Berlin

We enjoyed Berlin. I was surprised how much better the Berlin Weisse is in Berlin. We enjoyed both der rot und der grun; but both of us preferred the raspberry. And we enjoyed some good German Pils. Nice buildings and we walked through an unexpected large park. I wonder if we saw some wild hops growing near the zoo. A staggering number of people on (pedal) bikes here.

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TMB

Prague

Prague is a delightful city. Beautiful buildings. Nice river with bridges with artists selling their masterpieces. Superb food. I gotta figure out how to make their pigs knuckles. Ours came from the local across the street from our hotel. And I need some of their mustard, too. I enjoyed several different locally available Pils; my favorite is Gambrinas and I think that it is Kodel that allows the others to be in the top 90 percent. Oddly, both are brewed by Pilsner Urquell.

We had our second dinner at a brewery that specializes in unpastuerized beer (gee … who would have thought off that…?) I had to have the 8 sampler, the most unusual assortment I have ever had: Pils (excellent), Mix (of Pils and Dark) (picking up some chocolate), Dark (strong chocolate); Wheat (cloudy and totally lacking the German Wheat characteristics), blueberry, (smells like muffins; great), nettle (green; smells strong; accurate name; I enjoyed it); banana (clear; even Bartz might say that this was a good banana flavor; and sour cherry (great - I wish I knew how they did it). Their sampler had 8, even though they had 9 beers; I decided to forego the coffee beer … but I’ll bet that coffee drinkers would have liked it. I really wish I knew how they got those flavors and aroma’s. If I knew, I would own Cat 20 and 21 for awhile.

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TMB

Nice BAM polo shirts and unfiltered barrel aged Pilsner Urquell now available* locally in Plzen!

Well folks, I hate to admit it but Bartz was right. There is no good German wheat beer locally available in Plzen. No German wheat at all … which follows obviously, because even Bartz knows that there is no such thing as a bad German wheat beer. But I am getting ahead of myself …

We arrived in Plzen in time for the tour of the brewery, with our hotel a block from the train station and a block from the brewery.

It was an interesting tour. They stopped using their old brewery in 2004 (7?) and switched to their new and adjacent brewery. They say that they still brew the “traditional” way - 3 hour mash with a triple decoction, each time heating 1/3 of the mash to boiling by putting it in copper preheated to 600 deg and using direct flame. (Except I am not certain I saw any coppers in the new brewery.) Then they filter the wort before boiling (at least that is what the guide said). They add hops three times during the boil, cool it and let it age 30 days. (Originally, they used open fermentation.)

They have 3 bottling lines, one for new bottles, one for reused bottles, and one for cans.

Of great interest was walking through portions of the 5 km of tunnels under the brewery. I could see where the metal on the barrels wore ridges into the stone as they were being rolled along. And the tunnels are where the beer tastings are.

Great tour. Except for the letters SAMILLER in the visitors center.

On other matters, Plzen is a delightful city to walk around in. Good food. And no problems finding locally brewed beer.

We enjoyed dinner at a restaurant owned by the Pilsner Urquell brewery. I had Urquell (of course), and their locally available amber, dark, and mix; I preferred their mix the best.

TMB

* The nice BAM polo shirt is locally available in Pilzn only for viewing. The unfiltered barrel aged Pilsner Urquell is available for tasting only in the tunnels below the brewery

Czech Republic

Mike H's bar in Brussels Day 2 --- A La Mort Subite  

Brugges

Background:

Both Linda and I have enjoyed traveling all of our lives. We both traveled extensively before we married, she in Europe when she taught here for 2 years, and I in the states and Mexico. After we married we traveled through Canada, Mexico, extensively through the states, and have come to Europe for four 2-week trips. We have a long list of favorite places, and a short list of very favorite places. We just revised the short list. Brugges is a special place. It is also spelled in more different ways than any word I can think of.

Beeriac gave excellent advice.

Brouwerij De Halve Maan (Half Moon Brewery); the address is 26 Walpein

A great tour:

The brewery was founded in 1856 and is being run by the 6th generation of the founding family. They started with a 6 percent, and more recently added a 7 ½ pc dark and a 9 pc tripel. They use 6 different malts, a 3 to 4 hour mash, with steps at 50, 58, 62, 68, 72, and 78 deg C. We use a 75 min boil, except 90 for the tripel. Bartz would be proud of them, they follow the Holly Reinheitzgegot (I wonder how they make their tripel). They filter all beer that leaves the building and force carbonate with reclaimed CO2. The brewery is in the historical center of the town, so they cannot rebuild the building. By the city regs, they brew and age in this building and then ship the beer elsewhere to bottle it. They have 47 lagering tanks with 3-4,000 Liter capacity.

The guide was very knowledgeable - his grandfather started working there in 1907. Here is a picture of the bottler he ran, including the protection from the glass from exploding reused bottles.

There were male hops all over the place for decoration; they use only the female hops for brewing.

They changed to closed fermentation vessels 40 years ago.

There was a brewery next door earlier; it started in 1546. Now it is used for storage.

They still have an ammonia compressor that used to be used to make ice and for other purposes. There are only 2 left in Belgium now - the Germans confiscated the rest during WW II.

Earlier, all pubs were owned by breweries - as a way to sell their beer.

At the end of the tour, we sampled an unfiltered Blonde (Bruggse Zot, but unfiltered) that had never left the building. Cloudy is not the word; I could not see through it. But boy, it sure tasted good. Linda pointed out that it is hoppier than most Blondes.

Then I tried their Tripel, Straffe Hendrik, still brewed according to the “original” recipe (Tripels are a relatively new style, I wonder when the "original" recipe was formulated.) It was delightful, with a mild Belgian flavor. I like this Tripel.