The Mad Brewer: Amberg to Regensburg

This was supposed to be an easy day, a nice quiet ride down the Vils and Naab rivers, some hills but a generally down hill ride. Mother Nature disagreed.

It was a clear day and the sun was blazingly hot. In the morning we had stretches thru the forest and so it was a bit cooler but by noon we were mostly on open ground. We made frequent stops for liquids, which often did not involve beer.

The first beer stop was in Schmidtmühlen, were we had a Naabecker Helles. It was nothing special but did hit the spot.

Naabecker Helles

When we got to Kallmünz it was past time for lunch, so we stopped at Brauerei Zum Goldenen Löwen for lunch and beer. I had heard great things about this brewery from friends whose judgement I trust but we must have caught them on a bad day. The helles (which was quite dark) tasted like homebrew with a sanitation problem. The dunkles had a similar flavor, not quite so far advanced and somewhat covered by the dark malts. The Weizen was actually quite nice. The food was good.

Zum Goldenen Löwen Dunkel, Weizen and Helles (yes, Helles)

As the day got hotter, we stopped more often but most places had Thurn & Taxis or Paulaner (which owns and brews the Thurn & Taxis brands).

We finally arrived in Regensburg and rode by the Spital brewery and we decided to stop at their riverside garden for a refresher. It turns out they had a Maibock on draft as well, and even though it was hot we couldn't pass that up.

Sptial Maibock and Helles

The Maibock was tasty but (and I know many think I see this about most German beers) it could use some more hops. It tasted like a bigger version of the Helles and increased bitterness would have balanced it out.

The garden at Spital is quite nice

Spital Garden

After checking in at the hotel and re-humanizing ourselves, we headed over to Kneitinger Keller for dinner and beer. Since it was still quite warm, we headed for the keller instead of the brewery hoping it would be cooler.

Entrance to Kneitinger Keller

They had their two usual beers, a beer which is called a Pils on the menu but isn't really and everybody just calls it "Helles" and a nice dark beer. The picture below is the first of many sampled.