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.

Spargelzeit, again (asparagus time in Germany)

The role of asparagus in German culture is one of those things that must be experienced first hand.  Therefore, last year (2011), Frau A & I put together what we consider to be the ultimate Spargel-zeit blog post.

That post has photos of the "Asparagus Queen", government statistics on German production and consumption of asparagus, and examples of asparagus paraphernalia ranging from to shoes to ties to doggie t-shirts to erotic cookbooks.

Not long ago, I received my first formal reminder that the 2012 Spargelzeit is here -- from Amazon.de no less!
In my inbox was an email that looked like this:

The email title means "out with the Winter sleep, and in with Spargeltime!".

Naturally, they are trying to sell stuff.  And the first products that come to mind when merchandising for asparagus time are... bed sheets?  Interesting, huh?  (They are described as "Spring Bedsheets", but the email is still asparagus-titled.)
The Amazon.de email also listed an asparagus pot, and asparagus-colored appliances (refrigerator and water boiler).

Yes, asparagus season is in full swing now.  A local (Munich) magazine last week write that 16 exclusive restaurants already have their asparagus menus on the table.  (Sorry, link is in German.)  Many others have such a menu too.

Rather than re-state all the cool info from 2011's encyclopedic Spargelzeit article, let's see the 2012 Asparagus Queens!
Congratulations, Spargelköniginnen!  (I posted as many as I could find, as of 15 April 2012.)

This has by far the best posed photo...in the field, really getting hands on with the veggies:

Asparagus Queens Aenne Heins of Breitenfelde, and Alyssa Dude of Geesthacht

And here are the same two members of asparagus royalty, performing the first ceremonial harvesting:

Alyssa seemed a lot more enthusiastic, but Aenne eventually got into the act too:

Individual towns have their queens, but the entire region of Franken crowned it's queen in Nürnberg (left, below).  On the right is the "Asparagus Princess of the Garlic Region" (I guess the Franken region grows garlic as well?)

Spargel Queen of Franken region, Theresa Sterk (right)

One her web page, this Spargel-Queen poses with chefs, in local shops, and with flowers... but never with asparagus!
What's up with that???  No crown here, but she is wearing a dirndl.

Michele Zimmermann, Asparagus Queen of Beelitz

Michele did pose in a traditional (farmer?) outfit with other ladies from Beelitz, in an asparagus field:

"Kathleen I" has taken over in Klein Radden as Spargelkönigin, also with a more traditional costume:

"Kathleen I", Asparagus Queen of Klein Radden

Michele (two above) could take lessons from Margarethe (below), who posed with a 2+ meter tall asparagus prop:

Asparagus Queen of Bornheim, Margarethe RibbekeMany Spargelkönigin (queen) titles are awarded every other year, so each winner has 2 years of marketing duties.  Therefore, "Kim I", crowned in 2011, is still the reigning queen in Füchtorf:  

Asparagus Queen "Kim I" of FüchtorfNote:  if you click on the photo above, it takes you to the page with their past queens as well.  

Katharina Rau ("Katharina II") was recently crowned, and will represent the asparagus growers in Nordrhein-Westphalen for the next two years.  At the link (click on the photo) she says "I can't get enough of this great vegetable!"

"Katharina II", Spargelkönigin of Herten in NorthRhein-Westphalia

Nadine Isabel Schönhardt was crowned 2012 Asparagus Queen in Lampertheim.  There's a crown, but no sash?

Asparagus Queen "Nadine I" of Lampertheim

In the town of Geest, the asparagus queen gets a real homemade sash -- no fancy gold letters here (but no crown?).

Sina Dubbels, Asparagus Queen of Geest

Daniele Kügler took one of the most prestigious titles:  Asparagus Queen of Schrobenhausen, Bavaria.
Sash?  Check.  Crown?  Check.  Dirndl?  CHECK.  Now that is a truly regal outfit.

"Spargelkönigin" of Bavaria, Daniele Kügler

Here is Daniele, at Munich's Viktualienmarkt, performing Bavaria's ceremonial first harvest of an asparagus stalk:

And finally, the video of her after winning -- walking, waving, getting crowned, receiving a HUG lebkuchenhertz (lebkuchen heart)... all in an Oktoberfest-like beer tent with Bavarian music.  I need to attend this next year!!!

Celebrities wearing trachten

Winter is ending, festivals are beginning...which means it's time for more trachten! I got to wear mine this weekend for a bachelorette party. Yes, somehow trachten has become typical bachelor(ette) party wear. 

For some fun, here are celebrities in trachten.

Hippodrome has its own web pages to document (mostly German) celebrities that were in the tent. Other sites have dedicated pages to famous ladies in a dirndl.

It wouldn't be a "celebrity" post without at least one Kardashian and one Hilton....

 

And then popular institution Wetten Dass... seems to often have beautiful foreign women on the show in dirndls. First, Katy Perry...

...and Salma Hayek (with Karl Lagerfeld). 

The pages of the celebrity magazines here will often have some of FC Bayern's stars in trachten. Here we have Bastian Schweinsteiger and Thomas Mueller with their partners. 

 

And the ladies' favorite, Mario Gomez at Paulaner Nockherberg

At Oktoberfest last year, Boris Becker opted for trachten on top and jeans on the bottom, while his wife Lilly chose a beautiful dirndl with flowers in bodice. (For those of you not living in Germany, Boris Becker is not just a tennis star from 20 years ago...he's a constant presence in the tabloids and society pages)

Only at the Hofbräuhaus in Vegas do they have Hugh Hefner's girlfriends tapping the keg... Not exactly the authentic type of dirndl, but hey, it is Vegas!

And of course Heidi Klum's Got Milk ad

Schloss Nymphenburg in Winter

We've been to the Nymphenburg Gardens many times, in spring and in summer.  So it's only fitting we see it in winter, too. 

On our recent Eisstockschießen outing, we spent an hour walking around the castle grounds before the Eisbahnen opened. Herr J and I will both say that photography at -15° is a challenge and that handwarmers are a necessity - both for keeping my hands flexible and for keeping his batteries warm!

We hadn't had that much snow recently, but after a good solid two weeks of subzero temperatures, the canals and ponds were covered in thick layers of ice. 

 

 

This was my favorite view...though it looks like little ice floes, the dark part is also frozen. I guess the lake froze, partially thawed, and then froze again around the slabs of ice that remained. Whatever happened, it was a really cool effect on the ice!

 

There was one little pool of water, in which the little black ducks congregated. 

 

To me - who is not used to much more than flurries or ice storms once per year - the different forms of ice are fascinating. I'm sure someone can explain it all in terms of temperatures and different crystalization structures, but the result is beautiful. 

 

 

 

Despite the warnings of possible death, the ice fills up with people enjoying all types of winter sports. In addition to eisstockschießen, you can ice skate (rentals are also available), play hockey, sled, or just slide around. 

 

This clever lady paired ice skates with her baby buggy! 

 

 

 

It's only for a short time that the ice is thick enough for sports, but it's times like this that make winter not so bad!

Eisstockschiessen (Bavarian Curling)

One of the biggest lessons I've learned living in Munich (as someone who grew up in the Southern U.S.) is to make the most of every season.  Especially Winter, my area of least expertise.  Winter activities like skiing and sledding have been fun, but there was something new we hadn't tried yet.  It's an activity that dates to at least the 16th Century, has European and World championships, and has been "demonstrated" at the Winter Olympics two times.  It's called eissstockschiessen.

Below, you see the Nymphenburg Palace and a worker preparing the ice for eisstockschiessen and skating.

We'd wanted to try eisstockschiessen before, but somehow never made it in the last years.  It needs to be consistently cold so the water freezes to a safe thickness - at the mercy of nature, lanes open and close with little warning.  There are lanes all over the city, but the ones on the Nymphenburger Kanal (near the Nymphenburg Palace and Gardens) are the most popular.  They have the capacity for 40 lanes (marked by the end boards on the ice) from the castle all the way to the bridge where the local tram stops.

Here is a view down the canal:

 

Since the temperature had averaged -10°C for the previous two weeks, we checked online and the lanes were open. Not knowing how crowded it gets on weekends, we called ahead and reserved one at 9am.  We arrived a little late (9:15) but the rental shack was closed and the one person who seemed associated with it was out on the canal ice, driving a mini Zamboni to clear the lanes (see this in the first photo above).  That is not very German (imprecise!), so we killed some time taking photos of the palace.

After 30 minutes and no indications that he would be finished soon, we ducked into a cute little corner cafe and warmed up with cappuccino, a krapfen (filled doughnut) and piece of marmorkuchen (marble loaf cake).

Now fuelled up and with full feeling in hands and face again, we headed back to see if we could rent the equipment and get our lane. The trailer was finally open for business.  A lane costs €4 per person, for 4 hours - very reasonable.

Required equipment includes the Eisstöcke (plural of Eisstock) to toss/slide (like the "stone" in Canadian curling) and the Dauben (targets).  The kanal lanes include end boards to contain throws that would send an Eisstock into the next lane.  We saw many people come later (we were still the first that cold morning) with their own sets of Eisstöcke and Dauben - serious players indeed.  Theirs were often bright metal, whereas the rental Eisstöcke are wooden (but good enough for us!).  The rental Dauben were simply rectangular blocks of wood dusted with orange paint.

Here is Frau A showing the bottom of a stock.

 

The game is a lot like bocce or shuffleboard.  The goal is to slide your Eisstock closest to the Daube.  It's a great group activity -- especially the arguing about who is closest and the fun of knocking someone else's Eisstock away.

We played 1-on-1 this morning, but it's usually played with 2 teams of 4 people.  This means that in each round, 8 Eisstöcke are thrown.  The points are tallied at the end, and the next round starts from the other end of the lane.  Usually the team that captured the most points on the prior round goes first, so the other team has the last chance this time to knock their Eisstock away from the Daube and score the points.

There are official rules to the game, since it is played competitively (and internationally).  However, most people tend to have their own variation on the rules.  For example:

First to 10:

In each round, the team with the Eisstock closest to the Daube receives 1 point.  First team to 10 points wins. 

Quick First to 10:

In each round, the team with the Eisstock closest to the Daube receives 1 point.  If that same team also has the Eisstock that is second-closest to the Daube, they receive 2 points.

4 Rounds:

There are only 4 rounds, and the team with the most points at the end wins.  In this case, the scoring is like in Quick First to 10 but not limited to 2 points.  A team can receive up to 4 points (if all 4 of their Eisstöcke were closer than the opponents' closest one).

6 Rounds:

There are only 6 rounds, and the team with the most points wins.  The closest Eisstock receives 3 points, and for each other Eisstock that is still closer than the opponents' closest toss, the team receives 2 points (up to 9).  This is usually part of tournament play, so that a win after 6 Rounds gives a team 2 points (a draw 1, and a loss 0).  Then teams move on to other competitors for the next games.

The official rules are, of course, much more precise and include a target area around the Daube.  Only Eisstöcke within the target can get points, and the Daube can only be struck and moved within the target area (if it is pushed outside the target area, it is brought back to its position before the contact).

We took a video... I had to swing as hard as I could to toss the Eisstock, staying relatively low on the ice so not to fall!  We saw many Germans who wore strap-on spikes while they played for stability.

Here are some of those more experienced players on the lane next to us.  You can seel ice skaters taking advantage of the open space at the end of the eisstockschiessen lanes.  (The shack rents ice skates too.)  And again, the nice view with the Nymphenburg palace in the background.

They were pretty serious, and brought out the measuring tape a few times to settle a debate (we were too slow with the camera, unfortunately).

As with most Winter activities here, the proper way to finish is with a hot mug of glühwein (mulled wine).  The shack was happy to sell this too, but oddly theirs included raspberries.  This is unusual, but tasted nice -- although most raspberries ended up tossed onto the snow.

When we returned, we looked up the weather.  No wonder we were chilled -- it was -15°C at 9am, and the high that day was -10°C.

Which explains my attire.  Although it isn't easy to move, I recommend (for warm weather people like me) as many layers as you can manage.  After thermal underwear, fleece leggings, 2 fleeces undercoat, and a down jacket, I added Herr J's balaclava to protect my face.  (And you can't see the handwarmers inside my gloves.)  Yes, I'm slowly learning to deal with Winter, but Herr J will usually carry extra handwarmers just in case...

The ice has mostly melted now, but fortunately we returned the following weekend with a friend to get in a few more games that season.  We're looking forward to more next year.  (Or maybe we should try the Summer version!)

Winter Wonderland

I've been waiting for months for a good snow.

Friday we had weird snow with thunder and lighting. First the fat wet flakes that were pretty and melted, and then it poured down these tiny little flakes that quickly turned the roofs white.

Usually it's gone by morning, but I awoked Saturday morning to find it still snowing and a nice thick layer on the roofs.

I hadn't taken any pictures in a couple of months, but I had a big internal battle between photographic desire and my strong desire to not be cold.

Fortunately, the creative side won. Shocking, actually. But a really good decision to not procrastinate and just go ahead and bundle up and go out.  Though it was snowing hard while I was out and seemed it would continue, the rains soon came and washed away the pretty snow.

 

There are so many reasons to love Munich, but one of my top reasons is that when it snows, it feels like you're inside the picture-perfect world of a snowglobe.

Everything is coated with snow - I especially love how it coats every branch of the tree.

The beast-slaying cherubs at the base of the Mariensäule were no exception:

slaying heresy

slaying famine

Of course, with Munich being the little slice of slightly unreal paradise that it is, Marienplatz was cleared of snow before the snow had stopped falling. (The kids will be playing on the snow piles for the next 2 months!)

The trees behind the Rathaus are some variety of gumball tree. The snow makes perfect ornaments of them! 

Notice anything odd here?

It's actually a reflection. I was hoping this black glass enclosure would make the snowflakes stand out, but was surprised with the fun mirror effect.

I'd somehow never put together the cow fountain in the Rindermarkt with its name, but it actually was the cattle market in the old walled town.

And the Löwenturm has a lovely decorated tree in front of it.

It's not actually raining snow, but just playing around a bit with a slow shutter speed and Herr J's tripod.

A fun morning and probably a positive lesson in why not procrastinating sometimes is good. Really happy I had the chance to go enjoy the beautiful snow!

The Bike Bell

Anyone who has spent time in a German city knows about the bike bells.

When Herr J first moved to Germany, he took his rugged hybrid bike to the store for a tune up. The store also checked that everything was up to code for city laws and made a few adjustments. Which was how he found his manly bike having a bell like all the little girls' bikes in the suburban US.

Here, the bells are a safety feature necessary for riding through city streets. Some cyclists use it a convenient warning to pedestrians walking in the bike path, and then there are some who seem to use their bells to get our their aggressions. But we've become accustomed to looking out when we hear a bike bell.

In Japan, one clever guy has taken it a step further and walks through the street ringing his bike bell.  The bike bell seems to work better than Pavlov's dinner bell.

We should try this here on a Saturday and see if it works enough to clear out some walking space in the central Munich shopping district!