Erdinger Pikantus

Yes. German wheat bock brewed in Erding, Germany. The brewer is well-known for its wheat beers, and Erding is north-northeast of Munich, not far from Munich Airport. It's okay, but I waaay prefer Schneider Aventinus.

Usually. Depends on where you live, though.

I'll second that. I preferred the Aventinus 2000 & Aventinus Eisbock too. Not sure about the Aventinus bierschnapps, since I'm more into beer than liquors, but that was tasty enough I suppose, especially with kaesespaetzle. Mm, kaesespaetzle...

Hallolle Russ Perry Jr,

I've never seen that in Germany.

When you come to southern Germany come round me and you'll get a bierschnaps.

Oh yes. Kässchpätzla is really very fine food. And each kind of our beer tastes with Kässchpätzla:-))

A Prosit from Bierguru Holger Reuchlin

Cheese dumplings? Just guessing. :^(

Best regards, Bill

Hallolle Bill Becker,

You wrote::

Kaesspaetzle:

I don't know, what cheese dumplings are.

Kaesspaetzla are a special kind of noodle (Spaetzle) with cheese, only genuine in Schwobaland (southwest Germany most south). You need Spaetzle, Chees and I also take onions.

Its an egg noodle. YOu mix flour and egg and water and then run the mixture through a sieve of sorts into a pot of boiling water then scoop them out. The cheese part come later. You can collectr the noodles in a pan, cover them with cheeese, and then bake it. Also good with onions and mushrooms.

--Dan E

Ahh..I've tried packaged versions of Spaetzle from the grocers. Pretty nice but I do prefer Kartoffelknoedel, especially with Sauerbraten. Yum yum says this ex Weiner who's birth name was Werner.

Spaetzle apear to be the same as what my Mother used to make at home in my formative years..excuse my poor German...Knoekels(sp?)

Best regards, Bill

No, Spätzle are different from Knödel. The former are very small little egg noodles, while the latter are large dumplings typically made from potatoes or bread. Some Knödel are big and dense enough that you'd injure someone if you threw it at their head; you'd be hard-pressed to hurt a Dachshund by throwing a Spätzle at its head.

-Steve

It must be an Austrian thing...I know Knoedels are different from Spaetzle but I'm pretty sure Spaetzle are the same as "Knoekels". Egg noodles in roundish shapes. My Mom served them with Hungarian goulash. Wowser that was good!

Best regards, Bill

I'm pretty sure it was on the menu at a Schneider cafe in Munich... I don't remember the exact street, though I'm looking for it right now. It's in or near die Altstadt, and also close to the Hofbräuhaus, I THINK. Hmm, looking at a map and reading my brother's description of our journey that night, I THINK it's on Im Tal, possibly on the coner of Maderbräu Strasse. Anyone there now who can confirm? :-)

I certainly appreciate the invite, but in case I wasn't clear enough...

...I DID try it. It was interesting, but I think I prefer beer. But I suppose having both is just fine. :-) Especially if it's Aventinus, ooo...

And I only got to try two or three kinds with it. :-( Guess I'll have to go back some day. :-)

I'm not sure I'm down with the mushrooms, but I'd certainly try it. Onions I'm totally down with -- yum! Actually, most places sprinkled on some roasted onion bits.

Now, one place (I think Paulaner zum Spöckmeier on Rosenstrasse) also had "Spinatspätzle", with green (spinach) noodles in gravy "mit Speck" (with bacon, though better than the bacon we typically picture as bacon here in the States).

I'm going to propose "Russ's Deluxe Spätzle" -- mix regular- and Spinat-spätzle 50/50, cover with Käse, then the gravy mit Speck, and finally some onions. And a dunkelweizen on the side. Himmel...

Hallolle Russ Perry Jr,

You wrote:: quite a lot about Spätzla...

Yes. Spätzla allone taste also very fine. Usually we eat them with other good things. Spätzle with beans an a little bit garlic, roasted in olive oil with Sauerbraten (and to that you need a Dunkles oder Dunkelweizen oder Dunklen Bock) with eggs with potaotes then its called Gaisburger Marsch and so on

Dunkelweizen: The ever best i had is from Ustersbacher:

And their Weizenbock is as good as the Aventinus but only availaby round xmas.

Best Regards an Prosit Bierguru

Ah. I thought that you had a typo there (since k and d are the same finger on opposite hands). So Knökel are a distinct thing in Austrian dialect, I take it? Sounds similar to Spätzle, from the way you describe it. And, I do remember having Hungarian goulash in Vienna that did indeed have noodles very similar to Spätzle. And yes, it was FG.

-Steve

The Aventinus Eisbock, IIRC, is sold only for export.

Im Tal.

Yep, you remember right.

Don't remember the cross street, but you've got the right main street. (My Falkplan Munich map doesn't label some of the smallest streets, so I can't confirm.) Either way, it's just to the east of the Altes Rathaus and old city gate, but well before Isartor.

-Steve

Yep. So is the "Fest Weisse." Both were developed (or in the case of the Fest Weisse, re-introduced) at the behest of Schneider's American importer. As these are both somewhat stronger than typical beers, Schneider didn't feel that they would do well if introduced to the German market. The only strong beer Schneider sells domestically is Aventinus, which makes up a very small part of its domestic sales volume.

Weisses Brauhaus, Im Tal 7, 80333 München.

Indeed. It's quite a short walk between the two. Or you can get detoured on the way and go to Haxnbauer, where the beer list is a little bit of Stuttgart in München: Dinkelacker lagers and Sanwald wheat beers.

Corner of Tal and Maderbräustrasse.

Check out either viamichelin.de or map24.de for accurate and detailed maps. The map display on map24.de is good, as it's a dynamic little Java applet.

Damn.. you do get around. (more power to ya)

Something of a hybrid of Spaetzel/Knoedels......Gnochhi. Thanks, Italy!

Best regards, Bill

Hey, I dug the stuff a LOT. I already liked Spätzle to begin with, but Käsespätzle is even better!

Sadly, we didn't do a lot of beer hunting for smaller breweries, other than our day in Aying. We did stumble across one accidentally, Schlossherrngebrau, which was pretty decent.

I don't normally follow up my own posts, but I screwed this bit up... I was actually researching the correct name, but hit send before I was ready.

It's actually Schlossbrauerei Herrngiersdorfer that we found.

Which reminds me... I also mentioned that a friend was collecting weissbier glasses, and more than once when he inquired about buying a glass, the server said "oh, just take it". Is this common? Does the price of bier include the cost of a glass or something?

(I'm aware that biergartens often charge extra, but they include tokens to return to get that extra back; no such thing in these cases).

Hi Russ,

coming from Germany I could tell you that this is absolutely not common. In some pubs you may buy the glass (usually for a not justified price) but some pubs do not even sell them, I do not know why. But to find a pub which give them away for free, is very hard.

Greetings from Germany and Prost,

Bastian