Let me bring you biers from the wood...

Despite some people thinking that you would be interested in what was happening in Clydebank, the real holiday was continuing in Germany.

Regular readers might have noticed that, as a group, we seem to be incapable of staying in any one place for long. In this spirit, myself and Dr Stan decided to spend the one day that we had between arriving in Köln and moving on to Hilpolttstein by travelling through to Düsseldorf…

On arriving, Dr Stan suggested going for a Gulasch. This involved a tram ride to the Alter Bahnhof. You can imagine my surprise when presented with a glass of Gulasch Bräu - brewed in a microbrewery in the premises!

A short bus ride from there took us to the Bräuhaus Joh. Albrecht, another microbrewery. Here, we came upon the bargain of the day - all you could eat spare ribs (their Thursday special offer). Neither of us had any complaints!

Havng disposed of a fair quantity of ribs, we took our leave and travelled back into the Altstad. Füchschen and Urige were sampled extensively before ending the evening in Schumachers.

Then back to Köln. Hilpoltstein tomorrow!

Premature Annunciation

Some may well be sitting in Köln ‘sunning’ themselves, or is that Sunner?

Some are at home drinking Pyraser Weinachtsbier and Edelstoff just to get warmed up for the very demanding days ahead.


The Background

Last year Yvonne and Craig started their annual vacation by celebrating at The Bon, where else? An impromptu suggestion by Hector: "We are all off tomorrow I have Bier that needs drunk… come to Clydebank". It was a sunny day, we sat out and enjoyed the neighbour's washing...

Marg’s Bacon Roll of the singular variety has now become legend.
Today the event will be repeated but we will also have the Curry-Heute : Chicken Patia

Cologne-ial report

The Hilpoltstein Happenstance 2010 has started…



…despite some people thinking it only starts when they come over to Germany!

As always (it seems), I was first to leave the UK - a 'quick' drive to Dover followed by a boat to Dunkirk - all the time feeling somehow I was going the wrong way - before arriving in Köln in the early afternoon. While I was doing this, Dr Stan travelled over by train.

On my arrival, and throughout the early evening, it was warm and humid. Craig should look away now - the Paulaner house has become a Reissdorf house!



From there to the Gaffel haus in the Altermarkt. Given the weather, I selected an outside seat while waiting for Dr Stan. Good choice - his arrival was presaged by torrential rain and a thunderstorm!



Following what is almost a tradition, we then remembered Sion before ending the night at Fruh.

Bye bye my loves…

Bier in Israel

In Israel, for the thirty years I have been travelling there, the Bier of choice has been Goldstar!

On Kibbutz Ashdot Ya’akov (Me’uchad), where I ran the Volunteers Bar in 1980 (& 1986) this is what was served, not Nesher. By the middle of the decade various cans of rubbish (Budweiser, Bavaria) made an appearance. Tiberias was a refuge, here at Avi’s Restaurant, draught Goldstar was available. Avi (pictured) reconfirmed this when we spoke to him this holiday. And what a superb eatery his restaurant remains! Big Ben has also been open in Tiberias for some 25 years, now it sells an array of Bier a major trend throughout the nation.




The Kibbutz is basically no more. There is now a commercially run bar: ‘Glory’ which sells draught Goldstar, Heineken and wait for it: Paulaner Hefe Weizen vom Fass! Who would ever have been up for work in Bananas at 04.00 if these had been available back in the 1980’s?

This year’s vacation was run as the 1980 trip back to front. Entering Israel from Egypt at Eilat was the opposite of 1980 where I crossed the Sinai border at El Arish. The Three Monkeys on the waterfront became our local, if one can establish a ‘local’ in two nights.


Goldstar, Heineken and Paulaner are clearly all in the same multinational conglomerate as they were to found side by side everywhere. The first Bier of the Israeli part of the vacation had to be Goldstar. It tasted very familiar. A dark-ish keg Bier, it dawned on Hector what the taste was. Tartan Special!

What has happened to Maccabee Lager?
It is available in shops but nowhere else it appears. Wrong alliance?Leffe Blond was too much of a distraction; it could not be everywhere surely?







The Israeli Microbewery

Marg and I drove up to Jerusalem past the Dead Sea and Masada to spend five nights in the capital. Within minutes of our first sojourn on to the streets of Jerusalem, Marg had spotted the outlet for the Golan Brewhouse Express (Hillel Street, opposite the Jerusalem Tower Hotel).


They had only been open six weeks. In the end this is where we watched the World Cup Final. As well as great food they serve the four Biers brewed at the Source in Katzrin up in the Golan Heights. The Helles style ‘Emek’ and the superb Weizen ‘Galilee’ were for me, the two stand outs. The darker ‘Golan’ and the Bock style ‘Baselet’ were not to my taste.


The Source







Inevitably, well we did have a hire-car, we drove up to the Golan Heights via the Source of the River Jordan at Banias. Having been given a short letter of introduction to the staff by the manager of the Jerusalem outlet, we enjoyed some hospitality at the Brewery Tap.













Our final night in Israel was spent at the Hotel Eilat in Tel Aviv, where I spent my first night in January 1980. I think it was the same carpet. Priority number one was actually to get a Curry-Heute! This was achieved but by virtue of having walked to the closed curyry house we passed some intersiting Bier places. Allenby is the street for Bier, not Dizengoff where the night life of Tel Aviv used to be focused.

Three great pubs on Allenby


Little Prague had a choice of Pivo on draught, Hector had the Krusovice. Had the Curry-Heute not been calling we would have stayed longer. After the Curry it was back to ‘The Bier House’ where Bischoff (Regensburg, Bayern) was to the fore. The Weizen was excellent, a change from the ubiquitous Paulaner. It was then time for the Doppelbock Dunkles. Marg thougth it would then be time for bed, alas not…

My last Bier in Tel Aviv

The English Pub at the start of Allenby is on the same site as where I had my first, and I thought my last, Bier in Israel in 1980. Well the Israeli’s do not drink Bier do they? It was back to bottles as it had been thirty years ago. Sam Adams Boston Lager, not something I see very often. We had an excellent last couple of hours in this venue chatting to the owner and listening to our requested music: Porcupine Tree's – ‘Even Less’.

Bier in Egypt

This year Hector and Marg went to the Middle East on our main summer vacation, flying to Sharm El Sheik on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula and then travelling up to Taba and across the border to Israel.
Being Hector’s third trip to Egypt there was an expectation of what to expect Bier wise. In 1980 only one Bier “Stella” was being served in the pubs of Cairo. In tall clear bottles you could see exactly what you were getting. It was a 5% Lager Bier, that what about it.


“Sakara” is a more recent addition but is under strength at 4.6%.

In 2008 the Biers of the Luxor brewery were discovered – in Luxor!

There is a Hell, a Stout and a most impressive Weizen. On that trip in a fine Luxor bar, Hector alternated between the Weizen and the draught Heineken. The latter is probably the most available imported Bier. On draught it is superb as it will be ice cold. Sadly in the resorts such as Sharm and Na’ama where too many people are on ‘all-inclusive’ breaks, it is hard to get an ice cold Bier from a hotel bar.
One may conclude that since the locals do not actually touch the stuff, allegedly, they do not really appreciate the need for ice cold Bier. For the connoisseurs who despise the thought of this: if the temperature is in the thirties Celsius at night, Bier becomes warm (and unbearable) faster than most can consume it.