for brewing the dark, malty and clean lagers that Munich is famous for.  I think this water is one of the secret ingredients that makes it impossible to brew copies of Munich's wonderful beers in other parts of the world.  There are many great Dunkles and Bock beers brewed in America, but none quite match the originals.

Munich is a very bicycle friendly city, and it is easy to find stores that rent them.  So if you get the chance, get off the beaten path of the old town and ride around a little.  And I recommend the trip south down to the Waldwirtschaft Biergarten in Großhesselohe - down the peaceful Isar bicycle route.  And we have to give a big thanks to Elfi and Stefan for being such great hosts and showing some new parts of Munich.

Au Brasseur - Strasbourg France

I have crossed into enemy territory.  That's right, yesterday, for the first time ever, I crossed the German border and went into France.  Albeit Alsace, "the least French of French regions," according to my guide book.  This is a beautiful territory to the west of the Rhine river across the valley from the Schwarzwald - the Black Forest.  Joycelyn and I will spend the next couple of days touring Alsace, but we started in Strasbourg.  Strasbourg is one of the three capitals of the European Union.  Don't bother going to the EU section of town, stick to the Old Town area.  Old Town is an island formed by a fork in the Ill river, and is  a quaint area dominated by the old Cathedral, and with numerous half timbered houses (Fachwerk), canals, locks and bridges.

Alsace is know for its wine, but I was able to find one micro (artisan) brewery in town - the Au Brasseur.  It is located at 22 Rue des Veaux, about three blocks west of the Cathedral in a quiet, fairly non-touristy section of Old Town.  They offered four beers of their own; La Blonde, Ambree, La Brune, and La Blanche.   First I tried the Blanche.  I was not sure what to expect with this wheat beer, but after the first taste I could tell it was of the Wit style.  It was pale, cloudy and very tart with some definite sourness.  A very good representation of the style.  My second beer was the Brune.  This beer was made with a touch of chocolate malt, and was a clear dark amber, fairly clean tasting, but also with a very slight tartness.  I'm not sure if the two beers shared a common yeast strain or not.

School doesn't get much older than the brew house.  It was in a very small sunken area surrounded by the bar.  Crammed in that area was a well used two vessel system.  The pumps looked ancient, but the tuns were well kept.  I'm not sure how old it was, but it did not look modern by any means.  The mash and lauter tuns were fairly small, probably a 10 barrel system.  Malt rakes and shovels hung behind the bartender.  They also employed what looks to be an open fermentation system.  I did not research the history of this brewery, and our bartender did not speak much English, so I can't give much for details.  I've inserted a couple of pictures for you.

The place reminded me of some Belgian brown pubs I've visited, though with less flair when it came to their beer presentation.  (For example, naming their beers simply Blonde, Ambree, Brune and Blanche.)  But a very nice, though tight, atmosphere.  They served pitchers of beer, which I don't ever recall seeing in Europe.  And lots of them.  The Au Brasseur was definitely popular with the locals.  The ancient cellar downstair was converted into a tight beer hall, with numerous picnic tables, and a stage for jazz and blues bands at the far end.  We had just arrived from America, and were pretty tired, so we retired to our room instead of staying for the music, but it felt like the atmosphere would be buzzing in a couple of hours.

If you get a chance to visit Strasbourg, I recommend hitting the Au Brasseur.  And if you do please let me know what you think of the music and their Blonde and Ambree that I did not get a chance to try.

Great American Beer Festival

This is just a quick post to remind you all that GABF tickets are on sale and going fast.    The Friday night and Saturday member's only sessions are already sold out.  You can still get tickets for the Thursday and Saturday night sessions - but hurry because those will soon be gone too!   You can get more information at http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/.  BTW, I will be attending on Thursday evening.

Also, I will be leaving for Europe next Thursday.  Joycelyn and I will be visiting France (Alsace region), Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  I'll try to get some posts in during my vacation.  The day after I return I go straight to the Wynkoop for a tapping ceremony for the Pro-Am German Dunkles lager that we brewed last June.  If you are in the area, please come by for the tapping - Tuesday, September 22nd at 5 pm MT.

Colorado Rockies Baseball

In years past when I ask people if they want to go to a Rockies ballgame it was not uncommon for me to hear, “their not doing well, and I don’t like the management, so I don’t want to go to the game.”  I always reply to such statements with, “baseball is not a sport, it is a pastime.   It isn’t about the team or the game as much as it is about getting out to the park, with the grass, the field, the evergreens beyond centerfield, and about having a beer in such a beautiful setting.”  And of course nowadays it even easier to round people up for a game since the Rockies are in playoff contention.  So last Thursday I gathered a group of co-workers and we headed downtown to watch the home team take on the Pittsburgh Pirates

One thing I love about Coors Field is that it has a brewery in the stadium.  If you get a chance to go to a home Rockies game, head out to the right field area of the main concourse level and you’ll find the Blue Moon Brewing Company.  This brewery used to be called the Sandlot, but Coors, who owns the brewery, decided to change the name a couple of years ago.  (Though you can still see a “Sandlot” sign inside the brewery.)  It is my understanding that Coors uses this brewery to pilot new beers for the Blue Moon brand.

Think what you want about Coors, but the team at the Sandlot can brew.  I find all of their beers to be excellent, and their Hefeweizen is the best Weißbier I’ve had on this side of the Atlantic.  I love big clove flavored, phenolic Hefeweizens like Munich’s Franziskaner, and most American wheat beers, though good, lean more to the banana ester side of the flavor spectrum.  The Sandlot’s offering is a terrific example of a big, clovey Hefeweizen.  It is my favorite in the States, but it can be hard to find.  They don’t carry it regularly, and when I was in last Thursday, the bartender said they have been out of it for the past two weeks.  So it can be hit or miss.  A couple of years ago they even had a Weizenbock that was basically a scaled up version of the original.  It was a strong, yet pale, example with a huge, complex Weißbier aroma and flavor.  The Sandlot used to call their Hefeweizen “Wild Pitch Wheat,” though I think that moniker was dropped long ago.  So now you have to ask for their “banana and clove flavor German style wheat beer” to avoid being served a Blue Moon Belgian White with an orange slice in it.  If you’re lucky, they’ll have their Hefeweizen gem on tap when you visit.

I do have a few knocks about the brewery.  At times it doesn’t seem like their heart is really into craft beer.  They seldom advertise or promote their beer, and the only way to get one is if you have a ticket to the game.  The brewery has always been closed in the winter, but in the mid 90’s when Coors Field opened, people could go to the Sandlot and eat & drink when the Rockies were out of town.  Now the front door is bolted shut, and the only entrance is from inside the park.  In addition, some of the bartenders don’t seem to know much about their own beers, nor do they seem to take in interest in their specialties when you have questions or want to talk.  They are busy making mixed drinks and passing out Coors products to the people inside that are not taking advantage of fresh beer brewed on premise.  But I try to put these issues aside, and take it for what it is – one of the best breweries in the city in one of the best ballparks in the country.

When I was there on Thursday they had four craft beers on tap – their flagship Belgian White, a Stout, a Red Ale, and a delicious German Dunkles.  I stuck to the crisp and malty Dunkles during the hot afternoon game.  It was truly a delight to walk around the beautiful park and take in the sights and sounds while drinking a beer that was brewed right there in the stadium.  If you ever get a chance to visit Denver in the summer, make sure and take in a Rockies game and visit the Sandlot – now called the Blue Moon Brewing Company.   And by the way, the Rockies beat the Pirates 10-1, but that isn’t what the afternoon was about.

GABF Pro-AM With The Wynkoop

I recently had the distinct privilege to brew one of my homebrew recipes at the Wynkoop for this year's Great American Brewer's Festival (GABF) Pro-Am competition.  The GABF is the world's largest beer festival and takes place every fall in Denver, CO - this year between September 24-26th.  (http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/)  A couple of years ago the GABF added a new "Pro-Am" competition.  This competition allows homebrewers to partner with a craft brewery to scale up one of their BJCP certified competition award-winning beers.  Last year one of my German lagers won an award at the American Homebrewer's Association's (AHA) national competition.  I had talked to the Wynkoop about partnering for the Pro-Am for several months, and we finally received the entry information from the Association of Brewers, applied, and got to work.  In most cases the Pro-Am brewery simply brews the recipe for the competition, but the Wynkoop was nice enough to let me come in for the day and help.

(Note, working with the Koop on the Pro-Am has nothing to do with being Beerdrinker of the Year.  This is something any award-winning homebrewer has to opportunity to do with a willing brewery.)

The beer we brewed was a Dunkles - a dark German lager.  We used my recipe from the AHA National competition entry.  The Pro-Am rules allow for reasonable recipe modifications to accommodate the brewery's limitations, raw materials, processes, etc.  A couple of months ago I provided Wynkoop head brewer Andy Brown with my recipe sheet and brewing notes to review.  A week before brew day we met to discuss the details of the process, and to make modifications.  For example, my homebrew was decoction mashed and the Wynkoop is not able to perform this type of mash regiment, so we needed to modify the mash schedule to approximate the original.  We also needed to scale the recipe up, recalculate hop quantities given the alpha acid content of the Wynkoop hops, scale the amount of water treating salts that needed to be added, etc.  Andy had to order some additional malts for the brew, and we were pretty much set.  It was quite an experience getting to sit down with Andy, and award winning brewer, to (re)design this beer for a commercial system.

The brew day itself was very educational.  The Wynkoop has a 20 barrel system.  So instead of brewing six gallons like I do at home, we brewed 620 gallons - basically 100 times bigger!   Many aspects of the process were not too different than homebrewing.  Making beer is still making beer.  But the scale and the equipment was all new to me.  It was great learning the process on a large scale - things like using pumps to move liquid around instead of siphons, stirring 600 gallons of mash, cleaning 20 barrel vessels, shoveling and hauling spent grains (to a trailer out back for a local farmer), and doing everything in a steamy hot 90 degree brew house. What a truly unique experience!

As I type the primary fermentation has been completed, and the beer is aging (lagering) in the cellar below the brew house.  We have plenty of time to let this one mature to perfection before the GABF in late September.  The beer will be on tap at the Wynkoop and you can also sample it if you attend the GABF in the Pro-Am section.  I can't wait to see how it turns out and see how it compares to my original.   Hopefully it is ever better!

I want to extend a big thanks to the Wynkoop and to Andy Brown for giving me the opportunity to do the GABF Pro-Am with them, and for allowing me to help brew it.  It was a terrific experience working with Andy to brew the Dunkles in the brewery that has been my home pub since 1991.  Thanks guys!