Vogelbräu is a brewpub on the outskirt’s of Karlsruhe’s city center. Being the selfless fellow I am, I checked it out for you in the lovely (and surprisingly large) beergarden which is hidden in the interior court of the brewpub building. The pils was delicious, but not in the classic sense. When I think of pils I generally think of a clear, light-colored, and hoppy beer with relatively little malt taste, and usually highly filtered.
The pils at Vogelbräu, in contrast, is not filtered, and the hops are challenged for supremacy by a strong malt taste. It’s a good beer, although …read more

I’m off soon on one of my periodic trips to Europe (much to my co-blogger’s chagrin), and just in the nick of time, since it’s the beginning of biergarten season.
On a warm summer day in Munich there’s nothing I’d rather do than take the subway (or, better, bike) to Münchner Freiheit and wander through the English Gardens to the beergarden at Kleinhesselhöher See, a man-made lake in the middle of one of the Europe’s largest urban parks. Many guidebooks would send you to the beergarden at the Chinese Tower instead, but I’ll take a beergarden on a lake any day. …read more

So, if you’re looking for something beery to do today, and you are near Petaluma, CA, you might check out this beer tasting and chili cookoff. Looks like fun. On my side of the country, I probably could have persuaded my garden-loving wife to go to the Biergarten at Hershey Gardens in Hershey, PA had we not already had plans.