This week marked the beginning of Starkbierzeit (Strong beer time) in Munich. Strong beer time began back in 1651 when the Paulaner monks started brewing their starkbeir named Salvator. They referred to the beer as "Flüssiges Brot" ("liquid bread") because it was so calorie-dense that it helped them to survive their 40 days of Lenten fasting. This Salvator beer, which people today commonly refer to as a doppelbock, has a gravity of 18.3% and an alcohol percentage of 7.5%. Traditionally served in 1-liter ceramic steins, 1 liter of the beer is equivalent in calories to 1/3 of a loaf of bread.
The tradition of strong beer spread around the city and the first public strong beer festival ("Starkbierfest") was held 100 years later. The biggest and most traditional celebration takes place at Paulaner am Nockherberg, Paulaner's large beer hall in the southeastern part of the city that can hold up to 2,500 people at one time. When we went last Friday night, it was packed wall to wall and we had a hard time finding a place for 6 people (me and the other PW people). The atmosphere was very similar to Oktoberfest, or so I was told, but with far fewer tourists. Loud Germany music, large soft pretzels, bratwurst, men and women dressed in tracht (dirndl and lederhosen), and, of course, lots and lots of beer. I had a great time and am really glad that I got to go!
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| Paulaner am Nockherberg for Starkbierfest |
In keeping with the theme of beer this weekend, on Saturday the same 6 of us got on the S-bahn (suburban train) to head out to the small town of Erding northeast of Munich. In Erding is the world-famous Erdinger Weißbräu, where we had signed up for a tour. The tour started off with being served a beer (The "Champ") while being shown a video about the brewery. We then went on a fairly quick tour of the brewery itself, which was pretty similar to other breweries I've been too. Brewing beer is a pretty straight-forward process with not much variation, so I wasn't expecting anything different. They did have a huge bottling line though, but, as it was the weekend, no one was working. That would have been cool to see. After the tour, and included in the price of the ticket, we were allowed an hour and a half to hang out at the bar. They served each of us two pretzels and two weisswurst to go along with as many samples of their 9 beers as we wanted. Now, in the US, when a brewery offers samples on a tour, you typically get around 3 7-oz samples. Here, on the other hand, they served us full beers (your choice of a small 0.3L or a large 0.5L)! I tried three "small" samples of the Dunkel, the Original Weissbier, and the Pikantus before calling it a day. Friday and Saturday was enough beer for one week, never mind one weekend.
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| Erdinger Weißbier |
Sunday, after dropping off my laundry at the laundromat, I went across the city to
Nymphenburg Palace. This palace, whose construction was completed in 1675, was the former summer residence of the Bavarian ruling families. The entire grounds consist of a 490-acre park that, apparently, has beautiful gardens in the summer. Unfortunately, today was cloudy and cold, so it wasn't as pretty as it would have been on a sunny, summer day, but it was pretty nonetheless. I took the English audio-guided tour through the palace, and was blown away by the ornately decorated rooms and living quarters. Although the amount of rooms you could see on the tour paled in comparison with the amount of rooms overall in the palace, the size of the place was just enormous. In addition to the palace and the grounds, the museum included a display of the former carriages and sleighs of the royal families. These were amazing carriages plated in gold and fancy fabrics. Nymphenburg Palace was a pretty cool place to go.
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| Nymphenberg Palace |
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| The ceiling in Nymphenberg Palace's great hall |
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| King Ludwig II's coronation carriage |
More photos here!
