The Bar Towel

I definitely reccommend seeking out gose beer in Leipzig Germany, and perhaps as well as the brew pubs it offers (I was at the the by the Nicolai Kirche that has good black beer.)

Gose is a slightly wild-tasting beer of a style made long ago before lager beer. Actually it used to be much more lactic-sour, while nowadays it's compared to Berliner Weisse. It has a sassy sour fruit chracter you get to like after a while.

Well that was a fun mini-tour of eastern Germany (Sachsen and Thüring) plus the Hamburg area (also great if you have time to travel north, otherwise people can have as much fun to the warmer south - Hamburg is often cool and rainy, and far north of say Munich but also really elegant.)

I have already some 'beer destinations' planned for the next trip, such as brew pubs, specialty stores and bottle shops. Unfortunately you know bottles are heavy so no bottles travel with me by plane, usually. (Should have planned a little Ritterguts Gose tasting here though, guys... oh well maybe next time I'm near Leipzig I grab a few!)

These past weeks I have tried perhaps 30+ new beers or ones I've not had for aeons. It was fun. It's not all about beer rating milestones, however being motivated to try lots of new ones does uncover some nice surprises (with very few real disappointments!)

Hope many of you someday get a chance to explore this incredible land of beer. By the way, if you bring it back, declare in exact detail everything you buy and do over there, as it seems Customs likes to wave 'honest' people through.