the session

The Session #22: Prohibition, what Prohibition?

The SessionShawn and Nico have asked us to write about Prohibtion today in Session #22.

Specifically: “What does the repeal of Prohibition mean to you? How will you celebrate your right to drink beer?”

I’ll start with a bit of a confession. My great grandfather ran for local office in the 1890s on the Prohibition ticket. He was a berry farmer and lay preacher who also wrote about community news for two nearby newspapers. A.A. Applegate was no neo-convservative. In a time when graduating from high school wasn’t the norm he reared six children who went to college on state scholarships. Some became artists and musicians. He is one of my heroes.

He didn’t use his newspaper columns as a pulpit so I don’t have any information why he chose to run on the Prohibition ticket. But read any of many histories about taverns and pubs during the final decades of the 19th century and you can see these were not family friendly places. Sometimes they weren’t even people friendly.

In contrast you have what we’ve seen during the past 14 weeks in Europe. This includes teenagers drinking (wine as well as beer) in the company of their parents. This includes shopkeepers getting together right after work at a cafe in Switzerland, some drinking coffee, some wine and some beer. And tables reserved on a standing basis (“Stammtisch”) in Germany. And the way they keep a tab with marks on coasters in Franconia or the simple slips of paper in the Czech Republic. And regulars solving the problems of the world in the back room of a German pension, beers in hand before most of the guests had finished breakfast.

Connect the dots.

I’m sure you will read lots of great posts about why the repeal of Prohibition was important, but it’s a topic I don’t feel like taking more time to write about when I can enjoy drinking beer some place where there was never was Prohibition and I can’t imagine there ever will be. Yes, I understand that might be shortsighted.

Fact is I’m pre-posting this because Friday we’ll be in Munich, and I’ll be focused on how to get from our hotel to Neuhauser Strasse 27.

 

Session #22 announced: You and Prohibition

The SessionIn a perfect world 21st Amendment Brewery would be hosting the 21st round of The Session rather than the 22nd. It didn’t break that way. Oh well, there’s still good news. The next gathering of beer bloggers falls on Dec. 5, and 21st Amendment is ready for action.

Quick class, what does that date mean to beer drinkers?

Sean and Nico, your hosts, write: “At the 21st Amendment Brewery, the repeal of Prohibition means we can celebrate the right to brew beer, the freedom to be innovative, and the obligation to have fun.

“What does the repeal of Prohibition mean to you? How will you celebrate your right to drink beer?”

As usual, all bloggers are welcome to participate. Just post on Dec. 5 and drop them a line.

 

Session #21 roundup posted, and why I was absent

The SessionCan I plead a dog lapped up my beer homework?

I just plain missed The Session #21 and the obviously provocative topic: Name you favorite beer.

I was prepared to pick that magic, but now I don’t have to because Friday came and went while I was tracking down still more Italian small-batch beers in Venice.

See what everybody was writing — sometimes picking a favorite, often times not &#151 in Matt’s roundup.

 

Session #20 wrapped up; #21: Name your favorite

The SessionRay and Mel at the Bathtub Brewery have the roundup for The Session #20: Beer Memories. Lots of, no surprise, memories (old and new).

Meanwhile, Matt has laid down a challenge for The Session #21 on Nov. 7. He wants you to pick your favorite beer, and expects more than just a name. He wants a solid review.

Before you say I don’t have a favorite beer or how do I pick just one. I say BS everyone has a favorite. There will always be a beer that you would grab above all others, your go to beer per say. The one beer you will almost always choose over the others. When I get asked that question I almost always say I don’t have one but then when I came up with this topic I realized I did and I know you do too.

I’m not sure I do. Do you?

Remember, participating is easy. Create a post on Nov. 7 and send Matt a link.

 

The Session #20: German tradition lives

This is my contribution to The Session #20, Beer and Memories, hosted by the Bathtub Brewery. Head there for a complete recap.

Zoigl brewery, NeuhausSchafferhof-Zoigl.

I drank it twice today, and I may never have it again. But if I do taste it I will be instantly back in Neuhaus, located in a bit of northern Bavaria known as the Oberfplaz. “Nobody in Germany comes here,” a Munich resident told us at the Teicher, run by the Otto Punzmann family, where we had another Zoigl beer. We were drinking, he explained, in an area lost to many Germans, between the north and Bavaria, between Prague and and the more prosperous west.

A good place to be on German Reunification Day, a national holiday and the only day of the year all the Zoigl breweries of Neuhaus (plus a few others – seven different in town, more if you wanted to drive a few miles) pour their beers. What the blank is Zoigl? Not a style, thank goodness. But beer from a community brewery that’s located in Neuhaus a short walk from the house breweries where the beer ferments, is lagered and served.

During the rest of the year each house brewery takes its own turn serving beer one weekend a month, usually Friday through Monday. In 2007 the breweries began what could turn into something wonderful. They all open on a single day.

Apparently the first round was a success, because sometime before 6 o’clock in the morning in New York (noon here) we pulled into the village of Neuhaus and saw cars lined up to the edge of town. The first brewery serving Zoigl was right ahead, the community brewhouse around the corner.

Each house brewery makes a beer to is own recipe. Schafferhof was the first we had, and our favorite, as if that matters. By chance it was our first, by design our last &#151 where we enjoyed it with a feast that cost us €11.60 (including beer) and would have been at least three times that on Munich.

The 20-kilometer drive back to our pension was as spectacular as the trip up from southwest of Regensburg on Thursday. As was the journey to Neuhaus in the morning. I should have stopped when we left Neuhaus, and might have were it not for a Mercedes looming in the rear view mirror, to take a picture. The hills were laid out below us in layers, two different villages with churches at their center surrounded by bright green fields and dark green trees.

Fall has arrived, but gently. Yellow and red leaves blend with a lot of green, and the red flowers in planters on the second and third stories of white washed houses perfectly complement red tile roofs.

That’s what I’ll remember should I come across a beer that reminds me of Schafferhof Zoigl.

But back to that conversation at the Teicher. The Munich resident made it clear why some Germans embrace Zoigl when I asked him why he decided to come to Neuhaus — he and 10 friends made the journey via train. He looked around the room, beer and and conversation brimming everywhere.

“This is tradition,” he said.