Kegging

[PB2]

Kieran,

 

sorry, I forgot to ask - how was Germany? You must have some stories to tell.

 

 

 

or

 

 

 

At least something to gloat about regarding brewery visits, amazing pubs or excellent beers??

[kieran]

Germany was bloody fantastic. There are approximately 2500 Breweries in Germany. My memory cannot recall all that I drank, but I can give you a rundown on some of the brauhauses that I visited. Drinking is different in Germany. Everywhere you go, you don't go to the bar to order, you get table/standing service - just an interesting observation that I thought I'd share.

 

 

 

Breweries I visited:

 

 

 

Klosterbrauerei Andechs (Bavaria) [ http://www.andechs.de/index.asp?lng=en ] - EST. 1455 (!) Still brewed by Monks! The Spezial Hell and Bergbock Hell bier down here is potent stuff indeed at around 5.8% and 6.9% respectively - served in 1 Litre Ma\xdf steins. It will put you on your arse very quickly after a few of these - especially considering that it was 29C the day we were there! The Helles ales are very malty but crystal clear deep yellow ales.. They had a slight sweetness to them which wasn't particularly to my liking, but they were very refreshing. The food at the Cloister (Monastery) was fantastic, serving up Schweinshaxe (Grilled Pork Shank) as a Bavarian specialty (Schweinshaxe is Grilled Pork Shank (knuckle) and Eisbein is Broiled Port Shank (knuckle)).

 

 

 

We also went to the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, but everyone knows what HB tastes like probably from Schutzenfest in Adelaide.

 

 

 

We went to D\xfcsseldorf for the Altbier experience (for everyone who isn't sure what Altbier is - Alt (Old) bier (beer) is basically a dark lager). The breweries we visited were:

 

Zum Uerige [ http://www.uerige.de/ ]

 

Brauerei Zum Schl\xfcssel [ http://www.zum-schluessel.de/ ]

 

Schumacher im Goldenen Kessel [ http://www.brauerei-schumacher.de/ ]

 

Brauerei im F\xfcchschen [ http://www.fuechschen.de/ ]

 

We tried the Alt in each, and its quite complex, and difficult to describe since most (all?) of the dark beer we have here are Ales, not Lagers. My favourite was the Schumacher Jung, not their standard Alt - not as dark. My tasting notes for Jung were that it was quite malty, with a bitterness and finish of the Victoria Bitter Original crossed with a slight roastyness (yeah, I know, but it was the closest I could come to for comparison's sake).

 

 

 

We had some K\xf6lsch in Cologne. It drinks like water, extremely light in body, not too bitter, not too heavy on the gas - it still has a decent beer mouthfeel though. The way the beer is served is cool, because you get a 200ml Glass, and a coaster. The Beer waiter carries a tray of beers, and swaps your empty for a full one - you don't pay for it yet, he takes out his pencil, and scratches a single tally on your coaster. You keep going, I counted 25 marks on some guys coaster at one pub.. When you want to leave, the marks on your coaster are added up, and you settle your coaster account. Nobody seemed to be trying to screw the waiters over, and they're pretty astute - even without the coasters, they have a fair idea who the beer pigs are. :)

 

 

 

Becks in Bremen - their HAAKE BECK is really nice. Its a pilsner, with some yeast added in at the end to give it a little extra kick. The first "Pale ale-looking Pilsner/Lager" that I've ever seen/tasted.. Pity you don't get it anywhere but in Bremen and a few select pubs around Europe. I think Haake Beck should replace some of the other crap they're toying around with - Becks Green Lemon, Becks Gold, Becks Level 7, Becks Orange. The Germans are mad about mixing beer - Level 7 is a Beer/Energy drink with a Shandy-like taste except more Limey than lemonade - with Caffeine and Guarana added for the 'kick'.

 

 

 

From here the only Brewery we visited was the Kieler Brauerei [ http://www.kieler-brauerei.de/ ]. This was my most favourite place in all of Germany. Situated in the centre of the harbor-city of Kiel (~150km north of Hamburg, on the baltic coast, sitting approximately 100km from the Danish border). Their beers were Kieler Bier (a pale ale), Schwarzbier (black beer[porter]), oder Grafenbr\xe4u dunkel (dark ale of the season). They were all ales, this small brauhaus was like an Ale Oasis in the middle of a Lager desert. Nothing has ever graced my lips like that before, it was a sheer delight. The Kieler Bier was a naturally carbonated pale ale with cloudiness that would impress all but the most cynical Cooper's fans, it had a slight scent of honey/fruit, but a very malty and appropriately big mouthfeel, with a perfectly balanced bitterness to ensure that while drinking you can't taste the honey/fruit, but afterwards there is a tiny little taste of it on your lips (of course this is in context with the massive malt/bitter hit aswell). The porter was fantastic, robust, with a strong roasted character, thick uber malt finish, low carbonation. The schwarzbier was like the "lite" version of the porter, less heavy, more refreshing, but still was a slightly roasted character.

 

They only sell at their brewhaus, they don't even sell it to local pubs, so the chances of getting it here are buckley's and none, unfortunately.

 

 

 

We also visited St. Jame's Gate Brewery, Dublin to try some Guinness while we quickly flew through the UK for 6 days. I also tried some hand-pulled Real Ale in London - the real stuff, proper English Bitter. I tell you, Real English Special Bitter makes "Victoria Bitter" look like a little schoolgirl with pigtails. I had a hand-pulled Bombardier [ http://www.bombardier.co.uk/ ], served warm, and it was amazing. Instead of our 4C or whatever our beer is served at, theirs is more like 14 to 18C. The bitterness and aroma just bursts out of it, with a thick creamy head.. definately not one for the ladies, Belinda (my wife) nearly choked on a mouthfull of it. "Puts hairs on your chest that one" I think was my first comment. It became my regular drink in London. I also had a Marston's Pedigree which was another English Real Ale, and that was really nice aswell - brewed in Oak Casks [ http://www.marstonsdontcompromise.co.uk ... digree.htm ].

 

I need to home brew myself some of that for summer. I loved the Hand Pumps aswell, really cool. I'd love to go back to London again - but it is very very expensive.

 

 

 

So that was the stuff worth noting of the breweries/beers.

 

 

 

I have stories to tell - I was in hospital for 2 days only 4 days into the trip, completely wrote myself off. I'll keep that one to myself though.. However I picked up the pieces, and was all good afterwards.

 

The Berlin Fan Fest was awesome, we saw 3rd vs 4th (Germany vs Portugal) there, the official numbers were a little above 1,000,000 people in attendance. Just phenomenal! And germany won 3:1! The celebrations were long, joyous, and many Germans were very jolly for quite a while afterwards. It was funny, they played "We are the Champions" afterwards on the fanfest - for beating Portugal to claim 3rd Place (!!?!?!?). "Champion's of what", I think somebody heard me screaming.. I've never seen so many people, on a 3km stretch running up to the Brandenburg Gate, they had about 7 massive screens (even bigger than the average screen at most Footy ovals) which gave a perfect picture even when the sun was shining directly on them - really impressive tech. These were distributed up the length of the road so people didn't crowd any one area. There were beer and food tents lining the entire road. The best thing about the location was that the road runs straight through a park - so there is plenty of nature to "water". Believe me with 1,000,000 people there (mostly men) the park got a thorough hosing down - I think installing enough Porta-loos for that many people would be damn near impossible - do the maths. Even if everybody there only takes 1 leak of 100ml, you've got 100,000 Litres of piss to dispose of.. and after Germany's win, people were going back for their 5th and 6th successive relief..!! :shock: :P

 

 

 

That game and the excitement and cheerful peaceful atmosphere was probably my favourite most memorable moment. Although that and Togo's first (and only) goal. We had team tickets for Togo, saw 5 games, and got to see Togo vs FRANCE and ukraine vs ITALY as a result (amongst others) - so atleast we got to see the two championship teams in action.

 

 

 

My least favourite memorable moment would have to be "the loss" to Italy. I saw red that day, no amount of K\xf6lsch in that Cologne bar could put out the fire raging inside me that afternoon.

 

 

 

All in all, it was the trip of a lifetime.

 

If any of you have a chance to go there, take it!

 

The people are friendly, and they all talk *some* english.

 

 

 

cheers,

 

kieran

 

P.S. Our Cooper's club clothing and other paraphenalia got a thorough workout over there, spreading the South Aussie love to our German friends.

[PB2]

Sensational post Kieran!

[Frank]

Kieren, we really should share this with the Luddites amongst us. Send some photos in and I'll publish an edited version in the September Newsletter (with your permission of course). Email photos (more pixels is better than less) to franka@coopers.com.au We can work through a print version via email if you like.

 

 

 

Cheers, Frank.

[kieran]

No problems Frank, I've got about 4 gigs worth of snaps so I'll send some good ones. :)

[Frank]

Cool!