Brauerei Josef Schneider - Essing

Geographically the small town of Essing is one of the strangest I have ever seen.  It's wedged between a tall cliff on one side that looms over the village and a tributary of the Danube river on the other side.  What lies in between the two is a very small village with a spectacular brewery, hotel, restaurant/pub, and beer garden complex called Brauereigasthof Schneider.  The location is in the Altmuehltal Nature Park.  This is a fairly large park region with a very unique landscape set in Northern Bavaria.  I believe some of the park crosses over into Southern Franconia and the rest in Bavaria.  Essing itself is off a small tributary of the mighty Danube river.  Only a few kilometers away is the larger town of Kelheim and the city of Regensburg a little further away.  Kelheim's beer fame comes from the fact that it is home to the Schneider brewery (I don't know if there is a relation to the Schneiders of Essing) that brews the famous Schneider Weisse beers.  Also not far away is the monastary Kloster Weltenburg where they brew a half decent Dunkle bier. 

Anyhow, we stayed for a couple of days at the excellent hotel of Brauereigasthof Schneider. 

As soon as you get out of the car the first thing you notice is the cliff looming over the village.

Like a lot of these places in Germany the check in for the hotel is in the pub/restaurant.  I like the way these people think.  Go straight to the pub first!

The brewery appeared to mostly be in an older building out behind the hotel.

On the wall next to my room was a picture of the brewing process (including decoction mashing) used here. 

Okay now what about the beer?  They produce a Dunkle, Helles, Pilsener, Weissebier, and  Helles Bock.  It was a lovely day so I sat out in the beer garden along the stream and had the Dunkle bier first.  It was a terrific Dunkle.  Nutty, a bit chocolately. and smooth as silk.

Nice views from the beer garden as well.  A view of the stream, the nearby bridge, and the cliff.

Well I think you get the point.  It's a really nice place to drink beer.  Especially beer of this caliber.

After a couple of beers we went for a walk to check out the local scenery.  It's really spectacular.  The stream alongside the brewery is full of rainbow trout.  There's an old castle on top of the cliff.   There's a large and kind of strange bridge on the other end of Essing that runs over the main tributary and lots of walking paths about.

On the second day the weather turned lousy and we spent most of the day inside.  We did venture over to Kloster Weltenburg.  Here's a photo of the girls enjoying their Dunkle bier inside.  Another good beer.  Not quite the caliber of Schneiders though.

Overall I would rate Schneider of Essing the best brewery/hotel/restaurant I've visited in Germany.  Everything including the beer, the service, the food, the rooms were top notch. 

Belgian Beer and a Pilsener

I've decided that I want to learn more about Belgian Beers and I learn by drinking .... errr .. I mean doing.  So I stopped by a new beer store in Wareham this afternoon.  First of all it's hard to believe that the town of Wareham, Mass. now has a huge store with over a 1000 beers to choose from.  If there was ever evidence that the craft beer revolution has won this is it.  Believe me, before this Sam Adams was top of the line and hard to find in Wareham.

Anyhow there is a lot of variety in Belgian beers and much to learn but I figured I'd start with a Tripel knowing that I liked these in the past.  The one I had tonight was called Maredsous Tripel and is supposedly based on a recipe from the Maredsous Abbey.  Reading the fine print it says it is brewed and bottled by Duvel.  I liked it just fine.  I'm not one for trying to type fancy tasting notes.  I suck at it and I don't like reading them either.  The beer was decent but not as good as the only other Belgian Tripel I've had (Kasteel).  But it's a start and I'll keep trying them.

Here's the obligatory, pretentious, Belgian beer photo.

Once I polished that off I remembered I still had some Pilsener left in my homebrew keg.  The picture of the Tripel was taken with my wife's fancy camera.  The picture of the Pilsener was with my crappy cellphone.  The Pilsener still tasted better than the Tripel.  It was overshadowed last weekend by Aaron's outstanding Oatmeal Stout but it really is an excellent beer for the style.  But people will prefer a good Oatmeal Stout to a good Pilsener almost always, especially in November.  This one was brewed with Weyerman's Bohemian Pilsener malt and Czech Saaz hops. 

Good night.  I've got to finish this beer and get some sleep.  NERAX is tommorrow!