Category: Front Page

Written by Franz Hofer

We arrived in Murnau to a golden autumn afternoon perfect for wandering through this landscape famed for its light and colours. Since all good beer hikes need a certain beverage to make them what they are, we made straight for the shimmering Staffelsee lake on the edge of town to stock up on electrolytes. Beers from the kiosk in hand, we found a spot on the terrace near a small beach alive with quacking ducks and kids splashing around in the shallows.

The light falls differently here, more vivid and crystalline. Looking out over the cobalt-blue lake reflecting the red and yellow fall foliage, I could see why Expressionist artists in the Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) orbit prized the light in this part of the world they called “the blue land.” Wassily Kandinsky and Gabrielle Münter, two of the founders of the Blaue Reiter, were so captivated by the colour palette of the landscape that they moved to Murnau in 1908.

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The bronzed expanse of the Murnauer Moos against the Alps

I did my once-weekly run through the posts on Instagram, which I seldom use and haven’t posted in for maybe 2 1/2 years, and ran across a note from my old friend, Jeremy Hubbell, owner of Geaux Brewing, late of Bellevue, Washington, now of Auburn, Washington. No, wait…”late” of Auburn, too.

I have written a couple of times, in the going-on fifteen years The Pour Fool has existed, About Geaux. I used to live in Bellevue – or, as I always call it, “Bellevoid” – which was to the Northwest Craft Beer Boom what the Sahara is to ice-skating rinks. There was ONE brewery in Bellevoid, an outpost of the highly-questionable Rock Bottom Brewing which, in that yuppified location near the Microsoft Sprawl of downtown, became basically a happy hour meat market that happened to make a few listless, predictable beers as a sort of moist courtesy to its customers, many of whom use brewer visits as lifestyle cred. In the mid 00s, Rock Bottom was joined by a second brewery, run by an enormous, self-aggrandizing fathead who was convinced that hiring a certain brewer would put them firmly into the beer stratosphere. (It didn’t) That was that for a relatively short time. Then, a youngish New Orleanian named Jeremy Hubbell, a technical and design consultant whose LinkedIn profile reads like this: “Specialties: New business development, product marketing, product management, product design, international business.” He had a successful business doing all this, in a large space in a small urban light-industrial/retail development, tucked away in a secluded side-street just outside of downtown Bellevoid.

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According to Dr Kiran Rukadikar, bariatric physician and obesity consultant, one can understand the pros and cons of beer by looking “into the process of making the beer across different continents, and check the ingredients.”

A new study from Portugal has claimed that drinking beer is beneficial for the intestines and also has the potential to prevent chronic diseases.

“Beer consumption contributes to the improvement of the composition of the intestinal microbiota, a factor that has been associated with the prevention of very common chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases,” The Center for Research in Health Technologies and Services (CINTESIS) , which conducted the study, said in a statement.

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This is an unabashed revision of a post that first appeared back in February of 2017, in response to a list written by a young writer for Paste Magazine and I thought it deserved an update, as the Pacific Northwest beer landscape, battered by Covid and its attendant economic upheaval, has changed radically.

Jim Vorel is a beer writer from Atlanta; a guy who – despite what he probably thinks – I actually like but have frequently gone after like a dog on a hamburger for some of his apparently uninformed lists, many of which read as though he had simply scanned RateBeer and BeerAdvocate and then compiled them. He has also done several lists which I thought were dead-on. I know he has the capability of doing them well and, in fact, five years later, he IS doing them fairly well, with only occasional lapses. But I go after him because I’m hoping he’ll devote the same care to all of them that he does to that occasional gem.

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A cool breeze coursing through the canopy of green leaves overhead. The crunch of gravel underfoot as you seek out a table in the shade, frothy mug of beer in hand. Nothing bespeaks summer in Bavaria more than the beer garden. And nothing meets the current pandemic moment better. If you’re still on the fence about traveling this summer, an al fresco beer is one of your safest culinary options.

Written by Franz Hofer, illustrations by Ariella Basson

Move over, fizzy yellow beer — bright purple has arrived. Ube, a purple yam from the Philippines (pronounced ooh-bae), which has long been prevalent in Filipino sweets, has already taken the food and cocktail worlds by storm. Now, it’s beer’s turn for a mauve makeover, and craft brewers are getting in on the fun with the lightly sweet and brightly colored ingredient.

Generally speaking, craft beer isn’t what we’d call a regular at the dessert table (for the most part). But American breweries like Tilted Mash Brewing in Elk Grove, Calif., are newly taking note of the rise in demand for traditional Filipino flavors and are beginning to integrate them into their brews, preferring ube for its exuberant hue as well as its unique yet mild taste.

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-Three short hikes punctuated by lunch at Brauerei Mager, a beer in the Bruckmayer beer garden, and dinner in the courtyard of the Brauerei Hufeisen.~

Written by Franz Hofer for A Tempest in a Tankard

A rare day it was when I woke up on that glorious May morning in the “before times” after completing the 5-Seidla-Steig. Sunshine two days in a row after a week-long stretch of getting soaked and even snowed on. An auspicious start to the day. I caught the first train out of Gräfenberg along the 5-Seidla-Steig via Nürnberg through rustic villages, emerald fields, narrow chasms, and the occasional hop farm. The bus from Pegnitz plunged even deeper into the forest before emerging in Pottenstein, where I met up with Rich Carbonara, beer wanderer extraordinaire, for a day packed with hikes.

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Written by Franz Hofer for a Tempest ion a Tankard

~A DAY TRIP FROM MUNICH~

One of the (many) things I love about beer travel in Bavaria is this: I had just spent the morning hiking around Benediktbeuren and quenching my thirst in the shadow of its magnificent monastery when it occurred to me that I could spend the afternoon in Tegernsee and be back in Munich in time for a nightcap.

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HB Tegernsee: Lakeside Brewery with an Alpine View

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Beer brewing is a commonality shared by the human race across the globe and is estimated to have been around since the 6th millennium BC.

In fact, some experts claim that beer is, perhaps, the first alcoholic drink ever created.

Brewing involves steeping barley in water until it ferments which results in the desired liquid with yeast.

Beer can be made in a brewery by a commercial brewer, at home by a homebrewer, or communally.

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(We couldn’t resist the flick joke. Please help satisfy the ladies.)

~A DAY TRIP FROM MUNICH~
One of the (many) things I love about beer travel in Bavaria is this: I had just spent the morning hiking around Benediktbeuren and quenching my thirst in the shadow of its magnificent monastery when it occurred to me that I could spend the afternoon in Tegernsee and be back in Munich in time for a nightcap.

Want to read more? Please click… HERE!!!