Necessity is a Mother......of Invention

I can't believe it has been nearly 10 months since my last blog post. I now find myself with unexpected time on my hands and an inability to travel thanks to the current pandemic. Fear not as I have 10 months of posts to make up for.  My gain is your loss!

As the saying goes necessity is the mother of invention. A large portion of the world's population now struggles to reinvent itself as we are relegated to our homes with social distancing becoming the norm. The economic impact is being felt around the world, my favorite breweries included. For European beer lovers the timing of the pandemic could not be worse. We need look no further than the cancelation of Stuttgarts annual Fruehling fest to see the impact on Europe's spring beer festivals. Fortunately, Europe does allow for online purchase and delivery of alcohol, guaranteeing my continued access to some of my favorite beers. Many breweries and tap rooms are now offering virtual beer tasting events via an online beer purchase  followed by a streaming event focusing on the purchased beer. Necessity is the mother of invention.

On a personal level I face a much larger problem. How do I maintain a blog focusing on beer travels when neither the beer event, nor travel are permitted? How can I maintain the self-deprecating humor and sarcasm my tens of followers have become accustomed to?  These are the questions that keep me awake at night. That and an increasingly small bladder. 

In the coming days and weeks, I will resume regular blogging with riveting beer reviews, random thoughts, and never before seen photos. Until then please enjoy a picture of my dogs.

Until next time,

Stay crafty and wash your hands

A Visit to the Hoptometrist

I am unapologetically a Hop Head. I can’t get enough IPA. I brew IPA’s, I drink IPA’s, I dream about IPA’s. India Pale Ales are the number one selling craft beer style in the United States. As I have mentioned in previous blog posts there are in increasing number of craft breweries in Germany, but their IPA’s generally fall short of an American IPA. Entering my third year in Germany I can safely say German craft brewers are making significant progress and closing the gap with American breweries. I have had the pleasure of experiencing the German hop revolution first hand.

This weekend the navigator and I joined four of closest friends at the 4the annual Stuttgarter Craft Beer Festival.  Sponsored by the owner of Kraftapaule beer bar (A close friend) the Craft Beer Festival is a must visit for all craft beer aficionados in the Stuttgart area. We arrived at the crack of 12 noon to find at least 200 people had beat us to the punch. Not surprisingly my first beer was a farmhouse ale by Kesselbrauer. A quaffable saison type beer. Best to ease into things. Naturally my second beer was an IPA. Not just any IPA but a spruce tip IPA by Lost River Brewing. The only thing I love more than IPA is a SPRUCE IPA and this beer hit the mark!  At first sniff subtle hints of spruce and hops tickle your nostrils.  A quick taste tells me all I need to know, a well-balanced spruce beer rivaling many of the U.S produced spruce beers. Four hours and 12 beers later I returned to Lost River Brewing for a farewell glass of spruce tip IPA and perhaps a case of bottles to go. Unfortunately, Lost River doesn’t bottle their spruce tip beer. Not only that they had kicked their keg, NO SPRUCE TIP BERR FOR YOU! I cried as the brewmaster tried to console me. The brewmaster reassured me that they would brew another batch which should be ready in 6-8 WEEKS! Oh, the humanity

In contrast to American craft beer festivals German craft beer festivals allow you to choose the size of your tasting with sizes ranging from 100 ml to a full 500 ml pour. No tokens, cash only based on your sample size. Suffice to say my “Samples” were all “Adult-sized”. Another unique part of the Stuttgarter Craft Beer Fest was the introduction of every attending  brewmaster.

Here are my top five IPA’s :

1.       Lost River Spruce Tip IPA (See above)

2.       Hey Joe Double Trouble IPA- Amazing IPA only available on tap. A hopper stronger version of their Mad Dog IPA

3.       CAST Double IPA- A local Stuttgart craft brewery who seem to have it figured out. Their IPA’s have improved significantly since I first tried them 2.5 years ago/

4.       Hey Joe, Mad Dog IPA- A solid IPA and my annual “Go-To” and the craft beer fest.

5.       Brassiere Boum’R Imperial IPA- This brewery had five beers on tap, all IPA’s. I have had many sucky French craft beers. These guys stand above every French beer I have ever tried. Viva la IPA!

Nearly three years into German tour one thing is evident, Germans are rapidly figuring out the secret to IPAs and I for one am ecstatic!  As we enter the height of the European craft beer season I leave you with a hint of my next trip:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=cheech+and+chong+amsterdam+song&view=detail&mid=F1EA9E14F4D97BB27778F1EA9E14F4D97BB27778&FORM=VIRE

 Until next time,

Stay Crafty my friends.

Craft Beer Circus

Since my arrival in Deutschland I have opted to spend the winters drinking my homebrewed beer and counting the days since I last saw the sun. If I restricted my beer drinking to sunny winter days, I would undoubtedly reduce the size of my bulbous midriff by 100 centimeters, like 2 inches in standard measuring terms. But hey, what fun is that? As all the cool kids like to say YOLO. A rare mid-January beer fest is just what the doctor ordered. Well, not my doctor, but I digress. When a few friends suggested we attend the Karlsruher Craft Beer Festival I jumped at the chance to imbibe on my version of liquid sunshine.

Karlsruhe is a lovely city. The second largest city in the state of Baden-Wurtemberg (Stuttgart is the largest) it is the seat of the Federal Constitution Court. Located a mere 80 Km’s (12 miles or so non-metric measurement) north of Stuttgart its an easy drive, which is why we opted for the train. We are nothing if not responsible. Arriving at the fest location we discover the beer tent is in fact a circus tent. As we all know its best to leave circus tents erected year around in case a circus without a tent wanders through town.

Entering the tent, I’m pleasantly surprised by both the temperature and the lack of elephant dung.  Several beer fest tables stood at center ring with nary a clown in sight. We quickly secured a table and struck off to experience craft beer under the big top. Most participating breweries were German, many of which I had sampled before. One German craft beer stood out amongst the others. Chilliero a chili pepper beer produce by Hofpfengarten brewery in Bamberg, Germany. This beer was shocking on two levels. One, most pepper beers are unbalanced, with the spice overpowering the beer. Chilliero however was well balanced. Second and more notably, Bamberg is the home of Rauch (smoked) beer. Ninety nine percent of the beer produced in Bamberg is smoked beer. I challenge anyone to enter any bar in Bamberg and asked for something that isn’t smoked……good luck.

Smoked beer aside I found myself returning again and again to the Browar PINTA booth, Polish craft beer at its finest. Their Vermont IPA was surprisingly juicy, rivaling many U.S. produced New England IPA’s. Somewhere around my third trip to the Browar PINTA both with a friend of mine he was told beer is free for brewery representatives. We shared confused glances before realizing the server had assumed my friends Guinness shirt meant he was also a vendor. I quickly began disrobing, removing my hoody revealing my Stone Brewery shirt. Alas I was to late as my friend informed the server that we are NOT vendors.

While the weather outside was frightful, craft beer under the big top is the epitome of the craft beer scene in Germany. Random beer fests in unusual locals are what makes my beer experience in Germany one for the ages. I look forward to next years Craft beer Circus during the height of European winter dankness, providing hope in the form of liquid sunshine that winter cannot last forever.

Until next time,

Stay Crafty my friends.

German Homebrew: Trial by Jury

Cases of Homebrew

Approximately 100 km east of Stuttgart is the town of Gundelfingen, home of the Camba Old Factory brewery. I first visited Camba in August(http://www.wanderinghomebrewer.com/2017/08/german-craft-beer-scene-going-nuclear.html) where I learned of their mid-September Hobbybrauer festival. Feeling confident I quickly secured brewing ingredients for my award winning double IPA which took a silver medal at the D.C. Cherry Blossom Homebrew competition. Award winning is a relative term; basically my beer sucked less than the other entries. In any event I dusted off my score sheets and tweaked my recipe based on the judges’ feedback. The result, a 9.2%ABV double IPA. GAME ON!

The Camba Bierfestival & Hobbybrauerwettbewer is a three day weekend event, attracting more than 80 homebrewers from around Europe. The winning homebrewers beer is produced at the brewery, with the winner receiving 200 liters, roughly 400 cans of their beer! Additionally the winning beer is served in the Camba taproom for a year. Friday is homebrew drop off day, with the actual competition on Saturday, culminating with a standard festival on Sunday. I arrived at the Camba Old Factory on Friday afternoon with eight bottles of my double IPA under my arm. This American was prepared to show the Germans how a true American IPA should taste! At the check-in table I was asked if I would be serving my beer. Unsure of the implications of such a question I quickly replied “Ummm No”. I was told that the “Jury” begins sampling the beer at noon on Saturday, with results no later than 2:00 pm.                                          

 At 1130 on Saturday morning the navigator and I arrive at the brewery. Tents and campers were scattered near the playground area where long distance competitors had spent the night. There were only a handful of people in the brewery where a series of tables were arranged in a horseshoe formation for the competitors to in fact serve their beer. For 1 euro a piece customers purchase tokens which are good for both beer and food. Each homebrewer had a basket at their table where customers pay to sample their beer. Not your typical American homebrew competition.           

Within 2 hours most of the homebrew tables were filled with homebrewers. Cases of their best offerings under the table, and in commercial coolers strategically place behind them. As we wandered along the tables it became very apparent to me that some of the competitors were far from traditional “Homebrewers”, with business cards, banners, and even stickers! Not wanting to sample commercial-like “homebrew” I stopped in front of two young men frantically making signs with a sharpie. These are my people! The two men were from Austria and had been homebrewing for about a year. They offered me a very dark honey wheat beer, warning that its “A Very Strong Beer 8% Alcohol”. As I sipped their beer it was obvious that the beer was much stronger than 8%. It was then that they explained initially it didn’t taste very good so they added a kilo of honey. The honey hadn’t helped. No Token For YOU!

Near the far end of the horseshoe of tables I came across a Wintergreen Pale Ale. Intrigued I asked for a sample. At first sip it was quite refreshing, with a hint of wintergreen after taste which unfortunately kept building to peppermint patty status. When I asked the homebrewer how he managed to get that flavor he replied “I have no idea, I was just trying to brew a Pale Ale”. I gave him a token for being honest. Of the 60 or so homebrewers actually offering their beer I encountered only one American. This was his second time entering the competition but his first time actually serving his beer because like me he was initially confused by the process.

Beer Samples for the Jury

At 3:00 pm the “Jury” reached its verdict, proclaiming a Russian Imperial Stout as the winner. Unfortunately I had not sampled the winning beer as it was produced by one of the commercial-like homebrewers.  While I didn’t receive any awards I did interact with some amazingly interesting homebrewers. Some of those interactions were omitted from this post for the sake of brevity, and the PG-13 rating. Most all of the German homebrewers I spoke with had nothing but praise and amazement for the American Craft Beer movement, criticizing the traditional German beer scene. That being said, all were optimistic that Craft beer could, and would become as prevalent in Germany as it is in the U.S. Based on my experience at the hobbybrauer event I can only share their optimism.  I am already making plans for next year’s competition!

Until next time,

Prost!

Belgium: I’m Leuven It!

I would like to offer my apologies to my tens of followers as it has been far too long since my last post. Truth be told there has been little blog worthy beer activity during the long German winter. With daylight hours growing ever longer my desire for new and exciting beer venues is on the rise. My desire became so overwhelming (Still Referring to Beer) I took to the interwebs in search of a new beer adventure. After thousands of nanoseconds “On the Line” my eyes fell on the Zythos Beer Festival in Leuven, Belgium. Eureka! Leuven Belgium is a mere five or so hour trip as the Ford flies. Leuven is also home to largest University in Belgium where a friend of mine is currently studying philosophy. The pieces were falling in place nicely.  I hastily purchased tickets which included obligatory tasting glasses and eight tokens for beer samples. Only eight tokens for a festival with more than 80 booths and 500 beers!?!?!?!?  Challenge accepted

Leuven has a rich beer culture, being the birthplace of several beers such as (Cough) Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus, and Keizersberg. Leuven is also home to the worldwide headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev…..Enough about them. My Navigator and I arrive in Leuven Friday evening, taking enough time to check into our centrally located hotel before striking off in search of food and of course beer. AB InBev aside Lueven is a magnificent town with picturesque buildings and churches dating back to 1400’s.

Town Hall

We arise at the crack of 1000 am, meeting the “Philosopher” at 1100 to catch the shuttle bus to the fest. It’s painfully obvious that the early worm may catch the worm, but he definitely didn’t catch the first bus as nearly a hundred people fight to board the complimentary city bus. Fortunately the organizers anticipated this and a mere seven minutes later another bus arrived, whisking us away to a date with beer destiny. We enter Brabenthall, barely, as hundreds of “Advanced” ticket holders anxiously await the high noon opening. Well, hundreds minus one. The Philosopher opted to purchase tickets at the door, propelling him to the FRONT of the cash only line with an eye popping three other people! Fortunately he is not only a scholar but a gentleman and quickly secured brewery swag while we slogged our way in. Once inside my Navigator quickly purchased not less than 30 additional beer tokens which she evenly distributed to the rest of us. That’s why she is the Navigator.  Now to the beer!

It goes without saying that ones first beer MUST be a traditional Belgian style. We quickly get a sample of Palm Belgian Amber, a run of the mill Tripel by Steinhaus Brewing. We then opt for a Viven Imperial IPA. I have sampled several European IPA’s and none could hold a candle to an American IPA. Much to my delight Viven is the exception. I could have just easily been drinking an IPA at beer fest in Virginia! For the rest of the afternoon we alternated between traditional Belgian beers and Belgian craft beers until finally both we, and our tokens were exhausted. In total we had sampled 18 beers (I managed two freebies) but could have easily sampled twice that many without scratching the surface. Beer was not the only thing on the menu as there were numerous food trucks serving up pizza, burgers, and of course, don’t call them “French” fries. One of my favorites was what I dubbed “Meat Fries”. Unlike Poutine which I enjoy very much these fries come with what can only be described as beef stew on top! If my calculations are correct, between food and beer, I consumed approximately 48000 calories! I may be exaggerating slightly.

"Meat Fries"

"High Noon"

Suffice to say I am looking forward to next years Zythos fest. Belgium is a beer country, more so than Germany, in my humble opinion. Beer shops abound in most every city we passed through. As of this writing I have more than 40 Belgian beers in my cellar with plans to double that number by the official start of summer. For anyone even remotely considering a trip to Belgium and the awesomeness that is the Zythos beer festival I can only say

DO IT!

Until next time,

Stay Crafty