Rich Carbonara taking photos at a surely beery location in Germany
People change over time but two activities have remained pretty constant for me: hiking and seeking out new beers. I started the former relatively late, my early thirties and the latter considerably earlier though I guess in the beginning I was just seeking any beer I could get my hands on. Since those times, I’ve hiked from the Rockies to the Andes to the Himalayas but friends still mostly think of me as the beer guy, the one who was into craft beer before it became fashionable.
Living in Munich, I still do my fair share of alpine hiking in the nearby Alps but I find myself ever increasingly drawn to Germany’s brewing heartland to not only find the beers I’ve been looking for there since 1997 but also to enjoy the many trails that more gently get a person from point A to point B. In my case, those points are often if not always breweries.
Much of the information on these small breweries and the trail networks that link them is nearly always in German and I’ve been busy translating it into English as a hobby of sorts. I thought it was a shame not to share it with others who might be intrigued by the idea of an invigorating walk in nature that ended in a great local meal washed down with a beer brewed by the same family for hundreds of years.
So, I plan this as a resource of information about the beer, food and trails of Bavaria, and in particular the northern part known as Franconia. If the ideas don’t seem self-explanatory enough or if you just want a local guide to do all the planning, reserving of accommodation, getting you on the right trails to the best breweries and making sure you order (or at least know about) the local delicacies, then please feel free to contact me.
I can offer an assortment of itineraries ranging from one day outings to multi-day beer odysseys. No need to stick to the offers, I can custom build one that fits exactly what you are looking for.