TOPIC:

A few mates and me are starting to plan a little tour of the EU that will involve much beer tasting.
It'll probably be sometime in 2010 or even 2011.
Oktoberfest is on the agenda as a penultimate destination, with maybe Salzburg as our fly back point, but it's all very loose at this time (brownie points to be accumulated etc.).
UK, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria are our initial thoughts.
Any suggestions on best cities and pubs to visit and recommneded beers would be welcome from those of you who have had the pleasure of such wanderings!

I just came back from a Holiday in Bavaria there last week. We were in Bamberg, Nuremberg and Munich with most of our time spent in Bamberg. I must say I liked Bamberg the best, absolute heaven for beer. I prob liked Munich the least but that could have been coz the weather wasnt the best and didnt really enjoy Hofbrauhaus either, to crowded and kinda false (Expensive too 3.75 a pint, 6.95 a litre)!!!

Bamberg is amazing though. Great beer, you really can notice the difference between a good Bamberg beer (Upper Franconia beer)compared to the rest of Germany, Generally much fuller flavoured, more body and/or Hoppier. Bamberg has 10 breweries in total, We got to 8. A pint is about 2.30 in Bamberg and its served from a wooden barrel! Note sure if its a cask conditioned barrel but its tastes great!!
Bamberg is home to Rauchbier and Schlenkerla, prob the busiest brewery in Bamberg. Schlenkerla is delicious from the barrel!! If you like Rauchbier, Spezial is the other brewery in Bamberg that serves its own Rauchbier. The also serve an Ungespundet beer (unfiltered lager) which is nice too.


Our favourite breweries were
*Mahrs Brau (Great Ungespundets and nice hoppy Hell beer)
*Schlenkerla (Great smokey Marzen beer, glass of ham!!)
*Spezial (Nice smoke beer, lighter on smoke than Schlenkerla and nice Ungespundets)
*Fassla (Nice hoppy pils and Zwergla)
*Greifenklau (Nice beer but excellent beer garden with a class view of Altenburg castle)


If ye can make it to Bamberg its class place for beer and a good laugh goin round the Breweries.
And when your not enjoyin the beer its a lovely city to walk around too!!! A bit like a mini prague!

Thanks Slayerking, this sounds like a must for the trip. My mouth is watering at the prospects.

Amsterdam is one of the best cities I've ever been to for beer -- pubs like Wildeman, Arendsnest and Gollem, and off licences like De Bierkoning and The Cracked Kettle make it a beer hunter's paradise.

Brussels is well worth a couple of days too. Lots of good eating and drinking to be had there.

The beer capital of England, I'm told, is Huddersfield. I was through it on the train recently and it looks like a nice place to spend a couple of days' quiet pinting.