Hauswirtschaftsleiterin

After changing my clothes and leaving the hotel, I walked up the road toward a place marked “Alte Brauhaus” on the sign. Naturally, when you find a sign that says “Old Brew House”, you don’t just sit in your hotel.

I first checked the hours. According to the sign on the front, the place closed almost an hour before I arrived. But I was so heartbroken, I walked up to the door and poked my head inside anyway. Several guys were standing at the bar, so I walked in and hovered for a few seconds.

“Can I help you?”, the bartender asked, in German. I’m just guessing. She may have said “Get the hell out, we’re closed”. Nobody knows.

“Yes, a beer please!”, I responded, and it worked.

In Germany, they understand that “beer” means “Pils”. So she poured me a pils. It was fantastic. Cold, malty, and somehow tasted thick and luxurious. I dunno if it was because it was a fresh tap, or if Radeburger Pils is the best beer in the world (it’s not), or if I was just tired and wanted a beer. But it was good. I considered taking a photo, but I was sorrounded by hard-working men who just gotten off work and were drinking a beer and talking about soccer. I was not about to take out my cell phone to take a picture of the glass. “HEY GUYS! THIS IS BEER! I’M TAKING A PHOTOGRAPH OF MY BEER GLASS! HA HA HA! THIS IS GREAT! DID YOU KNOW I AM NOT FROM AROUND THIS AREA??! I MISS MY WIFE.”

No. The phone stayed under the table. Here’s a photo of my shoes.

Oh please god, don’t let the flash go off.

For my second beer, I had a Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen. It was all banana-ey and delicious. It was around this time, that the bartender and neighboring hard-working-men started asking questions. They asked basic questions, like “Are you from Denmark?” and “Where do you work?”. As an almost-native-German-speaker, I responded with fluent German.

“Hi! My name is James! I am 32 years old!”

I’m kidding. It went very well. When I didn’t understand, I said “Slow please!” and otherwise I think I understood. Once, I even asked “was that your question?” because I truly just guessed what the question was (I guessed right). Eventually, we started talking about beer. I asked if they had any other beer than the two on tap. They did! A dunkel, from a bottle hidden under the counter. Someone beside me asked if it was as good as the normal weizen beer, and I said “No, I think the other one is better”, and someone else noted that the other one was on tap, which of course makes all the difference.

I was just thrilled that I understood what was going on. And that’s really the whole point of this post. I understood what was going on.

Usually. Sometimes I had no idea. “We’re taking about soccer” the bartender would say. Ah. Okay. You guys changed the topic, and I didn’t notice. Fine.

Ha ha! Something funny happened! I wish I knew why we are laughing.

Sometimes we take wandering walks through the city, and sometimes, we run into awesome things. Like this brewery, for example. Two weekends ago, we finally found the time to go.

Pretty awesome copper kettle.

They have four beers; Schönbuch Ur-Edel, Hefeweizen hell, Naturtrüb, and of course a Pils.

Schönbuch Pils, Hefeweizen, Naturtrüb

Alissa got the Ur-Edel, but I didn’t take a photo for some reason. It looks just like the Pils, and I think it tastes similar. One of them was slightly more bitter. Anyway, the real winner here was the Naturtrüb. Really delicious. Fresh and banana and … well, delicious. The Hefeweizen was really good too; no metallic flavors at all.

The Pils and the Ur-Edel were not good, however. This was the second time we’ve had the Pils. The first was out of a bottle at a bar, and we both agreed the brewery wasn’t worth perusing. It’s a good thing we gave them a second chance.

The food was amazing. Alissa got the flammkuchen.

Schönbuch Flammkuchen

I got the best pork steaks I’ve ever had.

Schönbuch Saftiger, Zarter Schweinebraten

Juicy, tender roast pork. Good god, my mouth is watering. It’s 10 in the morning, and I want to go back and eat delicious tender roast pork. And a Naturtrüb 0.5 liter beer. Amgslbisvcm am nam nam nam. Oh, did I mention the sauce is “beer sauce”? It’s beer sauce.

Did I eat breakfast? I don’t think I ate breakfast.

I forgot what I was going to write.