#172: Munich, Part 1

We arrived in Munich pretty early - far too early to go to the hotel, but not too early for beer.

Never too early for beer.

So we started by doing what every tourist does in Munich and headed to Marienplatz. After some oohing and aahing we walked on to Tal, where, just as with the Poechenellekelder, we found one of our intended destinations accidentally. It was, of course, Schneider's Weisses Bräuhaus. Liquid breakfast came in the form of Tap 4 Mein Grünes. It's refreshing yet bracing, with a cool spicy hop profile to accompany the wholesome Schneider Hefe character. Great stuff. 

Some actual breakfast was in order though, and we went elsewhere to find it - one half of the travelling duo is vegetarian and non-beer-drinking, so it would be unfair to set up camp in the Weisses Bräuhaus. Still though, you can't get away from beer in Munich, and I accompanied my breakfast with Hacker-Pschorr Dunkel, which was poor enough, being a bit too watery to carry anything other than a light, semi-dark malty sweetness. 

Ayingers Wirsthaus was another on my agenda, and we wasted no time in ticking it off the list - their Kellerbier was my first, and it was nice enough, though a bit forgettable with it's biscuity malt backbone and very little else. Their Helles wasn't as grainy, and had more of a metallic hop bite that was actually quite pleasant. The Jahrhundert lager was much better than both, being slick-textured and full-bodied while maintaining a grainy sweetness and lightly bitter refreshment with the liveliness of it's cask delivery.

The Ayinger Bräu-Weisse was delicious too, being quite pale - paler than a Schneider Weisse, anyway - and spicy, with plenty of fruity sweetness to match. Satisfying and refreshing, though not as impressive as the Ur-Weisse, which was darker and heartier, with more banana and bready malt to buff up the light fruit and spice character.

So far, so good.