I didn’t really know much about Germany’s fourth largest city before I arrived. Without the hip factor of Berlin or the Bavarian beer drinking and lederhosen wearing traditions of Munich, Cologne seems to get talked about a lot less than these more popular German cities. Which is unfortunate because Cologne is actually pretty cool.

What is there to do in Cologne?

The most famous landmark, Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom), is an impressive sight, even for someone who is a little “churched out”. Like many German cities, a large part of Cologne was destroyed by Allied bombs during the Second World War which creates for a, uh, very boring architectural style. While the cathedral was hit by bombs, it never collapsed and today the spires of this Gothic cathedral stand tall over the city.

My favorite part of Cologne, though, wasn’t the cathedral or the narrow streets in the old part of the city or napping next to the Rhine River. My favorite part of Cologne was their unique beer drinking culture.

Cologne has a long standing brewing tradition. The city’s brewers association dates back over 600 years and brew their own kind of beer called Kölsch. Kölsch is a bright yellow and is warm fermented and then cold conditioned, kind of hybrid of an ale and a lager. To be called Kölsch, it must be brewed within the city limits. Today there are about two dozen Kölsch breweries in Cologne, about half as many as there were in the early twentieth century but a marked improvement over the two that were still in operation after the war ended.

A little watery and not nearly hoppy enough for me, it’s not the taste of Kölsch that made it interesting to me, it’s the traditional drinking culture that surrounds it.

Kölsch is served in 20 centiliter glasses and if you finish your glass, it doesn’t mean you are done drinking. Waiters walk around the bar carrying filled glasses in a Kranz, a circular tray, and will keep replacing your empty glass with a new one until you place a coaster over the top or leave half the glass filled. They then mark how many you’ve had on a coaster.

On my first night in Cologne Kasey took me to Gaffel, a brewery near the main station and cathedral, for my first taste of Kölsch. Because it was a national holiday, the locals were out in droves and it made for a fun introduction to Kölsch drinking culture. Waiters at Kölsch bars are supposed to speak not German, but the local dialect, also called Kölsch. (According to Julika, the only language you can also drink!) They are also known to be rude, especially to foreigners, but I never found this to be the case. The waiter was even kind enough to stop serving long enough to let me take this photo.

Nothing, though, would be as fun as the next night. Kasey’s coworker had recommended that we eat dinner at a place called Lommerzheim. This tiny pub-restaurant is rather famous in Cologne and we were told to arrive at opening time or we would be waiting all night for a table. When we got there 10 minutes before opening there was already a line.

The doors opened and everyone filed nicely inside and chose a table. This is Germany, after all. The crowd was all local and everyone seemed ready for a Saturday night of Kölsch and traditional German fare. After a few beers and some dinner, two German men asked if they could sit at our table because the rest were full. Like seemingly every other person in the country, they spoke fabulous English and were soon telling us about the nights they spent sleeping in their car outside of Lommerzheim after too many Kölsch and shots of what they described as the “local Jagermeister”.

Then, not surprisingly, some shots of the this local Jagermeister showed up on our table. And more Kölsch kept coming. And finally, after a ridiculous amount of 20 centiliter glasses had been consumed, we decided we needed to leave to meet Kasey’s friends. We both put coasters on our glasses and waited for the waiter to come so we could settle the bill. The waiter came. And stacked more filled Kölsch glasses on top of the coasters. A breach of Kölsch protocol, I think.

So we continued to drink and when we finally absolutely had to leave, we were able to convince the waiter to let us pay and go. We walked outside and realized we had left the box with our leftover food on the table. Not wanting to both go back in and risk not being allowed to leave again, I waited on the sidewalk and Kasey ventured inside. As soon as she entered the restaurant I heard the entire place start to cheer. Almost immediately she came back out the door empty-handed.

“Amanda, I need you. Come back.”

I crossed the street and entered the restaurant. Two shots were sitting on our takeaway box.

“They won’t let us leave with our food without taking these shots.”

So we took our shots, grabbed our box of food, said goodbye to our new friends, and hobbled outside laughing our heads off.

This is the reason I love the culture of Kölsch.

This is a reason I love Germany.

Have you ever had a funny local dining or drinking experience while traveling? 

Drinking Kölsch in Cologne is a post from: Farsickness

Luckily for me, the people over at Taste Hungary run a Craft Beer Walk. This 3 hour tour covering 3 bars in the Pest side of the city would be the perfect crash course in Hungarian craft beer.

I met Zsolt, our guide and local beer blogger, and the rest of the group at 6 pm in central Pest. He gave us a quick run down of what the night would entail and then we headed off to our first stop. Instead of starting with one of Hungary’s craft creations, we actually began our tasting with Arany Aszok, one of the country’s mass produced lagers, at a tiny local pub. Why would we waste our time drinking something you can find in every bar and restaurant in Hungary? So we could compare the old brewing tradition with the new.

After a few sips of the macrobrew (which, honestly, was a hell of a lot better than Budwesier or Miller), we moved on to some of the more modern offerings. Our group of four Americans started to get to know each other by chatting about our favorite beers back home and our lives as long term travelers and expats. While the beer on the tour was good, the small size of the group was my favorite aspect. It made it feel more like a night out and less like an organized tour.

Moving on, our second stop was Piritós Pub, a bar that serves beers from Kaltenecker, a craft brewery in nearby Slovakia. With a slightly more established craft beer scene than Hungary, Slovakia’s Kaltenecker is an example of how good Central European craft brewing can be.

Our last stop, Szimpla Cafe, was my favorite of the night. The sister pub to the infamous ruin bar of a similar name, this tiny cafe has the character and ambience of a ruin bar but in a smaller setting. And they serve amazing microbrews! What more could you want?

We grabbed a spot on the small upper level and Zsolt brought us a tray with a variety of Hungary’s best craft brews to try. While there were a couple of seriously good IPAs, my favorite find was the Legenda Olaszházi Bitumen Imperial Stout made with chilis. The richness of the stout perfectly offset the spiciness of the chili. It’s so popular that when I tried to buy a bottle to take home it was completely sold out!

After a discussion about Hungary’s unwillingness to adopt the euro and the future of craft brewing in Hungary, my tour mates and I said goodbye to Zsolt and headed out, slightly buzzed, to explore more of Budapest’s nightlife.

Taste Hungary offers this tour from 6pm on weekdays and anytime on the weekend year round. The cost is 17,000 HUF (US$77) per person.

Disclaimer: Taste Hungary offered me a complimentary tour. As always, all opinions are my own.

Do you like craft beer? Have you ever gone on a beer tasting tour?

A Move Toward Craft Beer in Hungary is a post from: Farsickness

If you’re like me, the answer to that would be “not really”.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I purchased tickets to Craft Beer Rising less than five minutes after hearing about it on Twitter.

Craft Beer Rising is an annual festival that aims to showcase craft beer in order to benefit the masses and the brewers. This year over 60 breweries brought their beer to Old Truman Brewery giving the London beer fan a chance to find their new favorite brew and allowing these brewers of varying sizes to gain new loyal fans. Most of the breweries were from the UK, but there were also representatives from Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, New Zealand, and the United States.

After living in Korea, the land of crappy, mass produced water beer, it is refreshing to once again live in a country with a deep appreciation for the good stuff. I have my favorite American craft beers, so I was very excited to get the chance to explore some of what the UK and Europe have to offer.

It was nice to see a Michigan brewery in London!

I purchased tickets to the Saturday afternoon session from 11 am to 6 pm for £15. The ticket included £5 of beer tokens and a free Craft Beer Rising glass. Tickets sold out the week before the festival and I was slightly worried that I’d turn up to find long queues and masses of people. I feared wrong. The organizers capped the event at the perfect number- there were enough people to give the event a buzzing vibe, but the lines were never more than a few people deep.

Spread out over six rooms at the Old Truman Brewery off Brick Lane, the 60 or so brewers had stands set up with a few of their beers on tap or in bottles. Most people were more than happy to hand out samples until you found something you liked and pints, half pints or bottles could be purchased with tokens. Half pints were usually around £2 and bottles seemed to run around £3.

My favorite part of the event was the passion from the brewers. Most everyone seemed eager to chat with us, tell us about their product, and listen to our opinions about it. For many people craft beer is a passion project and this was truly evident at Craft Beer Rising.

In addition to beer, there were also street food vendors scattered throughout the event. I decided to have some Kansas City BBQ from Prairie Fire in order to prep myself for an afternoon of tasting. Now, I’m fairly picky about my BBQ. My parents live in Kentucky and whenever I’m home I make sure I eat at my favorite Kentucky style BBQ places. In addition, my father, a fabulous cook, makes some of the best brisket I’ve ever tasted. But when I found out that owner of Prairie Fire was a fellow American I figured that this would be a good opportunity to have my BBQ cravings satisfied. I was right. The brisket was tender and the sauce had the perfect amount of tang. It was so good that I had to ask a stranger to photograph his sandwich as I devoured mine before I could remember to snap a picture.

Now back to the main event- the beer. What were my favorite brews of the afternoon? I really enjoyed Arbor Ales Yakima Valley IPA because it reminded me of all the IPAs I love back home. I was also a fan of the Crowded Hops Pale Ale from Brains Craft Brewery in Cardiff. It had the punch of hops that I like but was light and fruity enough to make it a good session beer. Beavertown Brewery‘s Bloody ‘Ell Blood Orange IPA was really unique- I liked it because it wasn’t overwhelmingly fruity but had enough of the blood orange flavor to separate it from a traditional IPA.

There were of course many other beers that I tried and liked, and many more that I wish I could have sampled. It’s an exciting time in the UK right now for craft beer and this event did a wonderful job showcasing some of the standouts and rising stars on the scene right now. I really hope I’ll still be in London next February so I can attend Craft Beer Rising again.

Craft Beer Rising: A London Celebration of Beer is a post from: Farsickness

The Museum of Yebisu Beer is located in the Ebisu Garden Palace, a complex built over the former brewery, in an upscale neighborhood near Shibuya. The building itself is beautiful and the museum is very modern. The free area of the museum gives a detailed history of Yebisu Beer, with great English signage and a lot of historical memorabilia.

First introduced in the 1890s, Yebisu Beer was able to survive when many other small breweries couldn’t due to its commitment to quality. Yebisu brought in a German brewer, imported German equipment, and soon became popular with foreign residents in Japan due to the familiar taste.

In the early twentieth century Yebisu had some international success with a gold medal win at the Paris Expo in 1900 and a grand prix win at the St. Louis Expo four years later. Though popular around the globe, beer was still an unattainable drink for most Japanese at this time, costing about ten times more than a bowl of soba noodles.

Prize for the Gran Prix win.

Yebisu continued to flourish in the years before World War II, so much so that the neighborhood around the brewery, and a new train station, were named after the beer. Unfortunately, in 1943 all brands of beer in Japan were abolished due to wartime financial concerns.

Almost 30 years later, after pressure from former customers, Yebisu Beer was revived. Though still incredibly popular in Japan and with beer experts, Yebisu has not been able to regain the global popularity they had before the war.

After learning a lot about the company, I was ready to get tasting. Visitors have the opportunity to try all the varieties of Yebisu Beer and the beers cost 400 yen each. I decided to splurge and try two: the Pale Ale and the Amber. The German influence was obvious, and both varieties were delicious, far surpassing anything mass produced in Korea. The Amber Ale was my favorite, with its crisp taste and nice hoppy undertones. The Pale Ale, while still good, tasted a little less carbonated.

The only disappointing part about the Museum of Yebisu Beer is that the tour is only in Japanese. I felt that I missed out on a lot of information about how the beer is actually made. In spite of this, the Museum of Yebisu Beer was a nice way to spend a few hours and learn about the history of one of Japan’s oldest beers.

Information for visitors: To get there take the JR Yamanote Line, Saikyo Line, Shonan-Shinjuku Line or the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line to Ebisu Station. Admission is free. Open 11 am- 7 pm (last tasting order at 6:30 pm). Closed Monday.

A Visit to the Museum of Yebisu Beer is a post from: Farsickness

Beer was introduced to Korea in the early 20th century by Europeans. Today, there are two main macro-breweries in Korea supplying beer to the thirsty masses: Hite-Jinro and OB.  The majority of the beer produced by these two companies is made with corn or rice, instead of the traditional barley malt, which leads to the less than desirable taste.

Where a Cass belongs. On the ground.

Up until last year there were extremely restrictive laws that prohibited small brewers from distributing their beer outside of places they owned. Due to pressure from homebrewers and microbrewers, these laws are gradually becoming less and less strict.

While we’re still far from great beer status over here in Korea, these are your best options if you’re looking for a cold brew.

1. Craftworks

Arguably the most famous microbrewery in Korea, foreign owned Craftworks is the best beer on the peninsula. By far. They currently have eight beers on tap, all of which are brewed in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi-do. Because of the distribution laws, you can currently only drink Craftworks beers at their restaurant located near Noksapyeong Station, but I’ve heard they are working on being able to sell bottles at retail outlets. Until them I’ll be left dreaming about the day I can pick up a 6 pack of Jirisan Moon Bear IPA at Home Plus.

Craftworks sampler platter

My favorite Craftworks beer.

2. 7 Brau

7 Brau is the newest beer to hit the scene in Korea and they tout themselves as the first new Korean brewery in 70 years. This microbrewery in Gangwon-do offers three types of beer right now: an IPA, stout, and pilsner. The IPA, my favorite, isn’t as good as Craftworks but is fairly inexpensive (around 5,000 won) and is available on tap at a few places around Seoul. Hopefully Korean owned 7 Brau is indicative of the direction in which the beer scene in this country is headed.

3. OB Golden Lager

OB Golden Lager isn’t a microbrew, but it is the best choice in a pool of weak, watery mass produced beers. The reason being, Golden Lager is one of two Korean beers to be made with 100% barley malt, not rice or corn. This gives the beer a slightly darker color and a more robust taste. Sadly, OB Golden Lager is one of the harder Korean beers to find in convenience stores and you might find yourself stuck with Cass after a long day of work when your local GS25 doesn’t stock it. Not that it’s ever happened to me…

It tastes even better when you’re at the beach.

4. Homebrews

You can’t run over to the mart, or a bar in Itaewon, to get your hands on a homebrew, but you can keep your eyes peeled for special events. In May, homebrewers (of which there are thought to be about 15,000 in the country) put on a Spring Beer Fest in Haebongcheon. Beer enthusiasts could pick up a free cup and walk around the neighborhood sampling beer from a various homebrewers who were set up in beers and restaurants. Some were better than others, it was exciting to see the passion and dedication for beer. I think there is talk of holding another event this fall. I know I’ll be looking forward to it!

5. Taedonggang 

If all else fails, drink Taedonggang. Or more simply, drink North Korean. North Korea may not be able to feed their people, but they can produce a beer that is far superior to anything Hite or OB puts out. The state run brewery produces beer with German made technology that has been operational since 2002. Taedonggang used to be widely available in South Korea, but after a price increase it has been harder for find. I bought mine at a gift shop near the DMZ. I only bought one bottle, but wish I’d gotten more as it’s almost shocking how much better this is than Cass or Hite.

Beer in Korea still has a long way to go before it rivals anything the United States or Europe, but it has grown leaps and bounds in the past couple of years with the emergence of breweries like Craftworks and 7 Brau. I look forward to the day when microbrews are sold in six packs and Cass is relegated to Bud Lite status.

Although, I probably still won’t be here.

What are your favorite beers in Korea? If you’ve never drank in Korea, what beers do you like from abroad? 

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Beers of Korea is a post from: Farsickness