Gummi Couture

How fun is this?!! 

For Twelv Magazine's debut, they made a dress (inspired by Alexander McQueen's Parrott Dress) out of FIFTY THOUSAND GUMMI BEARS! 

To create this 220 pound masterpiece, the designers Hissa Igarashi and Sayuri Marakumi covered a wire frame with vinyl and spent 3 weeks gluing on the gummi bears by hand. Truly impressive!

Friday Photo Favorite: Bangkok Skies

Last night we had some of the worst thunderstorms I've seen since living in Munich. But they were mild compared to the storms we have in Texas or the rains in Bangkok! 

One of my favorite things in Bangkok was watching the storms sweep across town...from the comfort of my apartment window.  As in Texas, the storms make day look like night.

Needless to say, I also spent many evenings at the window watching the fantastic sunsets!

Friday Photo Favorite: Sunset

This is where I'd like to be right now!

 

Followed by dinner here:

Paulaner's Words of Wisdom

On an old poster displayed at the Paulaner am Nockherberg:

Der echte Trinker niemals weicht,
Bis er das höchste Ziel erreicht!

Translation:

The real drinker never gives up,
Until he reaches the highest goal! 

Friday Photo Favorite: Old Steel Mill

Kuchelbauer Bier Kunst Turm 2

If you remember our Hopfenland trip last year, you'll recall our visit to the Kuchlbauer Brewery...home of the Abensberg Weissbier Dwarves.

After our tour of the brewery, our viewing of the owner's interpretation of The Last Supper, an intro into Hundertwasser's architecture, and the singing dwarves (check out the video in the previous post, if you haven't), we next went on to climb up the Bierkunstturm (Beer-Art Tower) which is the centerpiece of the brewery.  

In fact, the initial plans had the tower at twice the height it stands today.  The city of Abensburg wouldn't permit it, and Kuchlbauer is today rather relieved, as the original tower plans likely would have bankrupted the brewery. 

For the history of the tower, please see our previous post.  This one shows you the walk up the tower.  

We start form the lower level, where our tour ended, and ascend the stairs to the top.  The stairs wind in and out of the tower, and each level has a theme, mostly featuring the ingredients to beer.  But before we start up the tower....more weissbier dwarves!

So we started our trek up the beer-art tower.  

And quickly begin to reach alcoves in each landing dedicated to key weissbier brewing ingredients. First up, Hopfen (hops):

 

Next we have weizen (wheat): 

At certain parts, the stairs wind around the outside of the tower. 

We have no idea what Hefe-Zolgl actually means...Zolgl doens't appear to be a real German word. But it relates to the yeast (hefe). Perhaps it's the yeast bubbles or something like that?

 

And of course the ever critical Brauwasser (brewing water): 

And Gerste (barley):

After the landings with the brewing ingredients, there were several other decorated alcoves. There wasn't a plaque explaining this one, but the round base says something about the brewer. 

This one had a stained glass window that seemed straight out of Dr. Seuss, and a statue of a white dwarf on a barrel in a round alcove. In here, the plaque says that, the smallest little house belonging to the "white" dwarfs of Abensberg has three windows of light. The openings of light stand for modesty, tolerance, and independence.  You should stand in the light to remember these values, and to be helped to live by them. Additionally, one of the windows looks directly onto the final resting place of Leonhard Salleck, one of the brewery's ancestors. 

This was a lovely room that basically was a giant kalleidoscope - a great idea with all of the colors and textures on the walls!

 
Here we could look down into one of the alcoves below:

Finally, we reached the top.  The dome is supposed to represent Paradise (but without the dwarves!). As explained earlier in the tour, they chose the flattene ball shape to to embody the earth "which we should not destroy, since our lives would also be destroyed."  Therfore, it's the symbol for our "paradise," the Earth.

In addition to the crazy mirror mosaic tree, it continually has classical music playing (Beethoven, if I remember correctly).

After paradise the final stop on the tour is in the beergarten, where your ticket stub entitles you to a pretzel and a Kuchlbauer beer of your choice. 

What is there left to say?  This was one of the most, um, unique tours Herr J and I have experienced.
Of course, our final activity was heading to the gift shop and getting a six-pack (one of each kind)!
For a million+1 reasons, this is a great destination on any trip to non-Munich, non-Alpine Bavaria.

Starkbier Tasting

Every year in the weeks leading up to Easter, Munich holds its other beer festival - Starkbierfest. 

This one is a lot of fun, because it still involves beer, chicken, trachten, and schlager, but it's much more relaxed and less crowded than Oktoberfest. Perhaps because there are fewer tourists, or perhaps because it's spread out over multiple venues and runs 3 to 4 weeks.  Whatever the reason, it's a lot of fun!  However, this festival doesn't have all the rides and carnival games and food....no, it's all about the beer. And the beer is strong!

Starkbierfest at Paulaner am Nockherberg

The origins of Starkbierfest date back to the mid-1700s, and starkbier itself a hundred years earlier. The monks at Paulaner started brewing this "liquid bread" (flussiges Brot) and drinking it through Lent, when they had to fast.  The Bavarian rulers of course turned it into a public festival, and Starkbierfest was born. 

Today, many breweries produce a Starkbier, which basically is a doppelbock. Though the "strong" in "starkbier" refers to the wort, it is also worth noting before you head to a festival where beer is served by the liter, that it's also quite strong. Usually around 8% ABV. 

The most popular sites for Starkbierfest are Paulaner's am Nockherberg and the Löwenbräukeller.  There are others, and of course restaurants from most major breweries (Augustiner, Ayinger, Hacker Pschorr, etc) will offer their starkbier seasonally. For some reason, most starkbiers have names ending in -ator, such as Celebrator (Ayinger) or Maximator (Augustiner).

But, we rarely have a chance to compare starkbiers head-to-head. So, we brought home the four we could purchase to go. Paulaner's Salvator is the best-known and is available year round. In fact, it was a huge hit in the Schnitzelbahn Beer Tournament, going all the way to the final four before losing to the eventual champion, Andechs Weissbier. Löwenbräu's Triumphator also is available year round in stores, but Augustiner's Maximator and Hacker-Pschorr's Animator are truly seasonal beers. 

In the first round of our Beer Tournament, we did have Löwenbräu and Paulaner in the Starkbier Round.  But we weren't able to get the others then. So now we have a rematch, with a couple of other competitors. 

First up was Paulaner's Salvator vs Augustiner's Maximator. Note the difference in color? The Paulaner was much lighter than the Augustiner. 

Both were excellent, and it was a split-decision. Herr J preferred the Paulaner, with its distinctive starkbier taste and sweetness. I preferred the Augustiner, which was seemed a little more balanced to me in both hoppiness (not very) and malt flavor. It reminds me of the Traditionsbier served in the historic Oktoberfest tents the past 2 years. And that was good beer!! 

 

Then we tried the Hacker-Pschorr vs the Löwenbräu...no contest. Much to our surprise, the Hacker-Pschorr was a very smooth, malty and drinkable beer. The Löwenbräu was a little bitter and just not so good. 

 

A fun experiment for a rainy evening. We're looking forward to Starkbierfest next year!

On a side note, an American homebrewer last year decided to walk in the Paulaner monks' path (and blog about it) and fasted for Lent, having only doppelbock.  You can see his adventures at Diary of  Part-time Monk.