The breweries of Munich

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Fly direct with Luft hansa;

nonstops from Vancouver run

mid-May through mid-October. Lufthansa.com

The München Palace is a family-run boutique hotel

(74 rooms, from !200) with obses-sive service and a nice location just across the river

from old town and the gallery district. Muenchenpalace.de

To comprehend a millennium of

brewing history, visit the charm-

ingly offbeat Beer and Oktoberfest

Museum housed in a downtown town-home built in 1340. Bier-und-oktober-festmuseum.de

F IE L D N O T E S

T H E GOODS N e x t D e s t i n a t i o n s

�F I E L D T R I P

J U N E 2 O 1 5 | V A N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E 9594 V A N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | J U N E 2 O 1 5

GARDEN VARIETYLike much of down-town, the Chinese Tower (built 1790) was destroyed dur-ing Allied bombing and rebuilt in the 1950s. The second largest beer garden in town, it accom-modates 7,500

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONSThe Bavarian eye-opener: weisswurst (veal and pork sausage) served with pretzels and helles beer. Meat is sucked out of the casings; only the uninitiated use a knife and fork

MISCHIEF MANAGEDRegulars take no chances with family steins; personal lockers keep 424 mugs safe (owners must wash their own) at Hofbräuhaus

LEVEL UPReserve up to two bottles of Brauerei im Eiswerk’s Bour-bon Bock (!24.90 for 750ml) to pick up per visit

FROM THE ASHESOpened by royal decree, Hofbräu-haus, too, was fl attened in the war and its 900-seat upstairs festival hall entirely rebuilt

***Bavarian pride runs high, which means locals—

even hipsters—rock traditional lederhosen and dirndls without irony. Running into the thousands, hand-embroidered over deerskin or silk, the best are

once-in-a-lifetime investment pieces (Lodenfrey.com)

!“beer is nutrition.” That’s Walter König, man-

aging director of the Bayerischer Brauer bund, the association of Bavarian brewers upholding purity laws that have dictated the ingre-dients and methods of German beer-making since 1516. As the Académie Française locks down the French language, the Rein-heitsgebot—the world’s oldest food regulation—holds the course for beer, o" cially considered a food here. Serious business, and König, who’s in Munich this afternoon meeting with hops producers, takes the job duly seriously—even if the boardroom table is littered with glasses and bottles, and the room’s mini-fridge is looking a little depleted. Of the 1,300 or so breweries in Germany, half hail from Bavaria, and his trusted members produce 20 million hecto litres a year—that’s 160 litres of beer for every man, woman,

(44 Ohlmüllerstrasse. Brauerei-im-eiswerk.de) in the city’s up-and-coming Au district.

Standing amidst beakers and siphons, Zuber explains that thanks to globalization there is some mod-est curiosity among the city’s young people to sample new styles of beer. Yet, it’s a marginal demand com-pared to the traditionals, which are supported by the twin behemoths of Germany’s export market and its domestic thirst. (Standard weekly procedure if you live in Munich: buy a few cases of 20 half-litre bottles of di# erent styles from the supermar-ket, drink them from late morn-ing through lunch—absolutely, people drink beer at their desks with lunch—and into the night.) As much as I love a hoppy Northwest Coast-style IPA, it’s hard to argue with the simple, classic appeal of Zuber’s Josephs Spezial, a malty, slightly smoky brown ale brewed in honour of Joseph Pschorr, one

of the city’s founding brewmas-ters. We drink our way through his whole small artisanal list—a creamy, fruity Comet Ale; a bright and citric Mandarin Weizenbock—while he shows me the technology (a 135-year-old river-driven turbine can still connect to the stream outside) and explains distribution: the savvy can reserve bottles online to pick up every second week, when a tour and an evening of tastings

and child in the state. Much is for export, of course, but not all. As I learn while exploring the holy birthplace of modern malt, hops, yeast, and water, beer is as central to Bavarian life as milk is to ours.

Like all things holy, especially when enshrined in ancient docu-ments written in spiky Germanic script, innovation is discouraged. Unlike in Vancouver, which is awash in experimentation, every-one I talk to in Munich rolls their eyes at the notion of “craft” beer. The more I sample (and I sample a lot), the more I’m beginning to think there may be some method to their madness.

To fi nd out how much wiggle room the Reinheitsgebot allows, I meet Martin Zuber, a respected local brewer with 28 years’ experi-ence who convinced his employer, Paulaner (a brewery established by friars in 1634), to open a micro-brand named Brauerei im Eiswerk

might get thrown in for free.Aside from Paulaner, the city

has fi ve other breweries—by law, only they can supply Oktoberfest, the World Cup-meets-South by Southwest of the drinking calen-dar, with over six million visitors annually. (If you like Mardi Gras-level mayhem, come then; other-wise, the city is open the other 11 months too.) Everyone has their favourite of the Munich Six, in part

because almost all restaurants in the city are contracted to one of them; look for the small sign usu-ally hanging by the entryway or, in some cases, to the establishment’s name. The massive (2,200 seats) Hofbräuhaus am Platzl (9 Platzl. Hofbraeuhaus.de), for instance—opened in 1592 in conjunction with the Hofbräu brewery—serves the traditional styles of helles (“light”), dunkel (“dark”), and weiss (“white,”

A Pilgrimage of Legendary ProportionsHistory is fi xed in tall glasses of amber (ale) in the Bavarian birthplace of beerby john burns

Food

: San

fam

edia

.com

; loc

kers

: Sco

tt M

oore

; Hof

bräu

haus

: Bay

reut

h200

9

Jaso

n Pa

ris

Fly direct with Luft hansa;

nonstops from Vancouver run

mid-May through mid-October. Lufthansa.com

The München Palace is a family-run boutique hotel

(74 rooms, from !200) with obses-sive service and a nice location just across the river

from old town and the gallery district. Muenchenpalace.de

To comprehend a millennium of

brewing history, visit the charm-

ingly offbeat Beer and Oktoberfest

Museum housed in a downtown town-home built in 1340. Bier-und-oktober-festmuseum.de

F IE L D N O T E S

T H E GOODS N e x t D e s t i n a t i o n s

�F I E L D T R I P

J U N E 2 O 1 5 | V A N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E 9594 V A N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | J U N E 2 O 1 5

GARDEN VARIETYLike much of down-town, the Chinese Tower (built 1790) was destroyed dur-ing Allied bombing and rebuilt in the 1950s. The second largest beer garden in town, it accom-modates 7,500

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONSThe Bavarian eye-opener: weisswurst (veal and pork sausage) served with pretzels and helles beer. Meat is sucked out of the casings; only the uninitiated use a knife and fork

MISCHIEF MANAGEDRegulars take no chances with family steins; personal lockers keep 424 mugs safe (owners must wash their own) at Hofbräuhaus

LEVEL UPReserve up to two bottles of Brauerei im Eiswerk’s Bour-bon Bock (!24.90 for 750ml) to pick up per visit

FROM THE ASHESOpened by royal decree, Hofbräu-haus, too, was fl attened in the war and its 900-seat upstairs festival hall entirely rebuilt

***Bavarian pride runs high, which means locals—

even hipsters—rock traditional lederhosen and dirndls without irony. Running into the thousands, hand-embroidered over deerskin or silk, the best are

once-in-a-lifetime investment pieces (Lodenfrey.com)

!“beer is nutrition.” That’s Walter König, man-

aging director of the Bayerischer Brauer bund, the association of Bavarian brewers upholding purity laws that have dictated the ingre-dients and methods of German beer-making since 1516. As the Académie Française locks down the French language, the Rein-heitsgebot—the world’s oldest food regulation—holds the course for beer, o" cially considered a food here. Serious business, and König, who’s in Munich this afternoon meeting with hops producers, takes the job duly seriously—even if the boardroom table is littered with glasses and bottles, and the room’s mini-fridge is looking a little depleted. Of the 1,300 or so breweries in Germany, half hail from Bavaria, and his trusted members produce 20 million hecto litres a year—that’s 160 litres of beer for every man, woman,

(44 Ohlmüllerstrasse. Brauerei-im-eiswerk.de) in the city’s up-and-coming Au district.

Standing amidst beakers and siphons, Zuber explains that thanks to globalization there is some mod-est curiosity among the city’s young people to sample new styles of beer. Yet, it’s a marginal demand com-pared to the traditionals, which are supported by the twin behemoths of Germany’s export market and its domestic thirst. (Standard weekly procedure if you live in Munich: buy a few cases of 20 half-litre bottles of di# erent styles from the supermar-ket, drink them from late morn-ing through lunch—absolutely, people drink beer at their desks with lunch—and into the night.) As much as I love a hoppy Northwest Coast-style IPA, it’s hard to argue with the simple, classic appeal of Zuber’s Josephs Spezial, a malty, slightly smoky brown ale brewed in honour of Joseph Pschorr, one

of the city’s founding brewmas-ters. We drink our way through his whole small artisanal list—a creamy, fruity Comet Ale; a bright and citric Mandarin Weizenbock—while he shows me the technology (a 135-year-old river-driven turbine can still connect to the stream outside) and explains distribution: the savvy can reserve bottles online to pick up every second week, when a tour and an evening of tastings

and child in the state. Much is for export, of course, but not all. As I learn while exploring the holy birthplace of modern malt, hops, yeast, and water, beer is as central to Bavarian life as milk is to ours.

Like all things holy, especially when enshrined in ancient docu-ments written in spiky Germanic script, innovation is discouraged. Unlike in Vancouver, which is awash in experimentation, every-one I talk to in Munich rolls their eyes at the notion of “craft” beer. The more I sample (and I sample a lot), the more I’m beginning to think there may be some method to their madness.

To fi nd out how much wiggle room the Reinheitsgebot allows, I meet Martin Zuber, a respected local brewer with 28 years’ experi-ence who convinced his employer, Paulaner (a brewery established by friars in 1634), to open a micro-brand named Brauerei im Eiswerk

might get thrown in for free.Aside from Paulaner, the city

has fi ve other breweries—by law, only they can supply Oktoberfest, the World Cup-meets-South by Southwest of the drinking calen-dar, with over six million visitors annually. (If you like Mardi Gras-level mayhem, come then; other-wise, the city is open the other 11 months too.) Everyone has their favourite of the Munich Six, in part

because almost all restaurants in the city are contracted to one of them; look for the small sign usu-ally hanging by the entryway or, in some cases, to the establishment’s name. The massive (2,200 seats) Hofbräuhaus am Platzl (9 Platzl. Hofbraeuhaus.de), for instance—opened in 1592 in conjunction with the Hofbräu brewery—serves the traditional styles of helles (“light”), dunkel (“dark”), and weiss (“white,”

A Pilgrimage of Legendary ProportionsHistory is fi xed in tall glasses of amber (ale) in the Bavarian birthplace of beerby john burns

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aka wheat) beers alongside regional staples like pretzels, sausage salad, and the Brotzeit platter of cheeses (including weirdly delicious obatzda, a camembert spread), meats, onion rings, and bread. It’s loud with guests and oompah music, it can be hard to flag down a server, you do not want to sit at a reserved table (Germans appreciate compliance to signs), and the beer, though only five percent alcohol here as everywhere, comes by the litre. But it’s a mandatory introduc-tion to the city’s drinking culture and a surprisingly authentic one: what might in other cities be a tourist trap is here a super-sized local. Four hundred regulars even pay an annual fee of !200 for a key to a personal stein locker.

Die Goldene Bar (1 Prinz-regentenstrasse. Goldenebar.de) is one of the few bars in the city not tied to a brewery. Here, in

an overscale room with gold-leaf murals, a 1920s chandelier, and attendant hipster sta", you can order a Drunk Sailor IPA or Munich Summer ale from iconoclast Crew Republic. Founders Timm Schnigula and Mario Hanel were inspired by the American and Australian craft scenes to start their own brewery in 2011; they may be Bavaria’s only craft brewers, and though nobody I met rated their beers that highly (I found them refreshingly diverse after a week of helles, but also sweet and a bit wonky in their balance), everyone is keeping an eye on their quixotic progress. I make the pil-grimage out to their impressive new suburban facilities, and Schnigula (a former management consultant without formal brewing training) is frank in saying their dream is some-day to occupy an actual niche. “We’re not even there yet.” It’s a problem, he admits, that his competitors

T H E GOODS N e x t D e s t i n a t i o n s

�F I E L D T R I P

BIG GULPPaulaner is one of six breweries licensed to fuel Ok-toberfest, running this year Sept. 19 to Oct. 4. In 2014, 6.4 million visitors drank 6.3 million litres of beer

FLIGHTS OF FANCYLocated in the Haus der Kunst gallery, the Goldene Bar marches to a di"erent beat: the Hopped Boulevard-ier adds Simcoe IPA and galaxy hops to the bourbon original

URBAN OASISPreviously a hunting estate, the 417-hectare Englischer Garten has something for everyone: meadows, 78 ki-lometres of paths, over 100 bridges, nude sunbath-ing, restaurants, and (natürlich) beer gardens

brew such excellent product. Munich is about more than beer,

of course. Intensely walkable, its compact downtown is bounded to the south by the Isar River, which describes an arc of cobblestone streets, intriguing courtyards, and public gardens. To the northeast, I find the city’s largest green space, the enchanting Englischer Garten (Muenchen.de), 417 hectares of managed forest and fields just o" the downtown core and well suited to walking o" some of my late pur-suits. There are paths throughout, the kitschy Chinese Tower beer garden if you’re still thirsty, and—why not?—wetsuited surfers riding the continent’s smallest break: a 12-metre-wide standing wave they cut across in endless figure-8s. In warm months, if it’s your inclina-tion, three sections of the park are clothing-optional. Beer guts are graciously overlooked. VM

*** Hofbräuhaus am Platzl is just one stop on Hitler’s Munich,

a brisk three-hour walking tour with excellent English commentary, run daily. The same company also offers a

history-of-beer walking tour that hits the same hall, among several well-lubricated stops (Munichwalktours.de)

How many cherries in an

authentic Black Forest cake?

Brush up on other German traditions and culture with a true/false quiz at Germany.travel