Lighting of the Christmas Tree at Bayern Brewing

Growing up in Austria, traditional Christmas celebrations happened almost daily through the Advent season. Christmas tree lightings and a visit from St. Nicholas as well as traditional Christmas hymns and special services dedicated to this or that are my greatest memories of my time there.

In our plastic American culture, it’s easy to make Christmas just another power shopping exercise or a feel-good reminder that we’re not all affected by the economy. But for many of us, the traditional things that surround Christmas are a reminder of giving back to your community, friends and family members.

So if you’re lacking a little tradition in your life, head on over to Bayern Brewing at 5 p.m. on Saturday for a traditional lighting of the the Christmas tree.

I can’t quite tell if those are candles on that tree, but growing up we put candles all over the tree and lit them and sang songs. Later, we used fire-proof sparklers. When we moved back to the United States, we continued the tradition for a few years until one fateful Christmas Eve, when our too-dry tree caught fire and our house burned to the ground. Call it stupid if you will, I’m sure my dad still kicks himself for that, but traditions are hard to kick. And besides, the community rallied around us, and by noon on Christmas Day, the floor of the living room where we stayed after the fire was two-feet deep in presents.

We eventually rebuilt the house, and though we’ve discontinued the practice of lighting the Christmas tree with fire, the traditions of the holiday season are very real to us.

So you just might catch me toasting the season with a Doppelbock on Saturday down at Bayern Brewing.

Prost and Happy Holidays,

GG

Bayern Brewing Face Plant

This triple decoction, unfiltered wheat version of the Doppelbock is a tricky beer to make, but Bayern brewers have paid attention to the beer whims of the masses, and are now offering the beer in bottles. One of the perfect beers for healing hard-core snowboarding injures, like the aforementioned face plant, it’s also a very cool style of beer that is not brewed very much in Europe anymore, much less the United States.

I remember when Face Plant first came out. I started to think people wouldn’t order any other beer while up at SnowBowl. It’s a popular beer for sure, but remember that this beer is a deceptively high-gravity beer that will leave it’s mark on you if you’re not careful. As Jurgen says, “Drink it up, but leave your car at home.”

Here’s what Jurgen has to say:

You can have a Face Plant anywhere
Bayern Brewing will be increasing the availability of
Face Plant Doppelweizen for its growing number of
fans by offering it in bottles this year. While people
have been enjoying Doppelbock since Bayern started
brewing it in 1987 (also now available in bottles and
on draft), this unfiltered wheat counterpart has only
been on the market for two years and continues to gain
popularity. While the brewers at Bayern are thrilled
about this, it also poses new challenges. First, the
decoction brewing method and other factors unique to
this beer style increase the brewing time significantly.
Second, Bayern usually only offers one seasonal spe-
cialty beer style at a time, along with our year-round fa-
vorites, causing space issues in the fermenters and lager
tanks. It is a bit like a slow juggling act where 1200+
gallons of beer per batch must be carefully managed
so that all our customers will always have their favor-
ite styles available to them. Despite the difficulties,
everyone at Bayern hopes you enjoy a bottle of Face
Plant soon. We don’t recommend drinking the whole
six-pack yourself, though…you may learn why we feel
our doppelweizen is aptly named.

Prost,

GG

Bayern's Face Plant is good after you experience one of these