Beer Post #11

Today's beer post is dedicated to the world famous beer gardens of Munich, Germany. I was lucky enough to visit this Nirvana in my January wanders through Central Europe. I hooked up with some American friends to explore the nether regions of brew halls in Munich. (See our photos).

We arrived on January 10th, and our first excursion was to the Paulaner Brewhouse directly across from the train station. We had sausages and beers. I drank the heffeweissen, which was delicious! The Munich Breweries website describes this brew as, "Pale unfiltered wheat beer. Aromas of cloves, coriander and ginger, sweetish taste with clove aroma, more cloves and basil in the finish. Archetypal wheat beer with lots of cloves - exactly what you would expect from the style." I agree. It's a style that has grown on me in the last few years. I had two liters ;-)

That night we sought out the awesome Augustiner-Keller brew house. We didn't go to the one near Marionplatz; rather, it was a short ways away by subway from our Tryp Hotel, and we managed to locate it with minimal difficulty with some help from English speaking locals.

This beer garden was exactly like I anticipated it would be. The outside was an A-Frame Swiss chalet looking structure. The inside was painted a yellowish tan with decorations of small creatures mounted on wooden shields, paintings of festivities during Oktoberfest, and tables made out of large barrels. In the next room where the decor was more traditional Bavarian with pastoral scenes, etc, we ate an awesome meal comprised of sausages, snitzel, pretzels, apple strudel and several rounds of beer. The server recommended a Pils, but I had their Dunkel weis, which was very drinkable-all that I hoped for. In my opinion, it is the best that Augustiner makes. According to Munich Breweries website, the Dunkel weis is "Red-brown, nutty, malty and lightly hopped." This concise description fit it to a T. They also say this about the Dunkel, "Dark lager. Toffee and fruit aromas, neural taste with hop and malt, bitterish raisiny finish. A very nice, chewy dark beer." Unfortunately, the Augustiner-Keller didn't have all the brews, like the Dopplebock, for which they are famous. We passed a very enjoyable evening, but dropped pant-load of cash in the process.

The next day, we visited Dachau. Sad.

The following day, we went to Marionplatz to find the Hofbrauhaus. The building was cool, the ceilings were painted with murals and their were long wooden tables with benches where folks just camped out, drank and listened to the oompah band. The beers were LARGE. I drank the Dunkel weisse which I think was not as good as the Augustiner dunkel weisse. The Munich Breweries website supports this assessment; they said, "Dark lager. Malt aroma, neutral taste, dry bitterish finish. Pretty bland dunkles." We had the giant pretzels and some laughs though.

Estimation: Munich-mostly modern with some older buildings. The churches were austere. Beers- mostly what you get through imports. Atmosphere at some of the brew houses- unsurpassable. Pretzels-delectable. Apple strudel-awesome. Cost: Outrageously high.