Places We Drank in Nuremberg
Christ Almighty, this post is way overdue. It's 3 months since we were in Nuremberg. I tried writing a blog that incorporated more of the art galleries, the castle and various things we saw but I realised it would have sucked; it would have been a long, drawn out babbling about things the readers of a beer blog don't really care much for (generally speaking).
You guys want to know about the beer, and maybe the general feel of the city.
Nuremberg is a beautiful, peaceful, friendly city. The large medieval castle, with it's high towers stare down in majesty over the city; buildings, pastel in colour, all have their own unique and outspoken charm, despite all being pretty similar with their 3 million windows a piece; the large front of the train station in the city centre, with its big stone face is a beautiful, big bastard. It feels homely. If I could, I'd make it my home.
We ate and drank a lot in Nuremberg. Mostly drank, if I'm honest. I just wanted to document for you the bars we went to.
Hausbrauerei Altstadthof: Lunch on the Wednesday afternoon. As the name suggests, this place has its own brewery deep in the caves underneath the city. They only sell beers that they brew there, on draught anyway. There's also a bottle shop around the back in which we found Brewdog, Tiny Rebel and erm, Greene King. The Helles was unfiltered, crisp and fresh and went well with the large plate of Bratwurst and Potato Salad. Sammie had their Schwarzbier which was even better.
Next up was Barfüßer which yet again had its own brewery, proudly sitting in the middle of the large bar. This is what you imagine a German bierhaus to be like, long tables, open and wide. Servers bustling around. Again I went for the Helles, and I wish I didn't because it was far too sweet unlike Sammie's Schwarzbier (can you see a theme yet?). We came back here later in the week to eat; I went for pork shoulder which came with a potato dumpling and I wasn't impressed whereas Sammie went for Schnitzel with potato salad, which made her a little ill as it turned out to be probable veal, which she can't eat.
A couple of galleries came next, including one which had an installation that was literally just an air bed up against a wall. Not art.
We wandered for ages trying to find somewhere that was on our hitlist, because we couldn't be bothered to use google maps. Yes we got lost walking the wrong direction of the castle, but as a result we saw lots more of the city!
We found ourselves at an Augustiner bar, Zur Schranke which was much like walking into your nan's living room. Dark, floral carpets and curtains. Gingham tablecloths. We were seated and the young lady serving us didn't seem too happy to find that we were British. When asking about the beers, she bellowed "LIGHT OR DARK?" so I went for a half litre of Augustiner Helles which I just cannot get enough of whilst Sammie lucked out on Augustiner Maximator, the 8.5% beast which was priced at exactly the same as the Helles. We swiftly finished our beers and left as we felt a little uncomfortable.
Next we found Hutt'n which I'd heard really good things about. To my delight we discovered that every night from 6:30pm they tap a barrel of their house brewed Marzen on the bar; now, I'm not the biggest fan of Marzen but I just had to try it and was pleasantly surprised; dark with chewy caramel notes and grassy German hops. I then had their Helles, which again I regretted as nothing will ever be as good as Augustiner. I believe Sammie had the Marzen then bought a bottle of a barrel aged rauchbier.
On the way back to the station it was almost impossible to find any bars that would happily let us pop in just for a drink as presumably they want people to eat because of profit margins but we did pop into Bratwursthausle where I went for a pint of Tucher Helles Weisse, which was drinkable.
Hunger struck and because we'd had our fill of bratwurst for the day, we decided to go to McDonalds where we had a double McChicken sandwich which was wonderful!
Before heading back to the hotel we decided to do something decidedly un-tourist-like and pop into a heavy metal bar that we had walked past earlier in the day. It was called Brown Sugar and quickly became one of our favourite bars of the week. Again, the draught choices were: Light Lager, Dark Lager, Wheat Beer (Erdinger) and Guinness, which looked like it was not being poured through nitrogen which is odd. I was curious of it but not that curious so I stuck with the light lager and Sammie had the dark. I believe both of which were from Schwabenbrau.
Brown Sugar itself was absolutely brilliant; great surroundings, covered with memorabilia, and the people who were drinking there were EXACTLY the same as you'd find in a similar bar in the UK.
I then decided or order a pint of Erdinger because Erdinger at €3 a pint, what?! but that plan was foiled when the lovely lady behind the bar did something I wasn't expecting - she told me not to drink it and that I should drink what the locals drink, a bottle of Guttman Weisse (at which point she warned that it was 20 cents more expensive, though) so I did and oh my, it has become my favourite Weissbier. It was simply beautiful.
The rest of the holiday was largely visiting the same bars as we had before, which featured more time in Landbierparadies, Barfüßer, and obviously Brown Sugar.
Nuremberg is such a beautiful city, and I'd highly recommend a visit.
You guys want to know about the beer, and maybe the general feel of the city.
Nuremberg is a beautiful, peaceful, friendly city. The large medieval castle, with it's high towers stare down in majesty over the city; buildings, pastel in colour, all have their own unique and outspoken charm, despite all being pretty similar with their 3 million windows a piece; the large front of the train station in the city centre, with its big stone face is a beautiful, big bastard. It feels homely. If I could, I'd make it my home.
We ate and drank a lot in Nuremberg. Mostly drank, if I'm honest. I just wanted to document for you the bars we went to.
Hausbrauerei Altstadthof: Lunch on the Wednesday afternoon. As the name suggests, this place has its own brewery deep in the caves underneath the city. They only sell beers that they brew there, on draught anyway. There's also a bottle shop around the back in which we found Brewdog, Tiny Rebel and erm, Greene King. The Helles was unfiltered, crisp and fresh and went well with the large plate of Bratwurst and Potato Salad. Sammie had their Schwarzbier which was even better.Next up was Barfüßer which yet again had its own brewery, proudly sitting in the middle of the large bar. This is what you imagine a German bierhaus to be like, long tables, open and wide. Servers bustling around. Again I went for the Helles, and I wish I didn't because it was far too sweet unlike Sammie's Schwarzbier (can you see a theme yet?). We came back here later in the week to eat; I went for pork shoulder which came with a potato dumpling and I wasn't impressed whereas Sammie went for Schnitzel with potato salad, which made her a little ill as it turned out to be probable veal, which she can't eat.
A couple of galleries came next, including one which had an installation that was literally just an air bed up against a wall. Not art.
We wandered for ages trying to find somewhere that was on our hitlist, because we couldn't be bothered to use google maps. Yes we got lost walking the wrong direction of the castle, but as a result we saw lots more of the city!
We found ourselves at an Augustiner bar, Zur Schranke which was much like walking into your nan's living room. Dark, floral carpets and curtains. Gingham tablecloths. We were seated and the young lady serving us didn't seem too happy to find that we were British. When asking about the beers, she bellowed "LIGHT OR DARK?" so I went for a half litre of Augustiner Helles which I just cannot get enough of whilst Sammie lucked out on Augustiner Maximator, the 8.5% beast which was priced at exactly the same as the Helles. We swiftly finished our beers and left as we felt a little uncomfortable.
Next we found Hutt'n which I'd heard really good things about. To my delight we discovered that every night from 6:30pm they tap a barrel of their house brewed Marzen on the bar; now, I'm not the biggest fan of Marzen but I just had to try it and was pleasantly surprised; dark with chewy caramel notes and grassy German hops. I then had their Helles, which again I regretted as nothing will ever be as good as Augustiner. I believe Sammie had the Marzen then bought a bottle of a barrel aged rauchbier.On the way back to the station it was almost impossible to find any bars that would happily let us pop in just for a drink as presumably they want people to eat because of profit margins but we did pop into Bratwursthausle where I went for a pint of Tucher Helles Weisse, which was drinkable.
Hunger struck and because we'd had our fill of bratwurst for the day, we decided to go to McDonalds where we had a double McChicken sandwich which was wonderful!
Before heading back to the hotel we decided to do something decidedly un-tourist-like and pop into a heavy metal bar that we had walked past earlier in the day. It was called Brown Sugar and quickly became one of our favourite bars of the week. Again, the draught choices were: Light Lager, Dark Lager, Wheat Beer (Erdinger) and Guinness, which looked like it was not being poured through nitrogen which is odd. I was curious of it but not that curious so I stuck with the light lager and Sammie had the dark. I believe both of which were from Schwabenbrau.
Brown Sugar itself was absolutely brilliant; great surroundings, covered with memorabilia, and the people who were drinking there were EXACTLY the same as you'd find in a similar bar in the UK.
I then decided or order a pint of Erdinger because Erdinger at €3 a pint, what?! but that plan was foiled when the lovely lady behind the bar did something I wasn't expecting - she told me not to drink it and that I should drink what the locals drink, a bottle of Guttman Weisse (at which point she warned that it was 20 cents more expensive, though) so I did and oh my, it has become my favourite Weissbier. It was simply beautiful.
The rest of the holiday was largely visiting the same bars as we had before, which featured more time in Landbierparadies, Barfüßer, and obviously Brown Sugar.
Nuremberg is such a beautiful city, and I'd highly recommend a visit.
Nice story about the Gutmann! Very cool of her to learn you that. It's widely believed to be the best Weizen around. I would agree, even though I'm not at all a Weizen drinker. Do a comparison with Schneider sometime if you can. You'll have to get their winter Weizenbock some time. And their Dunkelweizen is excellent.
ReplyDeleteI'd be surprised if that Schnitzel was veal though; "Schnitzel Wiener Art" means pork and is the standard way of doing it round here. It would've been listed explicitly as "Wiener Schnitzel von Kalb" (calf) or something, and certainly priced at 15€ or more if it were veal.