It’s that time of the year again and to those of you making your way to the biggest Beerfest in the world: Prost und gute Besserung! Remember you need to pack painkillers, something for nausea and get in some reserve sleep a few days before the visit – if you don’t you’ll surely regret it!  Leave your valuables behind, don’t drive yourself – use public transport or you feet and kick off your shoes and enjoy. Once inside,  you’ll be served by dedicated and talented ladies that can operate the handle of a huge Masskrüg, are able to carry up to 12 glasses containing 1 litre of beer in one go and give you a mouthful ( if you deserve it) 

without tripping once! Since the bands in the massive tents make such a deafening noise anyway, it would seem wise to shut up, drink up and enjoy the experience as much as you can. German brew masters still make beer in accordance with the purity regulations of Duke William IV who enacted these in 1516 (104 years after a similar one was enacted in Cologne in 1412). The laws have been reversed in the meantime (1987) because the European courts felt the limitations (in the use of hops, malt, yeast and water in making beer) were bothersome when it came to trading. Luckily the brew masters didn’t give a hoot about that and carried on doing what they had been doing for hundreds of years – and to this day, they make the best beer in the world. Take it or leave, they just do. The monks who raised the skill of brewing to an art form have brewed Beer in Germany since the Middle Ages.

Köln (Cologne) is the city with the most breweries in one city (12 within the city limits and 12 in the surrounding areas) and Kölsch is the favourite beer – and quite rightly so. Kölsch can only be made in Köln as was regulated in 1986. You may want to try and taste each of the 5,000 different beers produced in Germany, but I doubt that anyone could manage that in one trip – and certainly not if the beerfest is the main reason for the trip.  Kölsch is drunk from glasses called “rods” and these only hold ,2 litres. It deserves special mention, because even in winter, it’s worth the try. In Germany beer is either top fermented or  bottom fermented and there are 15 that simply have to be tasted on a visit to Germany.

• Flensburger Pilsner
• Altenmünster Premium Bier
• Dom Kölsch
• Diebels Alt
• Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier
• Augustiner Bräu München
• Warsteiner Pilsener
• Weltenburger Kloster Asambock
• Ayinger Maibock
• Königlisches Festtagsbier
• Erdinger Dunkler Weizenbock
• Münchner Kindl Weissbier
• Weihenstephan Hefeweissbier
• Lauterbacher Brotzeitbier
• Kloster Andechs Doppelbock

Snacks you must try in Bavaria

• Fleischpflanzl (ground beef and ground pork patty)
• Knöcherlsulz (pickled port knuckle)
• Leberkäse (Baked puréed beef)
• Obatzter (Dressed camembert)
• Tellerfleisch (Cooked beef with horseradish)
• Weisswurst (Mild sausage of veal purée)

If you have time in Frankfurt before you depart, do yourself a favour, have a cup of coffee and a slice of Frankfurter Kranz – it’s delicious, rich, fattening, decadent and unforgettable – but beware overdoing will result in heartburn, whether you’re prone or not.

Frankfurter Kranz is made from baked biscuit dough that has been left to cool for about 24 hours, sliced three times horizontally, each layer sloshed in Kirsch and spread with butter cream before the layers are put together again. The outer layer is covered in cream and sprinkled, liberally with burnt sugar, toated almonds and sometimes decorated with candied cherries.

Bon Voyage