As I’ve gotten older, my drinking habits have changed a bit. Like a lot of brewers, I’ve gravitated toward German- style beers—namely crisp, dry, clean, and sessionable lagers. As much as I love hoppy beers, if I had to pick between the two, it would be a hoppier North German pils that has all the components of hop flavor, but also drinkability and balance. Don’t get me wrong—I love IPAs and drink a lot of them. But when I drink IPA, it’s usually my own because they’re always the freshest to me.
I’m a North German pils and Munich helles kind of person—North German in the sense that I always benchmark to Jever, with its softness and minerality but tail-end heavy note, a bit more floral. My hop preference leans to the upper side of what you might find in Bavaria, with a few exceptions here and there.
I’m sure some people expect an IPA in my six-pack, and there are plenty that would qualify—I could think of quite a few from San Diego and Pacific Northwest brewers that might deserve a spot among my favorite beers. There are so many that I love, but the beers in this six-pack also represent memorable experiences. Who you’re surrounded with, the traditions, the history—it’s all part of the excitement that goes into drinking beer. The beverage itself is delicious, but it’s everything else that makes it an experience.
Gouden Carolus Cuvée van de Keizer
Mechelen, Belgium
This is a dark strong ale I fell in love with at Het Anker in Mechelen, Belgium. It’s like their regular Gouden Carolus Classic, but it’s brewed to 11 percent ABV—super-strong, a lot of dried fruit, intense yeast complexity. Some caramel and subdued roasted malt and just a beautiful fruitiness. It’s brewed once a year, every February 24, and it’s one of those beers that ages extremely well.
As for my experience there, I had a magazine that Michael Jackson worked on—a colorful publication that he was part of called Beer Passion—and that was our roadmap on this particular trip, way back in time. I met Het Anker owner Charles Leclef, and he’d never seen the publication or the article, so I shared it with him, and his eyes lit up. Before you know it, we’re touring the brewery and pulling stuff out of barrels. He was entertaining us, but he really wanted this magazine copy for himself. We had some amazing stuff, like a variant in whiskey barrels, but it was more than just tasting beer. The brewery is from the 1400s, so there are layers of history, and he explained how he had taken the brewery over. It was fascinating to hear how he had worked to reinvent the brewery as a fifth-generation family member, and—of course—I left him with the copy of the magazine.
My experience of the beers was fantastic, including their classic Gouden Carolus and the Tripel, but my favorite by far was this Cuvée van de Keizer—it was definitely one of the most complex Belgian beers that I’ve ever experienced, and I’ll never forget that opportunity to spend time with him and experience those well-crafted beers. Anyone who is making a pilgrimage to Belgium should visit Mechelen and this old brewery, with its coolship on the top of the tower, five flights up with an amazing view of the town, its valleys, and vicinity. There’s an old museum there of brewing artifacts—it’s the whole combination of amazing beer, great company, long history, and the preservation of what it has been for all these years.
Wooly Pig Zwick’lbier Hoppy Pils
Fresno, Ohio
We have a really cool farm brewery called Wooly Pig here in Ohio. It’s more of a German-style, Old World brewery that produces a lot of German-style classics. They make my favorite Ohio beer, the Zwick’lbier Hoppy Pils, and if I close my eyes while drinking one in their beer garden, it feels like I’m back in a beer garden in Bavaria. The beer itself is an unfiltered German-style pilsner, and they sell it in 500 ml grenade-style bottles, so the package has a great feel to it. Super-crisp, delicate, dangerously drinkable—the spicy floral hops with a very light perfumey note integrate so well with the malt.
They also raise Mangalitsa pigs—that’s actually what a wooly pig is—and they sell their pork in their shop. All the pigs on the farm are named after hop varieties, and the pigs eat the brewery’s spent grain. I take their pork steaks, and they’re just incredible with the beer. This tiny family-run brewery is everything you want in a classic little farm brewery that’s focused on quality, preservation, sustainability, and all those things that make it special.
They also make a schwarzbier that could be a close second on my list—all the beers are extremely well-made. Kevin Ely, cofounder and brewmaster, was brewmaster at Uinta, so he knows his way around a brewery. The brewery would be as at home in Franconia or southern Bavaria as it is in the Ohio countryside.
Schönramer Hell
Schönram, Germany
It’s a slightly hoppier version of a traditional Munich helles. Brewmaster Eric Toft gets a special barley that’s undermodified, by today’s standards, so the beer is super-pale in color, very straw, a little bit soft, but it has a bit more hop bite throughout that reminds me a lot of another one of my favorite Munich helles, Augustiner Edelstoff, but maybe with a little bit more hop finish. I got to spend a day with Eric—we’re drinking beer, you’ve got the foothills of the southeast corner of the Alps, and it was probably one of my most memorable experiences. It’s not just because he’s a great guy—the beers were fantastic, the view was great, and I was just a little envious that this guy came from the United States to basically make some of the best beer in the world. It definitely needs to be recognized, and the pilsner is also just right there, but there’s something about the helles—from the first sip and all the way through, start to finish, it’s just a beautiful beer.
Keesmann Herren Pils
Bamberg, Germany
It has always been one of those beers that inspires me. I’ll never forget my first experience there where I was drinking in the stube, with the cobblestone floor and the tiled walls, ordering beer from the service window and drinking at the barrels. Herren Pils is a little more aggressively hopped than other pilsners in that region, and I find that makes it one of the most well-balanced, crisp, dry, drinkable pilsners in the world. It’s served with this pillowy head and a really herbal hop aroma that’s so inviting. I just stick my nose in there and smell it for a while before I drink it. I get really excited when I get to Bamberg, and that’s one of the first places I usually go—a nice little power session at the stube, drinking Herren Pils. Some years ago, I met their then-brewmaster, Christian Lange. He’s no longer there, but I learned a little bit more about the beer. It’s one of those beers that is no doubt in my all-time six-pack.
Baderbraü
Chicago
This brewery is no longer in business, but it made a mark. I attended the Siebel Institute in 1995, and in the early ’90s, I got exposed to Baderbraü. It was a beer and brewery ahead of its time. There weren’t many craft breweries at the time other than Goose Island, and this was a beer that Michael Jackson raved about—he called it the best pilsner in America. It was a little bit darker in color than a traditional European-style pilsner, but it had a lot of hop flavor and was definitely not traditional pilsner.
I remember a lot of my classmates at the Siebel Institute would try to seek it out and find which place had the freshest, and we’d go there and drink them. At the time, there were not a lot of hoppy pilsners that you could seek out—definitely not domestic, and usually the stuff that would come from overseas was a little tired. So this was my first experience with a more traditional-style German pilsner, even if it was a little darker in color.
It was inspirational to me, getting exposed to that very, very early on, when there weren’t a lot of choices. Brewers who were around in the late ’80s and early ’90s may remember and flash back a little bit. They tried to revive the brand a few years ago, and did a great job with it, but it only lasted a few years and didn’t make it out of Chicago. I went there and tasted it, and the beers were all super well-made. For a moment I was like, “Cool, this is great.” And then they shut the doors a few years later. But it’s one that inspired my exploration of lagers and deserves a place in my six-pack, even if it’s a bit outside the box.
Päffgen Kölsch
Köln, Germany
I’ve got one more German one here. I love Köln, and I love to drink beer in Köln. But the Päffgen Brewery on Friesenstrasse is definitely a must-visit for any kölsch lover. The whole experience is insane—I call it “contact drinking,” where the köbes are coming around with those kränze, they’re picking up empties, and delivering full ones on the fly. I remember when I went over with three brewers, and we tried to “circle the globe,” where you try to make the little tick marks all the way around the coaster. We got about three-fourths of the way around, but we never got the whole circumference of it.
I just love that particular brewery—their beer is a little hoppier than most of them, which tend to be a little bit fruitier. I love the touch of herbal hop character in the nose and the fruitiness and softness from the yeast. It’s extremely crisp and dry, with a little bit more of that hop character that rides from start to finish—the slight grassiness. I find it a lot of fun to drink from those tiny little glasses and keep them coming. To me, that is hands-down the one Köln brewery that I think everybody needs to visit.