Beer Festivals

I've always known I like beer, but an epiphany on just how much came during the weekend Jarmila was in London and I visited lovely mountains surrounding The Brocken.

Upon her return, when she asked how my trip was, I replied, "Fantastic! I found a great beer store in Bad Harzburg that had like 50 beers I'd never tried before, and it took me forever to figure out which ones to buy! I ended up buying Maibock, Rotesblond, pilsner, and some Weizen beer as well. And to boot, that night in the hotel room, Bloodsport was on TV! I have some notes here on the beers if you're interested…"

She just rolled her eyes at me, so I started telling her how I put parmesan cheese in my cappuccino, and that caught her attention again.

And then two weeks ago during a visit to Slovenia, I found myself scouring the shelves looking for Slovenian beers to sample. (Slovenia is beautiful, by the way – a very mountainous and green country filled with, as far as we could tell, very nice people. If you ever find yourself in that neighborhood, you should do your best to check out Bled.)

The Slovenian beers, however, were disappointing in that there were only two kinds available in most places – the somewhat sweet and tasty pilsner Lasko, and the more traditional but nasty pilsner, Union, which the Slovenians I met turned their nose up at. Unlucky for me, this Union pivo is available in Halle at a local Anglophile pub.

…

I have in front of me a photo of myself at a beer festival in Berlin, circa 2001. It is obvious from the benevolent grin on my face that we had already visited a few of the 100 or so beer wagons that were set up for the event.

That was my last beer festival, and I've decided that too much time has passed since I've attended such an event. So I googled and found this link regarding beer festivals around the world.

Two that I plan to visit this year are the Leipzig festival, July 1-3; and the Berlin beer festival, August 5-7.

Anyone interested in coming along?

PS: For those of you in the Pittsburgh area, the Pittsburgh Beer Festival runs from June 25-26.