Yard’s revisited

I was looking through some photos the other day and I saw the following picture of the Yard’s brewhouse, discussed in this earlier post.. Thought some of you might be interested.

Whaaa?

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a city dweller, with a small, unreliable FIAT parked in the garage down the street. Over the weekend I went down to check the status of that particular vehicle (it didn’t start, of course) and I ran into the neighbor who owns the garage. We started chatting and he offered me … a Miller Lite.
Now, I’m a fan of all sorts of beers, but as a general rule Miller is not one of them. In spite of that, I drank a couple with him while we chatted about neighborhood gossip, our planned renovations, raising kids in the city, and the usual things on chats about over a beer with the neighbor.
Truth be told, Miller Lite’s still not my beer of choice, but it was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

A land without a drink

Last week I was up in the north of Germany, a part of the country which is wildly underappreciated amongst the tourist crowd. That’s better for me, I suppose, but there are some great areas up there.
One of the strange things about the north of Germany is that there is no single drink for which the area is known. The weather isn’t good enough for wine, so that’s a non-starter. They drink a lot (and I mean a lot) of spirits of various sorts, but there’s no single spirit which is really associated with the area. I did have Elbaquavit, an aquavit from a small local provider north of Hamburg which was, well, a bit rough around the edges, but ultimately aquavit is more of a Danish drink than a German one. The best known German spirits tend to come from the south, including the wonderful products of Schladerer mentioned before.
The north also has a lot of great beers, but it’s not really known for them. I’m a big fan of Jever, from a town near the border with the Netherlands, and I also enjoy Flensburger Pils, on the border with Denmark. I’m also a big fan of Dithmarscher, although I prefer the Ditmarscher Urtyp and Dunkel to the Pilsener. Although Jever is part of the Becks brewing empire, and is increasingly available in the US, the others are from two of the few small, privately held breweries left in Germany these days. One of these days I’ll see if they’ll let me in for a tour …
Of course, with all of the ports up in the north, there are also a host of different imports, but then those aren’t really local, now are they? Calvados, Portuguese wine, Baltika Beer, I’ve had a multitude of interesting drinks from all over the world, but none really representative of the north. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with not having a signature drink.

Another look at Pilsen

So, from one set of tunnels to another, today I’ve decided to meander back to beer, and back to the Czech Republic, for another look at Pilsen.
In Pilsen, the Pilsner Urquell brewery’s not the only game in town, and for those interested in the brewing process the Pilsen brewery museum is a must. Housed in a small complex of houses in town, and now part of the Pilsner Urquell domain, the brewery museum was once a very small local brewery.
Visitors can walk through the small malting room, with its tile floors and low, arched ceilings. The well in the quarter provided the water needed for the brewing process. The malt dryer is covered with pungent malt, which I pushed around smoothed out and generally played with using the various old tools which are part of the museum’s display. Fun, yes, but instructive as well.
Similar to the Pilsner Urquell brewery, this small museum has steps leading down to a small fermenting room and, below it, the lagering tunnel. At all of 100 ft., the cellars are perhaps less impressive than those at the brewery, but it’s easy to get a good understanding of the mechanics of brewing. These tunnels were cooled by large chunks of ice which were left at the top of the stairs leading to the tunnel. As the ice melted the cold water ran down into the tunnels thereby keeping them cool. I guess they only brewed in winter. This brewery brewed around 5600 Hectoliters a year, about what Pilsner Urquell brews in one day.

If you can’t eat you might as well drink

Apropos of church, some of the most enduring beers were originally brewed by monks, including the famous Starkbier of Munich and its surroundings. It’s loud and chaotic, but the Starkbierfest is a beer festival with a pedigree. Beer has long been regarded a staple in the Bavarian diet, but it is the notion of beer as “liquid bread” which led the monks of St. Francis of Paula to brew a hearty beer to sustain them through the final weeks of lent and the fasting which leads up to Easter. That beer and the brewery which grew out of it, both named Paulaner Salvator, started a tradition of double-bock beers which survives to this day.
Every spring Munich’s breweries gear up the production of their strongest, richest beers – beers with names like Salvator, Optimator, and Maximator. These dark beers, “strong beers” according to the literal translation, are served in heavy half liter of liter ceramic mugs rather than the usual glasses. As many an unsuspecting visitor to Munich has discovered the double bocks they are almost twice as strong as a normal beer with over 7% alcohol by volume.
The festival is more than just beer, however. The Starkbierfest is called the “fifth season” in Bavaria, and the beer halls of the city are crawling with stout men in their lederhosen, heavy woolen socks and green Loden jackets. The Starkbierfest, like the Oktoberfest, is considered a family event, and the Bavarian women in their long skirts and dirndls are also present, often with the children and the extended family. Where there are Bavarians there is music, and the beer halls reverberate with the local folk music. The atmosphere at the Starkbierfest is friendly and celebratory, with far fewer tourists than the more famous Oktoberfest.
The traditional home of the Starkbierfest is Paulaner’s Salvatorkellar, known in Munich by its location, Nockherberg. The Salvatorkellar is at Hochstraße 77 on the Nockherberg and can be reached by streetcars 15, 25, and 27. If you are in town, don’t miss the opportunity to try one of the other fine double-bock beers in one of Munich’s many other beer halls, in particular that of Löwenbräu on Stiglmaierplatz.
The Starkbierfest is held the 4th and 3rd weeks before Easter. This year’s Starkbierfest started with the traditional Starkbieranstich on March 11, 2007.

A new church for me

Ok, I’m not much of a church goer, but I may have found a little bit of religion. My wife has recently started to go to the local Episcopal church with the kids (which I’m ok with), but I don’t go except on holidays. Don’t get me wrong – I like the progressive viewpoint, the church is pretty, but church services don’t really do it for me.
There is one thing, however, which has helped nudge (and I do mean nudge) me in the direction of becoming a bit more of a churchgoer and that’s – well, beer. You see, the priest (I think that’s what they are called in the episcopal church) is a bit of a beer fan, and has started a beer club called the Franklin Society, after a well-known quote from Benjamin Franklin. Now, beer and churches have a long and mutually beneficial history, and this is arguably just a new chapter in a very old book. Nonetheless, it’s one I enjoy, and one which will hopefully lead to new and interesting posts in the future. Either way, it should broaden my beer horizons a bit, which is always a good thing.
Who knows, I may discover religion yet …

Not the Pitts

We’ve just returned from a city which, much like my home city of Philadelphia, suffers from an old, worn reputation it no longer deserves. I’m talking about Pittsburgh. Now, Pittsburgh still has its issues, but it’s no longer the smog-filled steeltown of old. One thing which is left from those days (combined with a significant German population) is a legacy of beers. Now, not all of those beers are great, but the beer tourist still has a few worthy things to see.
First of all is the Pittsburgh Brewing company, an old-school American brewery which has been in the same location on Liberty Ave in Pittsburgh for over 140 years. According to Factory Tours in PA, the brewery can be toured from April through November, although the brewery website doesn’t say so. Either way, I’ve never been, but one of these days I will. If you are in the neighborhood and can’t tour Pittsburgh Brewing, you can still make your way to beer experience of a different sort. Just a short way down the street from Pittsburgh brewing is the Church Brew Works, where you can worship at the altar of beer (quite literally) and enjoy a fine example of adaptive reuse. The brewery is housed in an old Catholic church, and where the altar once stood there is a large brewing house. It’s a worthy visit, if just for the unique environment, but the beer’s not bad either.
Finally, another old building has been renovated and, in this instance, brought back to its original purpose in the Penn Brewery. Fans of German music and food will enjoy a visit, particularly during the various German-style events, but we’ve been to the restaurant a few times and always had a good time. The old brewery buildings provide a great backdrop for good German-style beers. In summer, a nice patio area provides outdoor seating as well.

On the River Horse

So, closer to home (at least for us) we visited the River Horse Brewing Company in Lambertville, New Jersey. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that New Jersey remains for me a foreign country, and I always expect to have to change money when I go there. More importantly, I still fail to appreciate the charms of the Jersey jughandle, a strange way of turning left which involves turning right first. Thankfully, Lambertville is right over the bridge from New Hope, PA, so we were able to simply park the car and walk.
In any case, the first place we walked was to River Horse, which is in what clearly used to be the industrial section of this practically too cute Victorian village. The brewery itself is in what looks to be an old mill of some sort (anyone know the answer?). Entering the brewery the first sight is a cozy tasting area, with a bar on one side and a very old table (surrounded by handsome River Horse merchandise) on the other. Behind the bar is a door, and the tour pretty much consists of the guy behind the bar opening the door and saying “Here for the tour?”
The main operating portion of the brewery is on the first floor, with only a few lagering tanks on the second. The brewery isn’t large, but you’re free to wander and check out the facility.
As for the beer, I really enjoyed the Lager, and may have to go back and get a case (did I mention that we parked the car and walked to the brewery?). The brewery is open for tours seven days a week, 12-5. Lambertville offers a lot of kitschy shops, particularly antiques, but it’s not wholly given over to the tourist trade.

The Pilsner Urquell brewery, a retrospective

We stood huddled together in the narrow damp tunnels. A chill fog was in the air, and above us ran frosted pipes, moisture dripping on to the cold stone floor below. The tunnels were filled to the left and to the right with wooden barrels, each filled with rich smooth Pilsner Urquell beer at varying stages of the brewing process. Those barrels are gone now, replaced with soulless but practical stainless steel, but this is the story of a visit to one of the world’s finest breweries before it embraced volume over quality.
The tunnel to the right contained the fermenters, large wooden barrels the size of a washer drier combo or perhaps a large jacuzzi. In each barrel, the brewed beer was left to ferment for about 30 days or so until was is ready to be lagered, or stored.
To the left were the lagering barrels, stacked three or four high. Once the beer has been pumped into the lagering barrels, it has only six more months to go before being kegged and shipped throughout the world to pubs in Europe, the United States, and Asia.
Over time, the chill became more pronounced, and the visitors began to move around in a vain attempt warm themselves. The tunnels are tapped to be between 36 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit, cold temperatures for shorts-and-sneakers-wearing tourists such as ourselves. Looking up at the frosted pipe which cool the tunnels, it occured to me that we were in one of the largest refrigerators in the world, with over 9 km of tunnels cut in the the hillside across from the industrial town of Pilsen.
Above the huge expanse of tunnels sprawls the brewery itself, with 32 kettles brewing a total of 1.3 Hectoliters of beer every year. Pilsner Urquell was, at the time, one of the few breweries still making its own malt, and a single train car was used to move the freshly made malt from a large malting house to the brewery itself.
The brewing tradition in Pilsen is strong, with some of the best hops in the world coming from the surrounding area as (Saaz, or Zatec) and years of brewing tradition. This tradition, the wooden barrels with the complicated pitching process, the malt house, and the concentration on beer rather than production was left largely untouched by the Communist regime. Unfortunately, Pilsner Urquell’s very success has ruined that long-held tradition, as the brewery switched to stainless steel lagering tanks in an effort to keep up production and revenue. I haven’t been back since that tour many years ago, but the beer is clearly different, and that’s a shame. Still, it’s a trip every true beer lover should make.

On a hill overlooking a lake …

Sticking with beer for the moment, we’ve moved across the ocean again, to a place that is simply wonderful in the fall. Kloster Andechs is a monastery located on a hill in the lake country just south of Munich, and offers fine beer in a beautiful setting.
Always one to combine healthy activity with my beer drinking, I would recommend that you take the S-Bahn (the local regional rail) to Herrsching and then hike the forest path up to the beergarden. The walk takes an hour or so, and you can always take a bus back down if you can’t make it.
The specialty of the house is the thick brown beer, which is no longer sold on weekends due to its high alcohol content (and the accidents which resulted). There’s an indoor beer hall which is very rustic in a traditional Bavarian sort of way, but the real beauty of the place is the outdoor beergarden. The beergarden is a multi-level, ancient looking place with more character than you could possibly hope for. Indoors you can grab a freshly-baked pretzel, a massive roast ham hock, spiral-cut radishes and a host of other specialties.
Don’t forget to check out the beautiful monastery grounds while you’re here (or, if you’re not a history buff, send the others to look at the monastery while you have another).