For Brad’s birthday this year, I decided to take him on a surprise trip to Munich. He really wanted to go to Oktoberfest but having already been there myself and not up to days of solid drinking anymore, I thought a city break here would still be as good. As it turned out, the trip turned into our “engagement-moon” as Brad proposed to me on his actual birthday earlier that week. Awww!

As usual, I was armed with the DK Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide for Munich. We flew Easyjet for just under £100 return for both of us. We stayed at the Cocoon Hotel which I found through Trip Advisor. I believe the total cost was around €210 for three nights. The hotel itself is very modern and slightly strange in the fact that the shower, vanity and toilet all share the same sliding door. It was clean, quiet and well located so no complaints there. Definitely skip the breakfast though, at €8 a head it seemed quite overpriced. 

We’d barely been in Munich for a few hours, when we headed straight to Altes Hackerhaus (Sendlinger Strasse 14) for some lunch and beer. Opened in 1832, it serves Bavarian cuisine in a former brewery. Service was brisk and the food was good but nothing overly special. After some more sightseeing, Brad thought it was time for some more beer, so we stopped at the most famous beer hall - the Hofbrauhaus (Am Platzl 9). I’m not a massive fan of this place, it’s full of tourists and lacks the charm of other smaller places. We came, we drank and we ate a giant pretzel.

After a sobering trip to Dachau Concentration Camp during the day, it was time to hit the beer halls. First off was Augustiner Bierhalle (Neuhauser Strasse 27). Augustiner started its life in 1294 as a monastery, with the earliest record of beer being brewed on site is 1328. It moved to it’s current location on Neuhauser Strasse in 1896.

Next up was the Schneider Weisse (Im Tal 10). I was particularly fond of the beers here, less bitter and slightly sweeter than other beers, Schneider Weisse is known for saving wheat beer from dying out. The founder, Georg I. Schneider acquired the rights to boil wheat beer from King Ludwig II in 1872. 

We headed to Franziskaner Fuchsenstuben (Perusastrasse 5) next, as we were hungry and the DK book said they were renowned for producing great sausages. Franziskaner is the oldest privately owned brewery, having started brewing in 1363. We ordered some food - Roast Pork and Dumplings for me, a Sausage Platter and Mash for Brad. Food was OK but nothing outstanding. Franziskaner is now part of the Spaten-Lowenbrau Group, so Brad tried one of their beers too. 

We headed to Fraunhofer (Fraunhofer Strasse 9), for our final stop for the night. Frequented by students, it’s interior dates back to the 19th century. This was the most “pub-like” of the places we visited. I found the beers here to be quite bitter however, not my favourite!

We managed to go to five of the ten traditional pubs listed in the DK, not bad! You can see the other five we missed on DK’s website.

These are my notes from the Beer & Cheese Tasting Session we did at Neals Yard Dairy’s Borough Market store. Even though £50 may seem like a lot, Brad and I had such a wonderful time. Chris George was hilarious and hearing from the cheese and beer producers was great too. I’ve actually already been back to Neals Yard to purchase the St Toga, Cotherstone and another one of the cheddars that they sell since our session, they really were that good! Thanks to Brad for taking photos for me.

What: Neals Yard Dairy’s Beer and Cheese Tasting
with Chris George, Evin O’Reardon, Martin, Maugan & Kim Trethowan.
When: Wednesday 3rd June, The Warehouse 
Cost: £50

Things I learnt about cheese and beer:

• Cheese-making and beer making have similar process but in reverse. So much so that the Meantime Brewer (Peter) actually made his own cheese.
• According to the cheese maker, Martin Trethowan, who has been making cheese for 13 years, there are three things you need for good cheese: handmade, unpasteurised and animal rennet.
• Martin only sells their cheeses in small quantities and in shops or stores that sell them in the right condition. Very important to small cheese makers.
• Evin makes his beer in his kitchen, in his flat in Homerton. There is talks that he will be starting a micro-brewery in one of the railway arches. If that’s what he can do in his kitchen, I’m looking forward to what he’ll do in a proper beer making environment.

Cheeses we tasted (Starting from 12 o’clock in the picture):

• St Tola (Made by Siobhan Ni Gairbirth, nr. Inagh, County Clare. Unpasteurised Goat’s Milk.) Very light soft goat’s cheese. Good with: the Pale Ale.
• Cotherstone (Made by Joan Cross, Quarry Farm, Cotherstone, Co. Durham. Pasteurised Cow’s Milk) Very light cheese, slight acidic flavour, creamy. A young cheese. Good with: apples, ploughman’s lunch, Good with the IPA beer. An ideal “session cheese”.
• Wigmore (Aged) (Made by Anne and Andy Wigmore at Riseley nr. Reading. Thermised Sheep’s Milk, Vegetable Rennet) Made in their backyard, quite an old cheese compared to the others, aged for about 7 weeks. Bloom rind cheese. Good with: the Baltic Porter and apples. Gooey cheese.
• Ardrahan (Made by Mary Burns near Kanturck, County Cork, Ireland. Pasteurised Cow’s Milk, Vegetable Rennet) Earthy tones, bacteria / washed rind, creamy on the outside and chalky on the middle. 3 months old. Good with: the Onepenny and Yorkshire Stingo.
• Gorwydd Caerphilly (Made by Martin, Maugan and Kim Trethowan, nr. Llandewi Brefi, Wales. Unpasteurised Cow’s Milk, Animal Rennet) Almost a spicy flavoured cheese, with a mushroom flavoured rind. Harder on the outside, it’s soft and creamy in the centre. Unusual combination of textures. Good with: most things really, quite versatile.
• Comte (Made in Franche, Comte, Eastern France, Unpasteurised Cow’s Milk, Animal Rennet) Classed as a gruyere. Soft texture with a nutty flavour. They use robust machines to turn the cheese, up to 20,000 of them! A summer cheese. Good with: The IPA and Onepenny.
• Montgomery’s Cheddar (Made by Jamie Montgomery & Steve Bridges, Manor Farm, North Cadbury, Somerset. Unpasteurised Cow’s Milk, Animal Rennet) Strong, sharp almost bitter cheddar. Has a crunchie texture. Chris described it as a 10 mile cheese, you’ll still be tasting it that far down the road. Neal’s Yard consider this to be one of the three best cheddars in the world along with Keane’s and Westcombe. Matured for 18 months. The one we tried was made in 2007. Good with: Roast beef.
• Stilchelton (Made by Joe Schneider at Collingthwaite Farm, Welbeck Estate, Nottinghamshire. Unpasteurised Organic cows milk, Animal Rennet) The only difference with Stilton and Stilchelton is the use of pasteurised and unpasteurised milk. Consider it a geurilla stilton movement if you will. Very similar to Stilton in taste, strong tasting, creamy with a spicy note to the blue mould. Good with: Yorkshire Stingo

Beers we tasted (Poured into glasses, from left to right, IPA empty unfortunately):

• Proper Job IPA (Made at St. Austell Brewery, Cornwall. 5.5% by volume) Light with a slight butter lemon aftertaste. Probably my favourite of the evening.
• OnePenny (Made by Evin O’Reardon, Homerton, London. 5% by volume) Amber ale, with a slightly sweet caramelised flavour.
• Baltic Porter (Made by Evin O’Reardon, Homerton, London. 6.5% by volume) Kind of like an English Porter but since it was cost prohibitive to import, the Russians developed their own Porters. Evin’s was derived from these Russian style of Porters. Quite a heavy beer, less bitter than a normal porter.
• Yorkshire Stingo (Made by Samuel Smith’s. 8% by volume) Quite a strong beer, very sweet. It’s reminiscient of treacle and Christmas Puddings. Stingo was the fashionable slang word of the 18th century for strong beer (Wikipedia).

Last Wednesday, Brad and I went to The Dove Pub in Hackney for an even of beer tasting. Surrounded by 30 other beer enthusiasts, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We were later joined by our friend, Ben, who managed to score a place also.

The beer tasting was sponsored by Palm Brewery. Their product director appeared to walk us through the beer tasting and tell us more about the beer, the brewers and how to enjoy it :)

First up, was a trio of wild ferment, Boon beers. We tasted the Boon Framboise, Boon Gueuze and Boon Marriage Parfait. Boon beers are a sour type of beer which spontaneously ferments in open casks and ripens in barrels for more than two years. It’s during this maturation process that the fruity esters are produced which gives it the unique taste.

To make the Boon Framboise, they add fresh raspberries. It’s a lovely beer, which isn’t as sickly sweet as some fruit beers. Very drinkable. The Boon Gueuze re-ferments in the bottle and gives it a distinct wine taste. It was very fresh tasting, reminiscent of apples. Finally, the Boon Marriage Parfait is part of a very small release that the brewery does of vintage lambic beer. It’s slightly more intense than the other two Boon beers and has an intense, malty flavour. Whilst we were tasting the Boon beers, they served Belgian style chips and mussels. Yum!

Next up was the Regional Specialities, served with two types of cheese, biscuits, grapes and celery. We tasted Palm, Rodenbach and Rodenbach Grand Cru.

Palm beer was born out of an attempt to brew a heavier beer with 5% alcohol, or as they call it in Belgian, a light beer! It’s amber coloured and brewed by an infusion method. It results in a full bodied and well balanced, bittersweet beer. Very good session beer. The Rodenbach beer was my favourite of the evening. Young beer is mixed with beer that is at least 2 years old which results dark, flavour rich beer. The taste was reminiscent of dried fruits and brown sugar. The Rodenbach Grand Cru uses a similar process, but uses slightly more older beer in the mix. The taste is quite distinct from the normal Rodenbach, still dark but has a mild sour note.

Finally we moved to the Steenbrugge Abbey Beer, served with a mixture of Thai starters which included fishcakes, vegetable spring rolls and prawn toasts.

We started with the Steenbrugge Wit beer which was typical of most white beers, refreshing with a unique taste from the herb mixture they use in the beer. The Steenbrugge Blond was a warm, full-bodied beer. More of a session beer again, very drinkable. Finally, the Steenbrugge Bruin, which was a darker, sweeter beer. The Bruin had to be my favourite of the three, however I tend to be biased towards those sort of beers. We finished the Steenbrugge Bruin with a Belgian chocolate, which went well with the flavours of the beer.

I’d like to thank the Palm Brewery and the Dove Pub for putting on such a wonderful evening, all for a small donation to St Joseph’s Hospice which is located just down the road from us and the pub. St Joseph’s Hospice looks after people who have life-limiting illnesses. Whilst they do receive about 40% of their budget from the government, the rest of it comes from public donations. I just donated £20 since I didn’t bring any cash with me on the night.