Hello From Austria

[dhempy]

Howdy gents.

Here at the Wolf Dietrich hotel in Austria aftger three days of trying all of the Helles bieres I could find in Munich. By far the best was the Augustiner Helles. Their Doppelbock was good too. I had too much to provide any kind of reviews ... but I'll be working on my Helles brewing when I return. That means I will be calling you Brad!

Dan

PS. Typing on german keyboards is a bear .. cannot find the apostrophe and the y and z are switched!!

[maltbarley]

Looking forward to tasting your inspired helles!

[backyard brewer]

Ditto!

Have fun and be safe.

[lexuschris]

..still waiting for my Austrian drinking song...


--lc

[BrewMasterBrad]

Sounds like I need to make a pilgrimage to the Santa Rosa Valley for a Helles brew session.

Now my vacation may include a trip to Arizona and a trip to the Hempy compound.

[dhempy]

Thanks everyone!

No drinking songs yet Chris ... supposedly, the good local beer is Stiegl and I am going to try and make a pilgrammage to the local Stiegl pub / beer garden tonight or tomorrow.

Brad ... come on down!

Will have to bottle some of the Helles and make it to a meeting for everyone else to try.

Just a side note ... went to a Mozart concert at the Hohensalzburg Fortress last night (trying to get some local culture). Typically, these are held outside but because it was raining, it was indoors. Incredible ambiance inside the fortress. There was a 14 piece orchestra plus a soloist on French horn and [url/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PI-jxDOJVg]Alphorn [/url], and then a Baritone singer dressed in traditional garb. So far, we like Salzburg much better than Munich (although I must say that so far, the German beer has been better than the Austrian beer ... but then I've only sampled 2 Austrian beers so far).

And my German is coming back bit by bit ... ach so!

Auf Wiedersehen von Salzburg!

Dan

[oc eric]

Stiegl is excellent. Try the Stiegl with Limo soda for something refreshing and sweet.

[dhempy]

Departing Salzburg today. Back to Munich. Off to Rome tomorow. The beer portion of the trip comes to a close (Italy and Greece are not known for their brewing expertise!).

Favorite beers so far: Munich - Augustiner. Salzburg - Gößer (in case the german symbols don't show: Gosser "o" with unlaut. Steigl was good but Gößer was better.

Dan

[oc eric]

Departing Salzburg today. Back to Munich. Off to Rome tomorow. The beer portion of the trip comes to a close (Italy and Greece are not known for their brewing expertise!).

Favorite beers so far: Munich - Augustiner. Salzburg - Gößer (in case the german symbols don't show: Gosser "o" with unlaut. Steigl was good but Gößer was better.

Dan

Now I have to try Gosser!

[dhempy]

Hello from Southern Italy (Cisternino). Rome was largely a bust beer wise. Had one draft beer that was actually decent ... have a pic of the glass but now way to know for sure that what was in the glass was represented by the label on the glass. However, that was the case elsewhere so when I get back and download the pics, I'll try to remember to post. Here, our friends bought some Italian brewed beer ... artesian something or other in Italian. The first bottle was vaguely reminiscent of a Belgian dubbel ... a nice beer ... I have the blonde version to try later. Just picked up a 3 pack of Spugel .. another local light lager. Will try to post again from Crete later this week. (I have very limited computer access for now).

Ciao bella!

Dan

[dhempy]

Howdy from the island of Crete!

First a correction to the previous post ... I mispelled the beer (and I don't have the correct spelling with me now). But the label had something very interesting ... "Ai tre luppolo" ... first luppolo is Italian for Hops (pretty easy to figure out from the ingredients list plus the fact that luppolo is close to lupulin, the key bittering agent) .. tre is italian for 3

Sooooo

This beer is ... wait for it .... Tripple Hops Brewed ... I chuckled out loud when I came to that realization.

So tasting beer on the second half of this trip has been pretty worthless ... here on Crete, I had a draught Mythos last night ... a nice enough light lager. The best part is that they served it in a 1.2L mug and it came to the table on fire ... (lemon rind on the rim holding a lit sparkler). Will post a pic when I get back to the states.

Athens tomorrow and home Tuesday ... cannot wait to get a Munich Helles going!

Dan

[dhempy]

Last post from the road. Had a relatively good beer last night here in Athens ... Alfa. In fact, it would be the only beer I would recommend in Greece. Mythos works in a pinch or if it is the only beer available, but I can recommend the Alfa. Not as good as the German beer (what would be except a homebrew!) but nicely balanced and a good light lager flavor. Could've been colder for my liking but that is just my american preference showing boldly through.

Home tomorrow night. Will probably brew Saturday (cannot pick up yeasties until Thursday and will definately need a starter for the lager).
Cheers!

Dan

[backyard brewer]

Thanks for the updates. Travel safe.

[dhempy]

Home at last ... been a long day. Departed our hotel in Athens this morning at 10:00 am (Midnight equivalent time)

Final tasting note ... had a Warsteiner (we flew Lufthansa) or two on the trip back. This lager was OK but nowhere near as good as the Munich Helles sampled in the English Garden locations. Again, the hops weren't smooth and the beer was IMHO, unbalanced. But the label caught my attention ... Eine Königin unter den Bieren ... König is King so I immediately thought .. aha .. the German King of Beers ... no that saying is already taken ... my German is 30 years rusty ... think, think ...

Königin is Queen ... should've caught the feminine "Eine" versus "Einer"

so I stumbled upon "A queen of Beers"

Good to be back. Helles or bust!

Dan

[lexuschris]

Welcome back Dan! Sounds like a dynamite trip! Hope you post a few choice pics in the photo gallery... after you take care of the jet lag!

--LexusChris