Saturday, February 06, 2021

History Site re-vamped and ready for incriminating photos.

Updated Rosters and other fun webby stuff. Looking forward to travelling again.

Oktoberfest History Page

Here's a shot from 2018...

Thursday, February 04, 2021

Three visitors confirmed!

Happy to announce that we have three new visitors for our Immersion 2021 Tour!

We remember one visitor; "Beergärtner" (we know him from last year) and his wife "Beercap". They will join in Köln. And the third? I like to keep it a secret. Today I arranged hotel rooms in Munich.

Tuesday, February 02, 2021

The Other Boys at Weihenstephan

Proof that we are a spiritual bunch

Here's a shot of Chugger reading from The Book at Weihenstephan.

Oldest Breweries in the world

We have been to a few of these!!!

Worlds Oldest Breweries

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Singing in German is ‘riskiest’ for spreading COVID-19, study finds

Trilling in the German language poses a greater risk than crooning in Japanese, according to this research into how singing can spread COVID-19.

Last year, scientists found the language you speak could play a role in the transmission of COVID-19, because of aspirated consonants. In English, for instance, the letter ‘P’ creates a puff of air, emitting respiratory droplets. https://tinyurl.com/y5uctpdz

Pretty scaring ....... I only know two English Oktoberfest songs. So let's hope they don't implement this protective measure. By the way, the ones I know: Sweet Caroline and Take me home.

Friday, January 29, 2021

Updated Documents

I have updated the Participants document and fixed some errors in the Itinerary document. See the links above.

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Updated Proposed Itineray

After a week of consultation with the Oktoberfest Planning Committee during our winter meeting in Florida, we are proposing updates to the Bier Immersion 2021 itinerary. This update includes an additional day to explore and sample bier in Kulmbach, as well as extra time in München. Initial arrivals in Berlin on 14 September, with departure from München on 28 September.

Dates are still flexible, so please review the various documents and give us your thoughts. More/less time in various cities? Ignore a city?

It is time to start assigning responsibility for hotel procurement, so please opine as soon as you can. Two documents above detail our plans and current participants:

Proposed Itinerary

Attendees

Also, please let me know if I screwed something up.

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Bamberg Bier Gardens

Klosterbräu Bamberg

Klosterbräu (formerly the Fürstbischöffliche Braunbierbrauerei) is Bamberg's oldest brewery, dating from 1533. The pub itself has the usual wide arch (formerly for access to the brewery at the rear) with a room on either side. The larger room to the right houses the bar counter. The interior is very simple but pleasant. You know the score by now: wooden floor, panelled walls, pine-topped tables, beamed ceiling. The same faces keep popping up in the many old photographs adorning the walls, so I would guess that they are of the former owners of the brewery (they appear to be pretty comfortably off). On the street outside there are a few tables for those who like their drinking al fresco.

The food is excellent and the staff very friendly. Recommended is the Schwärzla, a black beer unlike anything else brewed in Bamberg.

Brauerei Spezial

Spezial is an absolute must for the Rauchbier fans amongst you. With no fewer than four different varieties (five including the bock in the Winter) it must be the world leader in smoked beer. It's also very handily placed, directly opposite Fässla.

The building is an attractve, ancient, half-timbered job, with an old-fashioned wrought iron sign (sporting the equally tradtional brewer's symbol of a six-pointed star). You should be able to guess by now what to expect inside: dark wood panelling, long pine tables, animal skulls. In one corner, atop a small bar sit wooden barrels and, yes, these are real ones.

Saturday, January 02, 2021

A New Recurring Feature...

Thought I would occupy some of my time, and as a result, your time with this new feature of the Blog. Occasionally I will highlight some bier halls/bier gardens in the cities we hope to visit this year. This is just for educational purposes, your mileage may vary, and we may not even visit them. Please give your thoughts, and maybe other alternatives in that city that you may be aware of.

Oh and by they way.... Happy New Year, or Frohes Neues Yahr for the locals.

Let's get started with Köln:

Bierhaus en d’r Salzgass

Cozy and stylishly decorated, this is where locals have been coming for beer since the 19th century. Today it belongs to Päffgen brewery and serves authentic German dishes.

Bierhaus am Rhein

Part of the same Päffgen brewery, Bierhaus am Rhein has the same menu and offers views of the Rhine and park at Frankenwerft.

Papa Joe's Klimperkasten

If you’re more interested in music and beer than in food, check out $$ Papa Joe’s Klimperkasten, a dark pub packed with memorabilia and live jazz daily (Gaffel on tap, live piano jazz Sun-Thu).

Sunday, December 13, 2020

A Writ from God Version II

I recently emailed our bier drinking idol Larry Hawthorne of The Beer Drinker's Guide to Munich fame. He did return my email, and I feel honored once again to be speaking with the esteemed one. While his response was very long, I include some of it below, edited for brevity (I know, it is still very long). This does give some insight into what could lie ahead of us if we perfect our bier consumption activities.

Hey, Chugger,

I've been remiss with my correspondence. I apologize for not getting back to you. Still around and generally traveling a lot. Not much to Munich, of course, in the past year or most of 2019 for that matter. I was getting serious about an 8th edition of the BDG2M, but I let it slip another year and then along came Covid. ...

If things open up again next year I'll get moving on an update. This time there will be a Kindle edition and a limited print run. ... But, I like to do it, so there is still an eighth edition in me somewhere. I've been retired from my day job for some 16 years now and have dabbled in different things. ...

We are still very active with the adult LEGO community (damn, that almost sounds pornographic) and regularly attend LEGO builders and designers conventions in Australia (January) and Chicago (June) each year. ... we travel around the US half the time and the rest is a lot of travel in Europe (Prague is our landing spot as Eliska is Czech and we have an apartment there). ...

...

It would be great to meet up with you guys sometime. Cannot believe how long it's been and you've walked in my footsteps and occasionally I've walked in yours (tried to leave a copy for your next visit with the folks running Shakespears there in Munich around the corner from the Hauptbahnhof). I think Barleyman and Paulaner Girl live in the San Diego area? We're often in Hemet, high desert area of Inland Empire area there in SoCal. We've got a place there. Might try to meet them if they're available sometime over at Stone in Escondido and have a few bitter ales if they're interested. ROADTRIP ! ! !

As it is, we're in Hawaii and have been here since early February. We were coming through here from our Australia trip in January to stay for a month or two, as we usually do. But the Covid got worse and we decided to stay right here and ride it out. ... We're domiciled in Henderson, NV (Las Vegas) as you probably know. Essentially it was for tax reasons but it's really on wheels there. ... we're looking elsewhere to relocate, maybe Nashville area in Tennessee. I love bluegrass and play banjo, fiddle and guitar, so in my old age I'm really getting into jamming the music.

Meanwhile, all the best to you guys. I always thought you and your gang were hilarious in the things you do and the way you approach the wonderful art of drinking beer. Lots of it. I mean that IS what it's all about, as you were all able to break the code first. I think it might have been around the third edition that you guys became early adopters of The BDG2M. You left me a positive review on Amazon once that more or less said, "he gets it". You were alluding to the fact that it was all about the immersion in the culture and the beer and that there was nothing to be self-conscious about, just because it was a hell of a lot of fun. There was a time when even the title of the book, "The Beer Drinker's Guide" felt risky. I mean, not exactly the Great American Novel, that one. But it WAS the perfect title, and you guys confirmed it for me. That really made a difference to me, believe it or not. Because, you know, I actually was thinking I do get it but I need someone else to agree with the conclusion. And you guys did, even to the point of spinning off your own tour businesses for a while.

All the best, Keith (Chugger) and regards to the whole gang. I look forward to us meeting sometime and lifting a few Maß.

Prosit!

Larry

Speaking of Train Passes

With all of our expected travel for the Bier Immersion, German Rail passes are in order. With the proposed itinerary, we have 6 different days of travel that will require a train. Deutsche Bahn offers passes for 5 or 7 days within a month, so the 7 day pass would seem appropriate. It would then give us an extra day trip while in München.

There are 2 flavors of the rail pass; Single and Flexi. The Flexi allows two Oktoberfestians to travel on the same pass. While it costs more for the pass, it is not twice the price, so $$ are saved:

1 Single Rail Pass 256 €

1 Twin Pass 388 €

So, two Oktoberfestians with a Single Pass each would pay a total of 512 €, but those same two Oktoberfestians with a Twin Pass would only pay 388 €. 124 € for bier!

Unfortunately these passes are only for non-EU Oktoberfestians, sorry Barbus.

More Bier Immersion Stuff

Ok, Ok, Ok......

Being the AOC (Anal Oktoberfestian [Chugger]) that I am, I am trying to end this year with everyone thinking about and planning for our Bier Excursion in 2021; Covid and travel restrictions permitting. We have had some discussions in previous threads, but in all honestly, not much enthusiasm; Flying Dan and BarleyMan excepted. This is my last attempt to generate some ongoing enthusiasm. What else is there to do when most of us have some form of limited or total shutdown? Unlike our normal trips, this will require some planning and coordination, and I'm sensing an "attitude" from some (no fingers being pointed). The alternative is Flying Dan and I (with a rendezvous with BarleyMan) are on our way and we may or may not see you.

So, I have created a planning document that will be kept up-to-date with our decisions. This will make it easier than trying to keep up with multiple posts. We should still use the various posts for discussion and other recommendations.

You can use the link above in the header, or access the document from here.