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Spring is a beautiful season for beer drinkers. Baseball is just a few weeks away, sidewalk tables sprout in front of brew pubs, and a wave of Heller Bock beers hit the shelves. But most of all, it’s the time we get out the timetables and maps and start planning our major summer excursion.
Most of our trips cover new ground in search of new breweries and beer experiences, but every year we treat ourselves to a return to a couple of all-time favorites. Although we wrote the book, we still start by perusing Drinking In the Culture, Tuppers’ Guide to Exploring Great Beers in Europe. We can’t keep the 400-plus recommended drinking holes in our heads at one time–the book and the notes behind it remind us of nearly forgotten places we really want to revisit.
Now, with the weather warming, we’re clamoring to get outside and we look longingly at some of the best outdoor drinking spots. As seasoned beer travelers, we’ve found great beers in gardens, on mountains, and by rivers, harbors, and canals all over Europe. Here are five of the best.
#1 Eat, Drink and Feed Deer at Munich’s Hirschgarten
Although some American breweries have fine beer gardens at their brewery taps, few can even compare to the great gardens of Europe. You can make unexpected discoveries in cities such as Stockholm, Zurich, and Manchester, but for a pure garden experience, it’s hard to beat southern Germany and western Austria.
The biggest, and without question one of the best, is the Hirschgarten in Munich. The beer garden is part of a huge park that used to be the private hunting grounds of the King. The deer don’t get shot now, they get fed. Unless you get there in a peak time, you can–with just a bit of patience–get a table next to the fence that separates you from the deer, and they’ll come over to say hi and stare at your giant pretzel.
The beer is Munich’s best: Augustinerbräu served from wooden kegs that can range up to 200 liters in size. The beer comes fresh from the brewery’s cellars and the wood keeps it wonderfully cold. The food, served from a variety of self-service stalls, is exceptionally good. It’s on the outskirts of the city, a fifteen-minute walk from the Laim S Bahn stop, but worth the effort to get there. At night the deer pack it in, but the garden lights create a fairyland atmosphere.
#2 Enjoy Great Beer by the Scenic Canals of Amsterdam
Amsterdam calls itself the Venice of the North for good reason. At one time, the canal system was the life blood of the city’s huge Heineken and Amstel breweries, but today the big breweries are near the highways far from the city and the canals best serve beer drinkers by providing plenty of places to sip a beer in serenity.
Our favorite bar in the city, ‘t Arendsnest, sits right on Herengracht, and while there aren’t many canal-side tables, there always seems to be a place for us when we’re there. The bar tries to stock at least one beer from every craft brewery in the Netherlands, a goal that used to be easier than it is now. Their efforts mean that you can enjoy the canal view with a simply superb beer.
The pub is an easy walk from the station; grab a cheap map from the tourist office in front of the station and take the short and scenic stroll. While you’re staring at the canal, make a plan for catching one of the many canal boat tours and marvel at the variation in the gables that top the houses lining the canals.
#3 Get “Sky High” On the Gasthaus Ebenalb Cable Cars
Alpine countries love their views and love their beers. The combination is intoxicating indeed. Cable cars ascend to heights high above Zurich and Salzburg, but the most spectacular views require a bit of planning.
From Zurich, trains now run smoothly to Appenzell, a town so quaint you expect Heidi to be your waitress at dinner. From there, a Toonerville trolley will take you to the base of the Ebenalb. It’s not one of the highest alps, but it’s one of the most accessible; frequent cable cars take you near the top. From the cable car station, walk another few hundred yards (up) past cowbell-clanking bovines to the Gasthaus.
In the valley far below, the beer would be ordinary (which is to say pretty good) Austrian lager, but up on these heights the combination of hot soup and cold beer makes you feel like you might actually have gotten closer to heaven.
#4 Take a Spectacular “Fisherman’s Walk” to a Prize-Winning Brewery
Many pubs in the United Kingdom sport terraces and modest gardens, but you’ll find the best scenery if you get out of town. In Scotland, head for an island. One of our favorites is on the Isle of Arran, where a spectacular seaside walkway of paths and wooden bridges takes you to one of Scotland’s many fine craft breweries.
Take a tour of the brewery, grab a bite at the café, and settle in outdoors in fine weather. The name of the place is, ironically, the Wineport, but the beers are easy to obtain. The brewery now operates a guesthouse with a patio sporting great views and cool Arran beer. If you don’t dawdle, you should have time to visit the castle which looms from the nearby heights.
Other good pubs are close enough to the ferry port that you can run back when you lose track of the time. Ferries from Ardrossan are coordinated with train arrivals from Glasgow; a nice round trip excursion is possible in a day.
#5 Experience a Floating Bar in Stockholm
Stockholm has some of the best floating bars we’ve ever encountered. You can relax in a comfortable chair or lounge, and bob as you imbibe. It’s serenity on a raft.
Our favorite is Flyt. While it’s not as much of a floating verandah as some of the others, it has two huge advantages. It serves some of the best food that a normal person can afford in the city, and it serves beers that would very nearly make it a destination bar even if it were marooned on dry land. Head-on boiled shrimp are a Swedish specialty when you can find them–Flyt’s are as good as any we’ve found.
A management tie to Akkurat, the city’s premier beer bar, ensures that Flyt’s more limited range of beers is nevertheless worth your time to explore. On our last visit, beers from Jämtlands and Oppigårds breweries made us want to spend the night there. If you can find it, Jämtlands Heaven, a dark lager, is one of the best of its kind in Sweden. The name is whimsy: “hell” designates a golden beer in Sweden as it does in Germany, and “heaven,” of course, is the opposite of hell.
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Thanks to the Tuppers for kindly sharing their picks with us – you can stay plugged to all their adventures at CulturAlePress.com. And don’t forget tocheck out Drinking In the Culture: Tuppers’ Guide to Exploring Great Beers in Europe while you’re at it…It’s a terrific read!
