Beer in Aschaffenburg and where to drink it

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Parent Category: Travel Over There

Category: 2014 - Gap Year

Created: Monday, 22 September 2014 21:36

Beer is an integral part of the German Culture I have experienced, and every bar and biergarten will have a small selection of beers available for you to choose from based on your mood. One of the more interesting parts of this culture is the German Beer Law which is based on the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. This law established how beer was to be brewed including safety of product and to ensure that brewing did not interfere with the production of bread as both were staples of Bavarian life and utilised ingredients that placed the industries in direct competition. By 1906 this law had been adopted by all German states and colonies and was thus established as the German Beer Law. You may think that this would place many restrictions on the creativity of brewers but from my experience it created an excellent framework of minimum standards from which to build an industry.

The Augustine beers are brewed in strict accordance with the purity law and I tried the Edelstoff Exportbier brewed in München. It was a bright beer with a slight bitter aftertaste but my preference soon became Weizenbeir. When I was in Germany last time visiting Frankfurt and then Bremen, I had not enjoyed the weizenbeir. There was a muddiness to the flavour that I didn’t like, but being in a different region I tried it again and I’m glad I did. The weizenbeir here, in the Bavarian style, while lighter in overall flavours still had a great body and was extremely tasty.

As I like to taste as much as I can in a region, I also tried beers such as Tegernseer Hell from Herzoglich-Bayerilches Brauhaus; The Radler and Pilsner from Martinsbrau; a Pilsner from Pfungstadt; Spessart Specht, a delightful Pilsner; and a few different beers from Brauhaus Faust and Schlappeseppel.

Schlappeseppel beers were available at many of the biergartens I visited. Their beers were quite good, made in the Bavarian style. The brewery is also home to a restaurant which I visited with a few locals (Seb & Max) that I had met a few nights previously. We came here for a traditional Bavarian breakfast which was intense. The breakfast consists of a pint of Weiss Beer, 2 Weiswurst (boiled) and a Brezn (a large pretzel) served with a sweet mustard on the side. Bavarians normally skin the sausage before topping it with mustard. What makes the breakfast intense is the density of it all. Each part is much denser than it looks, but it is tasty. I found that I had to have two beers to be able to finish it all.

Baba Bier was founded in Aschaffenburg and had their first beer tasting in 1868 and steadily expanded until they began exporting beer in 1895 and in the early 20^th century began assimilating other breweries. Baba Beir is a heady and hoppy cultural icon, and if you are visiting here I would recommend you try it, and if you get to the restaurant early enough, have it with a meal.

Raddler is quite a popular beer in Aschaffenburg, and is available everywhere. In Australia a Raddler would be called a shandy, a 50/50 mixture of beer and lemonade, and is not widely consumed. Here it is available everywhere and is drunk by everyone depending on their mood. Almost every brewery makes one or two varieties of alcohol free beer as well.

Along with a number of good pubs and bars, Germany celebrates the biergarten. Biergartens usually have many large tables set in a courtyard and if it is busy you ask people with space at their table if you can join them. Most of the time people will let you sit at the table.

I really enjoyed the Fansanerie, a Schalppeseppel bar, nestled in a park with an old farmhouse it provided a great atmosphere. Dozens of tables (each fitting around 8 people) under umbrellas fill the courtyard while to the left of the entrance is the bar, to the right is the kitchen where you can order light snacks and meals.

The Zueghaus (Armory) is located a few minutes from the Fansanerie and is a refurbished inn. The refurbishment is wonderful and well worth the visit just to look at with a grand dining hall that has to be seen to be believed. The biergarten fills the courtyard and stretches between the hall and the bar providing ample seating under the shade of some large trees. The food is good and decently priced with good service.

On a bright sunny day, the Biergarten am Main is a great place to stop for a beverage. Located below the castle on the riverbanks they have a small area of tables under the shade of large trees.

Another beautiful biergarten that offers some excellent food is the Schoenbusch, it is a country manor in a large park that has a few areas to enjoy. If you want something lush, the main restaurant at the country manor is the way to go, but for my money I prefer the open biergarten just a bit further on. Tables are arranged beneath some grand trees, so at the right time of day you have great shade or sunshine.

One night we were looking for a new biergarten to enjoy a nice dinner after swimming. A quick web search and we found Ottels Biergarten and went to seek it out. It was difficult to find, located in a light industrial area and next to a Sports Club, but it was a small biergarten with very nice food and excellent service at a good price.

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