Munich does no less than two things well – beer and brats. It’s a centuries-old tradition and you can tell one of which the Bavarians are genuinely proud. Shefali’s former boss gave us a great tip on a beer garden that happened to be close to the hotel, so we started our first night off right with a liter each of fresh, tasty weißbier – that’s German for “the best €6.80 you will ever spend in your life.” Knowing a good thing when we see it, we followed this pattern through several days all over the city, including after the free walking tour, before dinner, after dinner and in lieu of dinner. Thanks to our regimented celebration of the culture, I discovered a new beer – Clausthaller. It’s got a unique, fresh taste to it – like Kris Kross with the backwards pants or Vanilla Ice ending every song with “word… to your mother.” It tastes like all the things beer is made of. I absolutely devoured a liter and a half of it – it was a refreshment the likes of which I had never experienced. I was raving to Shefali about it, about how we should make this style of beer when we come home. It was the Korean BBQ of beer – the last really great culinary thing to totally consume my consciousness and senses. And it was amazing to me, that I had never seen it anywhere else, you know? Like, wouldn’t anything that insanely delicious have already been brought to America where obsessive beer nerds could build shrine-like catacombs to celebrate it? So we went and looked it up and lo an behold, it’s a special brewing process exclusive to the company. And as a result of this process… it’s non-alcoholic. Kind of a fail, but it’s still delicious. And that wasn’t even the best part. A good, nay, GREAT friend from home, Malcolm just happened to be coming to Germany with his son and mother. So you know we had to meet up for at least a liter or two.
© 2013 Vijay
