So, I made it to Munich. It's strange going somewhere and not knowing any part of their language. I have been to Italy, Spain, and France before. My Spanish, at the time, was pretty good. That managed to get me around nicely. Here? Spanish gets me nowhere. What a bizarre language German is...
Anyway, I am staying in downtown Munich, right across from the Central Train Station. It's a seriously bustling city. There are always a lot of people out and about. It seems to be a very touristy area as well. I am about a 20 minute walk from the Glockenspiel (the thing that "It's a Small World" at Disneyland was created after). That make it about 25 minutes to the Hofbrauhaus. That is one of the only places in the world to go see old Germans drink liters of beer while wearing Lederhosen and listening to traditional German music. Unfortunately, the service is terrible. That said, when you drink that liter of clean, crisp German Helles Lager, those memories seem to fade.
Those that know me from back home realize that I really don't like lager beers. Here it is a completely different story. The lagers are bright and clean and extremely drinkable. In the south of Bavaria, the beers tend to have a bit of a sulphur taste as well. I don't mind it. It adds dimension to the beer. Dunkles (or dark lagers) are great as well. Still very drinkable with a hint of that bready, biscuity flavor. The Weissbiers...best wheat beers ever!! Even if you have a German weissbier in the states, it cannot compare to a fresh one straight off the tap from the brewery itself. Again, just a clean drinkable beer. In Bavaria, they favor certain characteristics in their weissbiers and brew certain ways to accentuate those flavors. For example, most wheat beers have a strong banana flavor; an ester from alcohol and an amino acid group. Many wheat yeasts produce huge quantities of this esters. Bavarian wheats have a more phenolic clove taste and smell. This is desired by the drinkers in the area. They will use lower amounts of wheat and very specific yeast strains to achieve that flavor.
Obviously, I am learning a great deal about German brewing here. The instructors are extremely knowledgable. We had a professor who went to school and taught at Weihenstephan, the oldest brewery in the world, for 14 years. He has his PhD in Brewing Technology. Yeah, he knows what he is talking about. He went on and on about how to make beer in the deepest technological details. And he talked about the history of brewing and the history of various styles like it was an everyday conversation. The term Beergod barely does his knowledge justice.
Speaking of Weihenstephan (pronounced "Vine Shtefan" for those that can't pronounce things), a group of us went there on Saturday. It was founded in 1040. Yes, it is almost 1000 years old. They also have an entire university dedicated to food and brewing science there. It's more of a campus than a brewery! It took us about 20 minutes of wandering around before we even found the Braustuberl. I am certainly glad that we did. I had the two best beers of my trip there. The Vitus, a Weissen Bock, and the Korbinian, a Doppelbock. The Vitus won the award for best beer on the planet not long ago. I would not go that far, but to have that out of the tap was definitely an honor. At 7.7% alcohol, it was more of a sipping beer. There was so much flavor that I don't even know how to describe it! Guess you will all have to venture out to Freising, Germany to try it yourself. The Korbinian, on the otherhand, can be described a bit more simply. It was very similar to a Belgian-style Dubbel (which probably originated from the Doppelbock). However, in using the lager yeast for fermentation, the Korbinian have a much cleaner finish and has less of the raisin character. It has huge caramel flavor to it though. Fine fine beverages! I guess you learn a thing or two brewing for 950+ years!
For my April 1st birthday, Gina and I visited Dachau, the WWII concentration camp. That was sobering... It was something that I needed to see. We need to see the attrocities that our species has committed in order to keep from repeating them. What really struck a chord with me however, was the fact that this happen only about 75 years ago! It's scary to think that some in our species still think that it is okay to wipe out an entire race of people.
Okay. Enough of the depressing crap. As I was looking through the tour book and reading about Dachau, I came across a small section on Andech's Monastery. Supposedly it was situated between two lakes south of Munich in the foothills of the Alps that made their own beer. After some deliberation, as it was several hours and another train ticket away, we decided that I needed to go there for my birthday dinner. We boarded a train headed south. About 4 stops from the end of the line (where we needed to get out), we got off to extend our ticket more cheaply. Unfortunately, we had to wait about 30 minutes for the next train to come through. As we stepped on the train, I heard: "I think that's Jeff..." Four of my classmates happened to be going to the same place, on the same train, in the same car, at the same time as Gina and I. Our group of two immediately became a group of six!
Once in Herrsching, we decided to walk to the monastery. We walked about 15 minutes up a tiny street by some gorgeous houses. After that first mile, the road became a trail. We could see the lakes on both side of the hill's ridge. This is what I wanted to see in Germany. I am a nature boy at heart. Eight weeks living in two different concrete jungles have made me miss the outdoors. We followed this trail for about another mile as it rose through a lightly wooded forest and then into a clearing. After we ventured through the clearing, we made a left following the trail down into a river canyon. We could finally see the monastery to our left. The massive steeple stuck up high over the tree top on the next ridge over.
By this time, some of the more hungover/still drunk classmates were struggling. Beauty aside, it was an uphill hike for certain. But, after two more steep climbs, we made it to our destination. The views from the monastery were of the small neighboring community in a valley below with the foothills and the snow covered Alps as a back drop. Unfortunately, as is the case often, my pictures did not do the area's beauty justice.
Andech has two separate biergartens, a cafe, and an actual restaurant (which was sort of like a cafeteria that serves massive slabs of pig meat). After a beer outside, it began getting a bit chilly. It was after 5pm by then. We decided to go in for some food and another drink. Unfortunately for me, I ordered a liter of 7.7% doppelbock. Probably not my smartest moment in history. Additionally, Gina and I ordered about two pounds of pork knuckle, a pretzel the size of my chest, and some potato salad. My friends ordered the same, however they didn't share with one another. Two pounds of deliciously fatty pork is really more than one human should consume. Amazingly, they pretty much ate it all. There are photos of the carnage and of people cheers-ing with half eaten pig legs. I could not have had more fun on my birthday...
...But we were not quite done. The place cleared out rather quickly as they began to close. Strangely, no one offered the noisy Americans a ride back into town to save us the trouble of walking three miles back in the dark. It went by quickly though. We got to the train station by about 8:30. We still had almost 30 minutes before our train would take us back. The best idea anyone could come up with to make the time pass was to all walk into a tiny local dive bar by the train station. When we walked in, it was like a needle coming off the record. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at us like we had grown antlers. Being drunk enough not to care, we charged up to the bar and attempted to order in German (always scary cuz they speak back to you in German!). Finally we all got drinks...right as the train came. Those beers went away very quickly and bottles for the journey back were purchased. Honestly, birthday number 35 will be a hard one to beat!
Next post: Jeff and Gina go to the Alps, a castle, and Bamburg (home of smoked beers)
Beers:
I think I went over this already. The strange thing about Munich is that every bar/brewery makes the same style of beer. And they all taste nearly identical. Obviously, we have our favorites, but it isn't like back home where an IPA at one brewery will be completely different from an IPA at a neighboring brewery. The German Purity Law retail ties the hands of the brewers limiting the amount of experimentation that they can do. Numerous brewers told me that they don't like it and hope it gets repealed soon.
Munich Music:
Parkway Drive (nothing pumps you up on a train ride like some good Aussie metalcore!)
Avett Brothers (never a bad time for those guys)
Angels & Airwaves (still a guilty pleasure...)
Take care everyone. See you in less than 4 weeks!
Prost!
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