Meine Schloss, German Beer Haus

Meine Schloss is a German-style beer hall in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. It was the first stop on our November 1st Micro Beer Tour of Hamamatsu. Japan has many of these German Beer Houses around to pull in the tourists looking to raise their steins and say, "Prosit!" I have been to one in Mie prefecture and two close to Mt. Fuji. These beer halls usually make four or five different beers, all of them being your German standards. These beer halls aren't out to win awards with a 'wow!' beer, rather they focus on creating fresh brewed German standards to complement the German (but Japanized) food selection. Think German food like sausage, pretzels, and kraut but with the more seafood, smaller portions, and less flavor.

Meine Schloss isn't any different from the others I have been to. They offer four beers: A Schwarz, an Alt, a Pils, and a Weizen (in ascending order). The Pils was nothing. I might as well have been drinking a super dry for all the taste it had. The Schwartz and Weizen were by-the-book standards. The Alt, however, was delicious. It had a nice light hop balance with a rich, but not overpowering, caramel flavor. The aftertaste lingered just long enough to dare you to take another drink. DH and I both agreed that it reminded us of our beloved Kentucky Ale (DH is drinking one in the Blog's headline picture). I would pay to drink Meine Schloss's Alt again. The Weizen and Schartz I would think about ordering before going with another Alt. And the Pils --I would drink it to be nice if someone else ordered me a glass.

We left Meine Schloss and walked to the Tenjingura Brewery, which DH will review soon, then came back to Meine Schloss a few hours later. The first visit was around lunch and the place was almost deserted. The second visit found the ouside beer garden full of people enjoying some brew as the sun went down. The Good Beer Country Boys and Miyuki wanted to do the same. After inquiring at the beer-getting counter about how much said beer was, an amazing discovery was made. This beer was free! And not just one beer, but plural beers!

Now, let me pause here to relate DH's classification of beer. Says DH, "There are four types of beer. There is cold and free, warm and free, cold and bought, and warm and bought." Now a beer of a certain brand and flavor can be any of these types depending upon the method through which it was procured. The same brand and flavor of beer, depending under which type it falls prior to being consumed, greatly determines the beers taste. I say "prior to" because once the beer is consumed it falls under no types; it is simply in-your-stomach beer. Now, of the four types, the most delicious beer will always be cold and free beer.

The cold and free beer we drank at Meine Schloss was of the light Pils variety. Though, at this point in the day it didn't matter. The beer was, by defintion, delicious and, between DH, Miyuki, and myself, twelve to fifteen plastic 'outside' cups were emptied. At some point during this period of heaven, we were interviewed for Hamamatsu cable news and then a gaijin and Japanese family pressed a button and turned some illumination lights on. Apparently the free beer was to celebrate November 1st being the first day of this illumination. I had just assumed they knew the Good Beer Country Boys were coming back.

This weekend Miyuki and I will be headed to Tokyo for a meeting about the Great Japan Beer Festival that will take place in Tokyo in March 2009. We also plan to visit Popeye's (which DH talked about earlier), the Delirium Pub (Delirium Tremens bitches!), A Ginga Kogen Pub, and numerous Microbrewery restaurants. I know, I know...