Author: Professor Good Ales

Written by Franz Hofer for A Tempest in a Tankardmarshlands of Murnau as the train trundled along the Loisach valley. As we dipped into the basin that cradles Oberammergau, the sun emerged in full splendour, illuminating the tusk-shaped Kofel that towers over the valley.

Oberammergau is everything you’d imagine a Bavarian alpine village to be. Chalets with carved balconies and flower boxes. A church steeple in the center of town. And mountains all around. Ettal is Oberammergau’s opposite number to the south, and home to a majestic monastery.

For the imbibingly inclined among us, there are breweries and Wirtshäuser in both villages. And for those who like wandering, both places are close enough to each other that you can traverse the distance on foot in a matter of hours.

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If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: You can never have too much Munich in your life.

But what about those times you really do need a break from the big city? Maybe some meadows dotted with cows, Alpine scenery, pristine lakes, or all three?

Last week I posted on my Facebook page about breweries, beer halls, and beer gardens in Munich on the assumption that folks arriving soon for Oktoberfest might want to see a bit more of the city. This week I’m extending the geographical reach to encompass places along the S-Bahn lines and local trains that branch out from Munich, this time on the assumption that you might want to escape the hustle and bustle of Munich for an afternoon in the countryside.

What follows is an introduction to just shy of ten beer spots to visit once you’ve imbibed the charms of Munich, all within thirty minutes to an hour and change from Munich via public transport or regional train.

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A VISIT LONG OVERDUE
The stars finally aligned with bus schedules, opening times, weather, and my schedule for a trip out to the illustrious Brauerei Zehender, brewers of the highly regarded Mönchsambacher Lagerbier. I arrived an hour early, so I turned the outing into a short beer hike, because why not?

Up into the wooded hills I went to drink in the cool air of the forest, then wandered back down into the radiant heat of the valley. I arrived at Brauerei Zehender shortly after it opened its doors at 3:00 p.m. to a terrace already filling up with locals quaffing mugs of the house tipple.

A STERLING REPUTATION
Mönchsambacher Lagerbier’s reputation precedes it. Aficionados of Franconian beer speak about it in reverential tones. The beer has even found a following among Berlin’s craft beer devotees, with Mönchsambacher Lagerbier a fixture at Muted Horn in Neukölln and Biererei in Kreuzberg.

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Written by Franz Hofer for A Tempest in a Tankard

The sun was already low in the autumn sky as I finished up my beer at the legendary Waldwirtschaft (WaWi) and headed north toward the equally legendary Gutshof Menterschwaige. I’d been to the WaWi several times over the years, but hadn’t yet made it to the Menterschwaige on the other side of the Isar River. The weather doesn’t always cooperate with the best laid beer garden plans. But today was the day.

The short walk from the WaWi to the Menterschwaige takes you down a path toward the foot bridge spanning the Isar, and then up to a wooded trail along the embankment high above the Isar. It’s this kind of walk that gives you a sense of how the topography of the Isar Valley favoured the sinking of beer cellars from Munich all the way up to Bad Tölz at the foot of the Alps. The cellars no longer store beer, but the stands of trees still cast their shade over the cellars for those of us who enjoy the respite of the beer garden.

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Craft beer in North America has stalled. That much is plain to see.

From the era of annual double-digit growth, which has lasted for an inordinately long period from craft’s naissance in the early 1980s until the late 2010s, the past few years have seen more-or-less stagnant sales, with the US seeing a 1% drop in production in 2023.

Craft beer’s overall annual market share inched up 0.2% last year but the less-than-buoyant figures have left most industry participants and many observers wondering what the future could hold and how (or even if) it might be possible to restore the sector to growth.

At the core of this quandary is the fact that, for most of craft beer’s existence, brewers, industry watchers, and even many drinkers have struggled to define precisely what makes craft beer ‘craft.’ Size was a good marker, until some breweries grew sufficiently large that it wasn’t, and using ingredients as a yardstick was always going to be a non-starter in an industry segment that from the outset has self-defined as iconoclastic.

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(Thanks to Deb Evans for the link.)

New York is home to many great breweries, but there might be none that are more revered than Brewery Ommegang near Cooperstown.

Brewery Ommegang was established in 1997, which also makes it one of the state’s oldest breweries. Located on a 140-acre hop farm, they claim to have been the first farm brewery in the US in more than 100 years.

Unlike many of the breweries in Cooperstown, NY that focus on beers like IPAs, lagers, and stouts, Brewery Ommegang has always focused on Belgian-style beers. This focus has led them to create some of the country’s best beers in these styles. They do, however, also brew other types of beer for those that prefer something different.

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