I had the pleasure of volunteering at the Maryland Craft Beer Festival today along with my sons. In exchange for helping out from 9-12 we were able to enjoy beers from a number of Maryland craft breweries. Today’s stand-out brewery was RAK Brewing Co in Frederick, MD. In fact, we liked RAK Brewing so much that we bailed out of the festival for a while and went to their taproom right off of Carroll Creek and enjoyed a couple of beers there.

We enjoy fruited sours. We had tried Cotton Candy Warhead at the beer festival and came here for a full pour. We also tried a full pour of Health Kick Grape Banana. Both were delicious! Looking forward to making our way back here and trying more beers.

My stop at Strahov Monastery Brewery in Prague, Czech Republic comes at the end of a nearly three week trip to Europe including a two week Danube River cruise aboard the #AmaVerde of the Amawaterways fleet where we visited nine countries very efficiently. I couldn’t say enough wonderful things about AmaWaterways but this is a beer and brewery blog so I’m gonna stay focused (but feel free to ask me about amazing AmaWaterways). Also, we didn’t leave a lot of time for the trip to Strahov, so essentially we Ubered there and split an appetizer while I tasted two beers. Amber Lager and Dark Lager.

Both beers were delightful. Malty, the dark beer also caramelly and chocolatey. Drinking them brings me back 40 years to when I visited Germany on an exchange program and was able to enjoy beer at monasteries we visited even though I was under 18. I must confess that in some cases I took the beer mug home with me. In an effort to redeem myself I was looking for a Strahov Monastery Brewery mug to purchase and bring home but in our haste to move on I didn’t see one.

I hope this European brewery visit doesn’t have a 40 year span til I’m able to visit Europe again. At that rate I won’t make a return visit. We loved the food at the brewery and the beer certainly complemented it. Until next time, Cheers!

What a great end to a cruise on the Danube (Donau) by having an Oktoberfest celebration in Vilshofen with Pils from Wolferstetter Brewery (Brauerei).

The beer inspired me to dance with my wife. The entire group had a wonderful time. I would have enjoyed tasting other beers from Wolferstetter but will simply have to return again someday. Until then I’ll continue to savor that Pils!

After the hike up to Veste Oberhaus the only fitting re-nourishment activity is a beer at the outdoor Lowen Brauhas in Passau, Germany. The delightful outdoor setting with the sun and air is perfect. And that morning enjoying their Lowen Dunkel was just the right thing to do.

During our tour of Passau I learned that the outdoor spigot is a beer tap. My only regret is not being there at a time when I could have poured myself a pint from that spigot. How cool would that be?

While in Salzburg, in addition to seeing Mozart’s birthplace plus more Sound of Music references than I can remember, I also had the opportunity to stop in at Stiegl Brewery and enjoy their award winning goldbrau. Delicious amber beer which unfortunately I needed to drink faster than I would have liked to. I also would have enjoyed purchasing one of their mugs but didn’t have enough time to do that and make it back to the bus and back to the ship.

Just looking at that picture brings back delicious memories. And look at the head on that beer. Yum!

I stopped in at Klastorny Pivovar, in Bratislava Slovakia. Bratislava was a particularly special stop for me on our trip because a dear friend of mine was stationed there some years back and he had shared a number of wonderful stories about the city. While at the brewpub I enjoyed the Monastic lager beer and the Monastic dark lager beer. Both were delicious. In fact, these may have been my favorite beers during our trip. The Monastic lager was deliciously malty and the dark lager was caramelly and malty.

I had hoped to purchase the mugs to bring back home but was unable to. This was probably my biggest disappointment from the trip. And if that’s the biggest disappointment, the trip was pretty great. And the beer was better than the mug!