Starkbierzeit im München

- by Tim Dalton & Pete Langlois

This is the first in a multipart series documenting a trip undertaken by adventurous beer-hunting Worts in late March, 1995 during the Bavarian strong beer festival

It was wheels down, as the intrepid travelers converged in München on a Saturday morning (18 March, 1995 incase you need to know). It was independent trips for Tim (Heidi to follow a few days later) and for Pete and Christy. Tim got in first, and was already checked in to the Hotel Hauser, when P&C showed up after walking half the way across München because they got off at the stop that appeared closest to the hotel on the tourist map. Had Tim bothered to give them directions, they would have known that the U-Bahn stopped a mere 2 blocks from the hotel.

It was time to cop a quick beer or two to test liver functionality (a test that would be sorely stressed over the next 10 days). The three headed out into adventure. Propelled along with the aid of a quick U-Bahn ride, the trio headed to the Weisses Bräuhaus (near Marienplatz) for a beer and some conversation with a convention of German Bowlers from Stuttgart; the Stuttgart 5 had left the wives at home for the weekend, and were soon to revisit the Deutsches Museum. At the Weisses Bräuhaus, we had Schneider Weiss (a smooth, complex, well balanced, cloudy Weiss beer with a light phenolic (4-vinylguiacol) aroma and other complex flavors that went down way too easily), Aventinus Weizenstarkbier (a bottle conditioned weizenstarkbier that featured a malt and banana nose, deep amber color, noticeable alcohol, and a slight warming characteristic - reminiscent of Chimay) , Helles (clear deep golden lager with a mild malt aroma and flavor), and a round of pretzels and Pork Tubes. Little did we know that this was a premature deja-vu of the cuisine for the next 10 days.

Christy snoozed (jetlag!) while Tim and Pete continued to sponge (besouffen) up the countryside. After a quick trip to the hotel, it was back to the Marienplatz for a stroll to the Augustiner Grossgaststäten where a fine meal of beer and more Bretzen mit Senf accompanied Maximator und Dunkles vom Faß. The Maximator had a light malty character, and was clear, with a medium amber color and good lacework. It appeared better balanced when cool, but as it warmed a late hop bitterness made an unpleasant appearance. Later in the trip, we were to greatly desire any hop character in the Bavarian sweet beers, but on the first night this appeared excessive. The Dunkles had a very light alcoholic malt nose, and might have been over-gassed. It was more balanced and less bitter after using the Cox degassing technique. In mid meal, a German country bumpkin asked us the name of the Dunkles we were so happily imbibing, and we were able to do our first impersonation of Americans faking fluent German. His buzz and ours made this possible, and we took this as a learning experience - immer blau sein!!!

As we strolled the ancient streets, the Alpine winds whipped us with a stinging rain, and we sought the shelter of the Max Emmanuel Brauerei, serving Löwenbräu products in a quiet, candle-lit establishment. At 8PM we sat down and took in a couple of beers "zwei Dunklewiess bitte." The brewing notes degenerated into unconscious scribblings more than once for this brewing duo as the effects of being away for 36 hours took its toll. The trip two blocks to home was made in the late dim of the rain-swept night.

Sunday (19 March, 1995) started off with a trip to the east side of the Isar river to visit the district known as Nockherberg where one can find a prime example of a German Beerhall - the Paulaner Keller.

It was at this crucial moment in the trip that we first wrote down those remarkable words - "Mein Luftkissenfahrzug ist voll von Allen". For Monty-Python fans, you may better recognize this in the vernacular as "My hovercraft is full of eels". After breakfast we meandered to the Alte Pinakothek (the old art museum.) Tim had to be forcefully dragged to see the pictures of all the long dead counts and dukes. He was just dying to see this place, but it was closed for the next 3 years for renovations. See you guys again in 97! Fortunately the highlights of the collection were moved across the street to the Neue Pinakothek - a place where there were no beers for us (though some were offered). We managed to enter and Tim offered a bribe to some woman (luckily, an employee) to check our parcels. However, we soon ended up retrieving them, placed them in a locker, safe from the confusion of the coat check room. We then proceeded to waste an afternoon gazing at a bunch of images from long dead painters, that made us question our sobriety. Nice colors but Tim found no throw rugs.

We were tremendously thirsty after our art-filled outing and we proceeded to the Hofbräuhaus- that bastion of all München tourist traps. We had to search for a table but found one after a few minutes. We had a couple of more beers and bought bretzen from the self-serve booth. We sat a table away from some Japanese girls, who nursed their beers by the milliliter.

While listening to the Oom-Pah band we sucked down a few liters of froth. One was Triumphator (malty aroma - more malty than initial aroma on Salvator and Maximator, yeasty, warmer than first couple elsewhere, sweet malty full bodied aftertaste). Another was the Weissbier (a clovy aromatic sweet beer that was clean but one dimensional with no redeeming social content and a general Helles raiser). And, as is customary, we had the Helles, which was the beer that Christy drank a lot of - ''she had it everywhere" (Oh, My!). The Helles had a malt and hop aroma, with a fair amount of DMS, a light golden color, and some light flavor hops. These beers were not that great (for München standards, but they would have kicked butt in the US); the Helles was good, but the rest were not too exceptional We finally left the Hofbräuhaus and took the U-Bahn over to Hackebrucke and proceeded through a light snow shower to the Augustiner-Keller on Arnulfstraße, another beer hall paneled with lots of dark wood. Unfortunately, between October 1992 and March 1995, the large collection of bierkruge were removed from display. We enjoyed a quick mass of Maximator before heading off to the Lokal next to the hotel, at the corner of Schellingstraße and Amalienstraße, for a quick Löwerbräu Helles, while listening to a band play to packed house. Finally, it was back to the hotel, where an Augustiner Weissbier was retrieved from the vending machine in the lobby to wrap up the evening at just around midnight. (TO BE CONTINUED...)

Last Updated: 16 August, 1995
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