This was another of those lazy, stay at home, relax and get stuff done type of weekends. We've been gone the last few weekends and while we love having those quick weekend getaways, it can make laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning more difficult to fit in. But that doesn't mean we don't have fun when we stay home!  

On Saturday, we had some friends over for dinner so I went to the market that morning and got stuff for dinner. I also worked on perfecting my cheesecake adaptations (the crust is the hardest part to figure out, no graham crackers over here), and I have to say it turned out pretty tasty. On Sunday, we went with a local expat Meet Up group to the Welde Brewery in Schwetzingen for a tour, and got to put into practice our 5 Tips for Drinking With Germans. Welde is a smaller beer producer, akin to a larger craft brewery in the States, and has been in business for over 260 years...and is still owned by the same founding family. That's a long time!

The tour started at 1:00 in the afternoon and 60 people came! The brewery is on the smaller side, but because of that, the tour wasn't a huge production like the Smithwicks or Guiness tours. On this one, we actually got to see where the beer is brewed, fermented, aged and bottled. It was pretty cool.  

After the tour, we were led up to a special lounge for the tasting. After being instructed as to the proper way to pour a beer from the taps, we were on our own. Basically, it was open bar and there were a few snacks.

This is the first and only time that I have been to a tour like this, and it was pretty cool.  I only knew Welde to produce Pils, which is a light beer, and I don't care for it much. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that they brewed a lot more - hefeweizen, dunkelweizen, export, a couple of non-alcoholic types, a radler, and an organic keller beer. Since Aaron had graciously agreed to drive home, I was able to sample almost all of the styles. Bonus, I found one that I really liked and will now have to try to find in the stores.

If you're in the area and interested in doing the tour yourself, here are the details:

Dates: 1st Sunday of the month

Cost: 10€ per person

Address: Brauereistraße 1, Plankstadt, Germany

Website (in German):

Anyone else drinking with Germans this weekend?