1/24

After the high Cantillion and the low of DuBuisson, we visited four more breweries. I tasted many brews and selected my favorite and sorted out the off-flavored ones. In the categories of favorite beers are the Karmeliet Triple and Liefmans Goudenband, and in the category of least favorite is the Liedman Kriek. What’s interesting about Karmeliet Triple is that despite being such a light, refreshing beer, it is heaving in alcohol. This beer, which was a monastic recipe, is flavored with orange peel, coriander, and other spices. Liefmans Goudenband was a nice mixture of fruity, yet not overly sweet, and refreshing. This brew reminded me of wine that would be appropriately drunk in the warm, summertime. Unfortunately, the Kriek from Liefmans was overly sweet (as if it had been artificially sweetened) and reminded me of liquid cheery Jell-O. With the lack of beer laws in Belgium there not only comes bad beers, but some of the most delicious, creative beers. 

1/22

We arrived in Belgium the other day, and I immediately noticed how much more condensed this country is compared to Germany. Not only is this country condensed in terms of population, but also the architecture looks condensed. It was a surprise to find out that the traditional Cantillon Brewery is located in Brussels (in the industrial section).  Cantillon, one of only two breweries in Brussels, has been brewing Lambic, Kriek, and Gueuze the traditional way despite huge mass-market competition (who do not brew the traditional way). They brew Lambics by spontaneous fermentation, which means they obtain their yeast cells through the air. This natural, wild way of fermentation is done only in the colder months as to not encourage bacterial growth in the wort.  During the tour, the tour guide emphasized how they (Cantillon brewers) only used organic ingredients due to fact that they do not want chemicals to interfere with the spontaneous fermentation. During the tasting, we tasted one-year-old Lambic (which had an acquired sour taste), the Gueuze (which was a bit sweeter and reminded my of a sour patch kid but not in the artificial sugar way), and the Cherry Kriek (which did not have the artificial, overly sweet, and cheery flavoring). 

1/19

We are taking the train from Munich to Brussels and I’m excited to see what Beligum has to offer, mostly in terms of Beer. Since Belgium does not have to adhere to the Reinheidgabot, then brewers have more freedom to experiment, and thus produce interesting beers such as Lambic and Gueze. I found it interesting how Germany still adheres to such an antiquated law, yet brewing industry practices are far from antiquated. For instances, the monastery we visited yesterday only brewed traditional beers, yet the mode of brewery was very modernized. A car robot(like the ones in the BMW factory) was filling kegs for the monastery.

1/19

After drinking plentiful amounts of wheat beer, and smelling my fair share of banana aromas, I decided to drink more Helles beer. The first Helles beer I drank in Munich was the bottled Augustiner Helles beer sold in the hotel lobby for a euro fifty. This was a refreshing brew with a SRM around four and a fair amount of carbonation.  This beer reminded me of a PBR, yet I don’t mean it tasted like PBR. What I am trying to say is that the carbonation, light body, crisp taste resembles more American can beers than the heavy, dark indigenous beers of Bavaria. The next Helles beer I tried was Paulinger from the tap. This Helles seemed more substantial than the previous. The color seemed to be darker and the beer had less carbonation, probably due to the fact that it came from tap instead of the bottle. This beer also had a heavier body, yet it was still light, crisp, and refreshing. The first taste, I notice sweet, fruity flavors, followed by noticeable, yet not potent, bitterness. Overall, I enjoyed the Paulinger immensely more. 

1/19

It was a six-hour train ride from Berlin to Munich. When we arrived in Munich I instantly noticed differences between the two cities. It is more common to use the tram in Munich rather than the subway, as it is common in Berlin. The tram reminded me of the met in Portland. Also, Berlin is extensively larger that Munich, which is know for being a large village. The population of Berlin is 3 million because of the reunification of the East and West Germany and Munich just has a population of 1 million.  Yet one thing I enjoy about Berlin more than Munich is the street art, of which I see virtually none in Munich. I wonder why Berlin has more street art than Munich. Yet a positive of Munich is the diversity, of which Berlin lacks. One out of five people one sees in Munich is not German. This diversity, I believe, fosters a more accepting atmosphere. 

1/18

Overall, the brewing process is generally the same expect for a few differences among the breweries. First off, the most important variation depends on the size of the brewery. For instance, a larger brewery (ex: Ayinger) will rely on machines and computers primarily to control the brew process. Yet a smaller one (ex: Bayerischer Bahnhof) will rely on manual labor, also known as brew masters. The process begins with getting the barely malt ready, or in other terms making the malt produce starch and enzymes.  Then a mash is made, which is crushed, prepared malt (grist) combined with water that is heated at different temperatures at different times in order to activate various enzymes. The mash is then put into a container with a false bottom, so the liquid can be separated from the barley husks. An interesting note is that some facilities use copper kettles, while others (mostly the modernized, industrial breweries) use stainless steel. Then the wort is made, which is basically adding hops (hop pellets or hop extract) to the mash and heating it. After an hour or so, the wort is quickly cooled (as to prevent other unwanted organisms from growing). Once in the fermenting tank, the yeast is added. And then the yeast eats the sugar and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide. A lot of this fermentation takes place in huge tanks. Then the beer travels through pipes to maturation tanks. After maturation, the beer is filtered through Diamacious Earth to collect all the yeast cells.  

1/15

On Sundays, a majority of the museums in Munich have an entrance fee of one euro. So knowing this, I hauled myself to the Pinakothek Der Moderne which had exhibits of art, architecture, and design. The art portion of the museum had an extensive collection that surpasses the art museum in Portland. This collection consisted of Surrealist paintings, expressionist paintings, and post-modern sculpture. I was most excited to see paintings by Rene Magritte, George Groz, and Paul Klee and sculptures by Dan Flavin. It was satisfying to actually see and experience these works of art in person, most especially the Flavin fluorescent light sculptural installation. His work is meant to be an experience rather than documented in a book.  A large white room housed Flavin’s green fluorescent lattice that spanned the length of the room. Green light filled the entire room and burned into my eyes. After walking through the room, I was seeing and afterglow of magenta. 

1/14

Today we had walking tour of the city center in Munich. The tour guide was amazingly informative and provided us an overview of the Oktoberfest and a brief history of Bavaria. It was interesting learning about Stachus and how the people of Munich refuse to call the Stachus Square, Karlplatz due to the fact that Karlplatz was a hated elector. I also learned that pretzels are twisted that way to mirror the way monks used to pray. After the tour, we grabbed a beer and food. I ordered a wheat beer that had a potent smell of banana. Lately, the wheat beers I have been drinking have had strong odors of banana. Knowing this, I have contemplated the idea of wheat beer (with a banana odor) with dark, chocolate malt and having it resemble a banana split. 

1/10

We traveled by train to Leipzig, known for many things such as being the hometown of Bach. It was intriguing walking through a city with such historical architecture mixed with modern. Not only is the city known for that, but also know for the peculiar beer, Gose. Gose is a sour, salty wheat beer that is fermented with yeast and lactic acid bacteria. I tried a sample of Gose at Bayerischer Bahnhof and expected something that would remind me of a saltlick, but I was pleasantly surprised to find something much more subdued. Yet, the next drink I ordered was Gose with sweet woodruff syrup, which pleasantly, but not overwhelmingly complimented the Gose. I’m happy I tried this Gose and not the one served at the City Hall pub, which I heard was extremely salty. 

1/9

We went to VLB and found out that THIS is the place to learn about brewing. The VLB invited brewers from all over the world (USA, Chine, Russia) to come and expand their brewing knowledge at the institute for either a month segment or a six-month segment. In addition to the tour and open panel discussion, there was also the sensory training and tasting. In the first part of this activity, the scientists spiked the water with four different substances that fell under the categories sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Fortunately, I was able to distinguish the flavors. It was interesting to find out that one detects different flavors at different times. For example, one can detect salty and sweetness almost initially, yet the detection of sour and then bitterness is delayed. The second part of the tasting consisted of three spiked beers and one normal pilsner beer. The other three spiked beers tasted like, cardboard, creamed corn, and butter. Although the off flavors of cardboard and creamed corn are never acceptable in beer, the butter flavor(do to diacetyl) can be acceptable in malty dark beers. After the VLB, I enjoyed a porter with ice cream. 

1/8

We made the journey to Brauhaus Spandau where they gave us a tour of the brew house and gave us samples of beer. It was interesting how their brewing equipment was still made of cooper. In the begging, the brew master gave us barley grain (pilsner and kilned) to try. I quite enjoyed eating the pilsner grain and imagined that it could be used in a trail mix, yet I could not enjoy eating the kilned grain since it starched my throat like an espresso grain. I was cool how the fermenting room had windows so that the public could experience the open fermenting process. They only brew two beers at a time so the choice was between the light beer and the dark, which made it easy to choose. We all chose the dark beer, which apparently had an ABV of 12. The high alcohol content did not come from the dark barley (since the kilning/browning of the barley kills the starches). We presumed that 10% of the barley used was the dark kind and the rest was the light pilsner. The dark, sweet brew complimented the meal well. The meal was a pile of hardy, fried potatoes and two little meatloaf patties… yum. 

1/7

We dedicated the day to visit the Deutsches Technisches Museum where we saw the set up of an old brew house. In the old brew house, the brewing equipment was made out of copper. In addition to seeing an old brew house, we saw some trains and nifty technology. After the Museum, we ventured to a restaurant where Emma gave her presentation on Berliner Wesse and the majority of the group ordered Berliner Wesse to drink. I was happy that I waited until this restaurant to drink Berliner Wesse instead of first trying it at the Thai Restaurant, where they served the drinks in incorrect glasses and put too much sweet syrup. I ordered my Berliner Wesse with woodruff syrup instead of raspberry and quite enjoyed it. Despite that fact that this particular drink is served in the summer with light food such as a salad, I ordered it in the middle of winter with a “Strammer Max”(bread, eggs, and ham). With its lightness and low alcohol content, it proved to be quite refreshing.

1/6

It’s our first full day in Berlin and we started off with a guided bus tour. The guided tour showed us locations famous in Berlin history, relevant to current politics, and conducive to having fun. It was humbling to learn about the Berlin Wall and how it separated West Germany from East Germany. Yet, most interesting is that there are parts of the wall still left up in some places to remind people of the separation and then reunification. To finish the tour we had lunch at this place called something like “ House of 100 Beers.” I ordered a Schneider Weisse Unser Original to go with my roasted chicken. This wheat beer has an alcohol volume of 5.4% and an original gravity of 12.8%. The head on this beer was amazingly thick and large and I tasted a bit of cinnamon or cloves. Overall, I was quite satisfied with my choice. Later that night, I ordered a bottle of Estrella Galicia beer, which is from Spain. To be honest, I ordered the beer because I thought the name( “Star Galaxy”) was fascinating. It has an ABV of 5.5%, a malty taste that ends with a slight hop bit, and overall reminds me slightly of PBR. After I ordered Rothaus Pils Tannen Zapfle which comes from Germany’s Black Forest, has an ABV of 5.1%,  is refreshing and crisp, and has a nice hop bite. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of ordering a bock immediately after finishing the hoppy pilsner. The hops tainted my taste buds, which made the bock taste like water. Next time I shall pay attention to the order of my beers. 

1/4-1/5

We( The Brew Class) traveled by school bus to PDX, where we dealt with security checkpoints and fickle check-in machines. Then, we flew by Delta Airlines to Amsterdam, which totaled 10 hours in the air. During these ten hours, I ate two airplane meals, slept two hours, watched one movie, and played three card games. My first meal of the air journey consisted of little tortellini, a salad, a block of Tillamook cheese, and a cookie bar. From there, the airplane food became more daring. For breakfast, the airline served us warm, stuffed bread rolls. “What was the stuffing?”, one might inquire. I do not know, possibly eggs. We landed safely in Amsterdam, and then it was off to Berlin. With our entire luggage we took a bus that then chaffered us to our hotel. After settling in, we had our first dinner in Berlin at a Thai restaurant. Later that night, I enjoyed my first beer, a Berliner Kindl, in Germany. The beer’s mascot is a child bashfully sitting in a beer mug.