Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Novomêstský Pivovar brewpub
(Vodickova 20;
&
420/222/232-448;
www.npivovar.cz), where you can dine
and drink in smartly restored cellars right
by the brewing apparatus. When it opened
in 1993, it was the first new brewery in
Prague for nearly a century, though a
whole new generation of microbreweries
has blossomed since then. Novomestský
serves two superb lagers, both of them
unfiltered—one dark and one light (though
even the light one is more amber than
golden). As the Czechs like to say, “There's
no beer like beer.”
(
Ruzyne Airport, Prague (45km/28
miles).
L
$$$
Hotel Pariz,
U Obecního domu
1, Prague (
&
420/222/195-195;
www.
hotel-pariz.cz). $$
Hotel Malý Pivovar,
Ulice Karla IV 8-10, Ceske Budejovice
(
&
420/386/360-471;
www.malypivovar.
cz). $
Pension K,
Bezrucova 13, Plzen
(
&
420/377/329-683
).
Breweries
376
A Black Forest Beer Tour
Raising a Fine Stein
Baden-Württemberg, Germany
While the Bavarian brewers get all the
Oktoberfest attention, some of the best
beer in Germany today is brewed in south-
western Baden-Württemberg, where both
the Neckar and the Danube rivers begin in
the high Swabian plain. A host of 19th-
century breweries here still pour out a
range of excellent beer—not only pilsener-
type lagers but also regional specialties
like strong dark
doppelbock,
malty dark
Dunkel beers, and the effervescent pale
wheat ale called Weissbeer.
Start out in the region's most beautiful
landscape—the thickly wooded moun-
tains of the Black Forest, and the lovely
medieval market town of Freiburg im Bre-
isgau. Founded in 1865, the handsome
pale-yellow plant of family owned
Brau-
erei Ganter
(Schwarzwaldstrasse 43;
&
49/
761/21850;
www.ganter.com) can be
toured by appointment, and in summer,
major outdoor music concerts take place
in the cobblestoned courtyard. Like most
of these breweries, Ganter produces sev-
eral beers, but the best are its golden
pilsener lager and its aromatic dark wheat
beer, Badisch Weizen Hefedunkel. Also in
town,
Hausbrauerei Feierling
(Gerberau
46;
&
49/761/243-480;
www.feierling.de)
is a modern reincarnation of an 1877
brewery across the street. Since 1999, the
new operation has gone organic, with a
leisurely 6-day fermentation and four
week-long lagering process. You can tour
this brewery by appointment, or just enjoy
its wonderfully complex Inselhof house
brew, along with German specialties like
Inselschnitzel or Rostbratwurst with sau-
erkraut. Visitors dine in a cozy wood-pan-
eled pub or, in fair weather, out in the beer
garden.
You'll have a beautiful drive east from
Freiburg through the Black Forest, along
Rte. 31 and then Rte. 500, for 58km (36
miles) to the historic Renaissance town of
Donaueschingen, source of the Danube
river. The fief of the Fürstenberg princes
for centuries, it's home to their ancestral
brewery,
Fürstlich Fürstenbergische
Brauerei
(Postplatz 1-4;
&
49/771-860;
www.furstenberg.de), founded in 1283.
Fürstenberg's dark Salvator beer was the
favorite of 19th-century chancellor Otto
Von Bismarck, while Kaiser Wilhelm pre-
ferred its hoppy golden pilsener. Although
Heineken bought the brewery in 2004, the
