Koeln: brief trip report

Thanks for that interesting report. You mentioned the prices, and it made me think that at around 2.00/2.20 a glass, we must have had a knack for finding some very expensive places when we went to Gent last month.

In article , loobyloo writes

Makes the days of 13.5 DM to the pound and a viertel for 7.5 new pence look great, it was 40 years ago and I was only earning £4 a week sadly.

Mike

bruce snipped-for-privacy@my-deja.com a écrit :

Erm, tiny confusion, here ? Pfaffen (on the Heumarkt) and Päffgen (Friesenstrasse, half a mile west from the Dom) are two separate businesses, have been since late 2001 or early 2002, and the beer served at Pfaffen is AFAIK not Päffgen Kölsch.

Indeed, though they would sell the top-pressure version, whereas the brewery taps are famous for their Kölsch served by gravity without extraneous gas.

In the UK ? Well, possibly at one of those german beer specialist shops ?...

In Cologne, either nicely ask the Köbes (local version of the waiter) at one of the brewery taps where to buy branded glasses, or head for the crockery department of either Kaufhof (a few mins on foot west of Heumarkt) or Karstadt (50 metres north of the north-eastern corner of Neumarkt) department stores.

Many Köbes are indeed vigilant, considering themselves the absolute rulers over their bit of the Kneipe. They tend to have pretty fierce tempers, and are quite outspoken about it should you do anything "wrong".

Cheers !

Laurent

Kölsch.

Paffgen on Friesenstr. I wasn't too keen on. Pfaffen on Heumarkt was closed everytime I went past. There is also a Paffgen pub just round the corner from Pfaffen!

I would also like to recommend a Sion outlet just behind the Apostelen church near Neumarkt, on the corner of Mittelstr. and Gertrudenstr. Send the wife shopping and hole up in here for a few hours!

Bruce

In message , loobyloo writes

Its pretty easy, just go to any of the bars in the usual guides and you'll pay a premium. Assuming everyone is using sterling that's a fairly typical bottled beer price - €2-3.50/bottle depending on strength/rarity (remembering bottles are 250ml/333ml rather than Bruces

A fairer comparison is local draught beer in any case, to match what you find in most German bars. Last Xmas/April the cheapest good De Koninck we found in Antwerp was €1.30/250ml (de Vagant I think), even Paters Vaetje was less than €1.50 (hard to remember exactly - we were mostly drinking the Winterkoninck xmas beer @ €2.30/bottle!). Exchange rate about 1.37 €/£ at the time and we didn't look very hard - too busy with beer festivals.

Most visitors only see the specialist bar prices in Belgium, as far as I can tell 'normal' prices there are still roughly comparable with the UK. We just don't go there to drink 'normal' beer in ordinary bars!

Koninck

Paters

mostly

rate

Sounds OK as I will be drinking draught DeK in Antwerp.

Tip: For a cheap DeK and cheap 3 course meal head for the seamen's mission in Falconrui. I stayed there last year, but bar and restaurant are open to non-residents.

Bruce

Not sure if this is much help, as they are based in Canada, but I've purchased a couple dozen stangen from this place and they are packaged very well upon shipping. ( I live in the US).

Rick Seibt

Just goes to show that people have different tastes. I personally think that Paeffgen is the best of the lot, especially as it's still served straight from the cask, which makes it real ale in my book. When the beer hall closes, there's a nightbar with a dj just around the corner, which also sells it straight from the cask.

Malzmuehle would be my second favourite, also served straight from the cask, but the beer hall is small and quickly gets uncomfortably overcrowded.

Frueh also serves straight from the cask and would be the third best, in my book..

All these three brew on the premises, I think (although I'm not 100% sure about Frueh).

Sion was one of my favourites 25 or so years ago, but they've since moved the brewery out of town and the quality in their beer hall in town is no longer as good as it used to be, when they brewed on site.

All in my personal opinion, of course.