Diploma Graduation, the weekend and Emilia arrives!

Back outside of Munich, we have our graduation and then a short wait before Emilia arrives. 

Going to see if videos work...Nice day hanging out at our local beer garden, Alter Wirt. Love this song... Dunkles, Helles, Weissbier, and Pils!!!

We had our graduation at Wilder Hirsch, which has become a second home for our class. Here is Nato from Chile receiving his diploma with John and Eder.

What a great group, glad we got a copy of class picture with the diploma guys and master peeps together. They are being missed for sure.

Hard to explain the bonds that are made during the program. The goodbyes were rough.

Spent the weekend hanging out with Jarrod in Munich. He got to try sushi for the first time ever!

Finally!!! Wifey is here! First stop is Augustiner Keller, of course!

First meal and beers to kick of our excellent adventure. 

Also, sausages and beer cure jet lag. Yeah, that's a lie, but they certainly don't hurt.

Here is the basement of Augustiner Keller. I believe this is where we will be having our Master Graduation. We will be graduating with all the German students, so it is a pretty big deal.

They have a barrel that you can actually eat inside of, great idea!

Over the next few days Emilia was a trooper getting over the jet lag.

We did a lot of walking and sightseeing...

...therefore, we earned a little snack at Schneider Weisse. 

Had to try the recommended pairing of the Marie's Rendezvous and the strudel. 

Had to take her to the famous Hofbräuhaus for a beer, but it is a tourist trap, so one was enough.

Schweinshaxen! Pork products are an entire food group in Bavaria.

We also took a day trip to Tegernsee, which is one of my favorite places in all of Germany. Besides being beautiful, the Tegernseer beer is excellent.

Some carpaccio and curry wurst for lunch.

They also do some distilling as well. Had some of their schnapps for dessert and it was very solid.

Then we went for a little hike down the shore.

After the hike we had to walk up the hill to the station. After a beer to refuel, we head back downtown to get some rest before departing for Berlin. It was fun playing tour guide, but could not wait to begin our European adventure. 

Study Tour: Final day

Getting to the end of the trip, started with a nice bus ride with some old castle ruins.

 

 First stop was Riedenburger Brauhaus. It is a smaller, more "craft" brewery.

 

They still had a really nice newer packaging line.

 

 However, a lot of their brewing equipment was more old school. Like their control panel above. Not to be mistaken for a cold war era nuclear control panel. 

They even used some pretty sweet open fermenters. The picture on the right you can see the yeast krausening and spilling onto the floor.

This is the owner's son and current brewmaster. He also attended Doemens and is something like a 4th generation brewer.

The beers were a welcome change of pace. They included a solid IPA, a porter, and some lighter beers that used ancient grains such as einkorn and emmer. We were very impressed and it gave me hope for craft beer in Germany. They also were very focused on using organic products and supporting local farmers.

Then our final stop of the trip, Hopsteiner!

They are one of the top hop suppliers in the world. They are located in Hallertau, which is one of the legendary hop growing regions.

They process a variety of products including pellets (left), whole leaf (right), and extracts (below). The building with the bales of fresh hops was an aromatic heaven. Life goals: Do the Scrooge McDuck dive with hops.

They do a lot of breeding to make new experimental hops. The process takes about 10 years from start to finish, but they have new varieties every year that hit the market. Here is a greenhouse when some plants are being analyzed to see if they will be planted in the field next year.

 

This is the head of the breeding program right before he expressed his love of hops through the media of interpretive dance. No, not really. Just good timing on my part.

We did a hop rub of some traditional hops and a few experimental hops that have not been released yet. Huell Melon, Eureka and Calypso were great, but the Hopsteiner experimental hop 09410 was my favorite.

We even got to taste the experimental hop 09410 in a single hop pale ale. It has an absolutely delicious strawberry character. Ask your hop supplier for samples or to be in their trial program, you will thank me later.

We finished off the trip with a dinner at a restaurant called Schossbrauerei Sandelzhausen Gaststatte, which was opened in 1623! What a marathon of an amazing trip. Next up we have some celebrations for our Diploma Students and then finally Emilia arrives!

Day 7- Bamberg!

Started the day off at Kaspar Schulz. They make top quality show piece type brewing equipment.

A wonderful welcome of beer, sausage, and pretzels. They sure know our group well.

Big tank.

Smaller tanks.

Making the tanks nice a shiny with their super polisher. Their tanks are very high quality and look absolutely beautiful.

Oh look, an awesome red castle. Wait, what? That is Weyermann!? For those of you who do not know they are one of the major suppliers of grain, especially German traditional malts.

What a great place! Had a welcome center with different craft beers on tap. In addition to beers they of course treated us to a nice spread of traditional food for lunch.

Pictures were not allowed inside the facility, but I did sneak this picture of the Sinamar production space. Sinamar is a dark coloring that can be used to make your beer darker without altering the flavor while staying within Reinheitsgebot.

Super secret recipe for their Schlotfegerla smoked beer! Just kidding, it is on their website.

Nice bag of swag is always appreciated

After Weyermann, we headed to our hotel. Walking through the old streets of Bamberg we see the old City Hall.

It is also home to the classic style Rauchbier. We pass by Aecht Schlenkerla which is my all time favorite Rauchbier. Our hotel ended up being directly across the street!

Here is the view from my hotel room, you can see the entrance to Aecht Schlenkerla!

Before heading out for the evening, we decided to check out the Bamberger Dom

It was already closed for the day, but walking around the outside was still interesting. This statue was once a lion...I think.

Few more pictures then on to the freshest Aecht Schlenkerla ever

Straight from the barrel, amazing.

This is the sign outside Aecht Schlenkerla. If you look on the right there is what looks like a star of David, but this in fact the Zoigl Star. This six pointed star is the symbol of the brewer. Three points symbolize the three elements involved in brewing (fire, water, and air) and the other three are the three ingredients in beer (malt, hops, and water)

After Aecht Schlenkerla, we bounced around to some other bars with Eder, which means it was awesome. Make more party, of course.