Bound for Beer

This post is part of a 13 part series, if you want to start from the beginning, click here . Newark and Lisbon Airports, and the First Beer of the Trip Zoigl Trip - Part 3 of 13  Back in 2020, I told my buddy Billy Ross about the weird Germany brewery hike I had planned and he enthusiastically agreed to join the excursion. And he was still in when it could finally happen in 2023.  Newark and Lisbon Airports (Not about beer, flyover if you wish) Billy wanted to fly through Portugal, we so ended up flying out of Newark. Getting there from Abington PA was a four seat journey. Relatively easy and drama free, but a trek nonetheless.  Having flown out of Newark before, I knew the food options were limited. Not only limited, but expensive, and surprisingly difficult to give them your money. Despite it being 10 hours since I last ate, I opted out. I didn’t have the energy to deal with it. They should be feeding us something on TAP Air Portugal anyway. And they did. We had a...

This post is part of a 13 part series, if you want to start from the beginning, click here . The (Zoigl) Stars Align 24 Years Later with Rich Carbonara the Beer Wanderer Zoigl Trip - Part 2 of 13 Back Story I’ve known Rich Carbonara since the early days of craft beer in Philadelphia. Back when the Philadelphia craft beer world was a small, tight community that was bound together by a great local beer press. Rich and his buddy Ed would make the drive from North Wildwood for the early Friday the Firkinteenths. Often they would crash at my place.  At that time, Rich worked summers at his family’s motel in Wildwood, and globe-trotted the rest of the year. In his travels, Rich met a lovely German lass, Doreen, and they would eventually settle in Munich.  During the 24 year run of the Grey Lodge Pub, without fail, I would send out a monthly email. Rich responded to one encouraging me to come to Munich for Oktoberfest. Rich and Doreen would be moving to Florida to be with his elderly...

  Zoigl… Whatgl?  Zoigl Trip - Part 1 of 13  I was at a gathering with a bunch of Philly craft beer legends recently. Bopping from one-on-one conversation to another, I mentioned that I just got back from a Zoigl brewery tour. Several of the craft beer gods had no idea what I was talking about. So if you’ve never heard of Zoigl, you’re in good company. If you follow this series of posts, we'll learn about this amazing beer subculture together. Decades Ago, Zoigl First Appears on My Radar The first I heard of Zoigl is when I bought  a half of Appalachian Zoigl Star Lager for the Grey Lodge Pub way, way back in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Researching what kind of beer Zoigl was led me down a Web rabbit hole, which started a travel itch that took about two and half decades to scratch.