Ireland and Germany

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bluemoose

bluemoose

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Anything I should put on my must drink list. I will be in Dublin and then Mannheim, Heidelberg, Frankfurt.
I will be having dinner at the Guinness brewery.
 
Just make sure you have the sample of Guinness in the middle of the tour, I don't know why, but that was the best few ounces of Guinness I ever had. Maybe I was just particularly thirsty right then and there.
 
I can't speak to Germany, but Ireland is actually pretty bland, beer-wise, from what I remember. Last time I was there (2009), pretty much every pub and restaurant we visited had some variation on the same selection: Guinness (or Murphy's, or Beamish, depending on what city we were in), Smithwick's, Carlsberg, Heinekin, Bud, Miller, and Bulmer's Cider. Maybe (hopefully) things have changed in the six years since I've been?
 
Despite spending a lot of time in in Heidelberg and Frankfurt I cannot speak much to must drinks as that was nearly 22 years ago. What I can say is:

Heidelberg is is a wonderful town for stumbling around with a lot of University related everything. Maybe my second favorite German city.

Frankfurt is literally the German version of the "generic large European city".

Sadly, Dublin has a lot of of the same malady as Frankfurt and the "oldtown" is about 8 blocks long and 7 deep. Ireland is an amazing place I will visit again but Dublin is only worthy of about 24 hours total.

There are lots of websites out there I used to find worthy serving or brewing establishments before travelling last to Prague and Krakow.
 
I have been in Frankfurt in the last 5 years and there was mostly Beck's served throughout the city. I don't know what it is about that city, but it's mostly industrial and you are better off driving into Bavaria, which is close, to Wurzberg or some other city in order to get good beer. I can't speak for Heidelberg, though a short trip from there in many directions will take you to wine country. There are many breweries between Mannheim and Karlsruhe too, so my wife says (she is German). I never got to see them though. From Mannheim check out Vogelbraeu in Karlsruhe, about 50 or 60 kilometers away.
 
Heidelberg is an awesome city. I also don't remember specific brands of beer from there...it was almost 10 years ago and there was a lot of alcohol consumed in general. When in doubt, just pick something you haven't tried before and go from there.

Also if I remember right, if you visit the castle up on the hill, they have a wine cellar with tastings, and the eiswein is a local specialty.

I agree with the comments about Frankfurt. It's a generic large city, very modern in comparison to Heidelberg. I don't recall any standout beers there.

Haven't been to Ireland yet. Someday...
 
Guinness store house was really fun and I agree with the above poster that it was the best pint of Guinness Ive had. Got my certificate on the 5th floor I think... A bunch of people poured their pint and got their certificates and offered us their beer... good deal.

Jameson tour was fun as well.

Only craft ish beer spot I stumbled upon was http://www.jwsweetman.ie/index.html It was good beer

If you're young and staying in hostels I recommend the hostel pub crawls to meet people.... you wont find anything but the usual suspects at the pubs they bring you around but its a party for those who like to party.
 
drainbamage said:
Haven't been to Ireland yet. Someday...
Click to expand...
:off:Stupid Groupon posted a 5- day trip (3 in the actual country) to Ireland for $499/person. Sadly it is RIGHT in the middle of major financial close at work or I would have paid BOTH fees for someone to go with me (double occupancy required) but this could literally cost me my job if I went...
 
Onkel_Udo said:
:off:Stupid Groupon posted a 5- day trip (3 in the actual country) to Ireland for $499/person. Sadly it is RIGHT in the middle of major financial close at work or I would have paid BOTH fees for someone to go with me (double occupancy required) but this could literally cost me my job if I went...
Click to expand...

I saw that too, but planning an international vacation based on a Groupon seemed like a bit of a gamble.

That, and work too. /:off:
 
We are going on a musical pub crawl. The leaders play a musical history of Ireland as you go from pub to pub. Should be fun.
We are going into some smaller towns around Frankfurt in Germany. I understand there are a few small breweries in that area. We have friends there, but they are not really beer people.
I would hate to miss out on something great if I can get the info here before I go. HBT is my trip advisor for beer!
 
bluemoose said:
We are going on a musical pub crawl. The leaders play a musical history of Ireland as you go from pub to pub. Should be fun.
Click to expand...
Hope it is a weekday...you will see why if it isn't, decent tour if it is still like it was in 2001.
 
In Dublin, find 8 Degrees Brewing and Galway Bay; both are great breweries making great beers. I'd recommend going to The Black Sheep, it will have both and it's a great beer bar with a few pump casks.
 
Germany is a great place to visit. I found that you don't really look for specific beers you "must try" rather just try what ever local beer they have. It's all good and seems like every town has a local beer. :mug:
 
If you are near Munich or are planning to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle, check out Kloster Andechs. I was there in 2000, so quite a while ago, but the beer was awesome. The atmosphere was rather special too - I recall locals streaming in by the dozons with picnic baskets of food and setting up at the rows of typical German beer hall tables. Also, the monks served the beer. Could be different now, but certainly worth the visit:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/K...93,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x4d2c71ac4583206d

This monastary/brewery does ship bottles to the US.
 
bluemoose said:
Anything I should put on my must drink list. I will be in Dublin and then Mannheim, Heidelberg, Frankfurt.
I will be having dinner at the Guinness brewery.
Click to expand...


Go to http://www.porterhousebrewco.com/bars-dublin-temple.php. It's in temple bar so your almost certainly going to be in the area.

One of few brewpubs in Dublin.

Previous poster is right in that most bars have the usual range on tap. Guiness, Heineken, carlsberg, Smithwicks etc. The good news is the Guiness is just fantastic. Nothing like it here in the US. There seems to be very good quality control in place now in most bars overseen by Guiness themselves as far as I know.

Against the grain is also good. I havn't been but my mates have.
 
Ok, any thoughts about the black forest? I have found some great dunkels.
I know that this is an old thread, but figured redirection was better than recreation.
 
We lived near Mannheim for about 3 months back in 2009. The beer was amazing, but to be honest everything was so good and I don't think you can go far wrong with "ein bier bitte". I was drinking a lot of hefeweizens, but whatever really.

There are some sweet little towns just west of Mannheim where they grow wine. These are amazing. The local vineyard would serve wine in pint (500ml) glasses. I kid you not. A "small" wine was a large tulip wine glass filled to the brim with a miniscus on top. None of this was expensive either and it was good wine.

We would sit out in the garden bar drinking from oversized wine glasses while the kids played merrily on the bouncy castle, then stroll home afterwards and maybe grab a kebab on the way.

If you are lucky there will be some local festival on - celebrating whatever. Basically an excuse for bier und bratwurst, always rides for the kids and plenty happening. If you go in September then some of the little towns will hold their own Oktoberfests and these are decent.

We lived in Ireland for a couple of months too. The beer was good, but way overpriced, and it's just harder to enjoy it that way. Dublin is basically one giant outdoor urinal. I'm not a prude but FFS people need to have some basic level of hygiene and decency and pissing in the toilet isn't rocket science. The Guinness tour is worth doing but it's a long way from the best brewery tour I have done. You finish up at a baron the top storey with a great outlook over the city. Apparently. It was foggy the day we were there and might as well have been in the basement.
 
Dublins beer offerings have improved a lot recently to the point that most places will have at least a couple of good taps on. You can download an app for your phone called Beoir that will point you towards bars with a craft beer selection in Ireland. Good pubs to visit would be 57 The Headline, Against the Grain, Brewdock, Porterhouse, Beerhouse, Alfie Byrnes, P Macs.
 
With Mannheim and Heidelburg, you're hitting some of the spots I went to - watch for Bananenweizen - a mix of roughly 2/3 hefeweizen, 1/3 banana juice. If you like the banana-ey hefes, this'll be amazing - haven't been able to do a good replication stateside. The wines in the region are great too. Brought home a bottle of cognac made from one of the regional wineries, just incredible.
 
Not very good Wi-Fi in the black forrest. We have found many good beers, including many regional dunkels. Absolutely beautiful here. Plenty of great traditional Swabian foods.
Prost!
 
also, just for fun, buy a few bottles of generic lager from local supermarkets, bitburger, warsteiner etc, just to compare to the exports, it's hillarious how bad the export versions are compared to the ones sold in germany.
 
brewbama said:
I also lived in Mannheim for three years and spent a lot of time in Heidelberg. You'll love it! One of my favorite breweries is Woinemer Hausbrauerei. If you get a chance I highly recommended it. http://www.woinemer-hausbrauerei.de/
Click to expand...


Went to Heidelberg again this time. Took the train to the top and hiked around rather than just to the castle. It was really nice. Our friends got a few beers from that area before we continued on to the Black Forrest.
 
Eucrid said:
Dublins beer offerings have improved a lot recently to the point that most places will have at least a couple of good taps on. You can download an app for your phone called Beoir that will point you towards bars with a craft beer selection in Ireland. Good pubs to visit would be 57 The Headline, Against the Grain, Brewdock, Porterhouse, Beerhouse, Alfie Byrnes, P Macs.
Click to expand...


I was adding onto this thread from the last time we went a couple years ago. We didn't hit Ireland this time, went to France instead. We did find some additional beers in Dublin a couple years ago, but whiskey seems to be the way to go in Ireland!
 
Just to let you know ... from Post #23, Köstritzer Schwarzbier is available in the States.
I'm a fool for that stuff.

When I was in Germany, I'd live and work out of Augsburg and travel down to Bad Aibling-Rosenheim once in a while. Smells like farm country, just like where I'm from, but I loved every minute of being there.
 
You gotta try The Porter House in Temple Bar (a district of Dublin.) It's a great three story brewpub with over 20 beers on tap. Can't go wrong.
 

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