This post is a continuation of the 2015 New Beer Every Day Beer Diary Challenge, #ottbeerdiary. Over the course of 2015, I drank at least one new beer every day. Please read the background in the link above, and enjoy reading about the most recently tasted beers below. This year I may deviate from the diary format in some posts, hoping to concentrate more on the locations and the breweries I am enjoying. If you’d like to join the challenge as well, let me know in the comments below. You can catch up on all of our posts as part of the challenge under the tag ottbeerdiary.
Day 366: January 1, 2016
Diary entry:
New Year’s Day in Vienna opened with a dusting of snow over the majestic city. I sat in my hotel room at the Vienna Hilton, overlooking the Stadtpark, as the initial dusting intensified into a solid snowfall in the morning hours. Being New Year’s Day, the streets were quiet, and not many people were out and about to witness this beautiful sight. Including my brother, who did not wake up until after 11AM.
Our New Year’s Morning — yes, we did make it out still in official morning hours — kicked off with a Wiener Melange and apple strudel at one of Vienna’s classic coffee houses, Café Leopold Hawelka.
https://www.instagram.com/p/__upbbkbTB/?taken-by=metsbwd
We wandered the city like good tourists for the next few hours, taking in all the sights in the inner city. The majestic government buildings, the immense cathedrals. We wandered through the closed-up Naschmarkt, and past a closed Café Sperl, regarded by many as the best coffee house in the world.
Disappointed, we wandered back through the center, picked up the obligatory Hard Rock Cafe hat and shot glass, and ventured across the Danube canal to the Prater amusement park, which I must admit, was much bigger than I ever imagined!
Beer-o-Clock was ringing through our ears at this point, so we ventured via U-Bahn to Charlie P’s Pub & Dining. While at first it may look like your every-day Irish pub, but I must say, they carry an excellent selection of beers, including a number of local Austrian selections.
At Charlie P’s, I had a Mountain Pale Ale by Bierol, a 7.3% American Pale Ale made with Magnum, Cascade, Mandarina Bavaria, Amarillo and Citra hops. I found this to be a very nice pale ale, with a very clean hoppy flavor.
The food menu at Charlie P’s looked quite nice for pub fare as well, but we were on a schnitzel mission once again, with a veal wiener schnitzel calling our names.
So off we wandered, to Plachutta’s, the old standby for veal schnitzel in vienna. Unfortunately, the hour we arrived was too busy for a table, so we wandered to Cafe Schwartzburg for another coffee and to our hotel for a little rest before venturing back out for a local beer at Stadtboden and a late dinner at Plachutta’s to finish off the evening. Such a delicious schnitzel! I have to say, well worth the wait!
We did make a last attempt for a coffee at Cafe Central, but decided to pass as we didn’t want to keep waiting in the line to get in.
The Beer:
Name: Hausmarke 4: Flanders Red
Style: Flanders Red Ale
Producer: Brauwerk
Alcohol content: 7.2%
Bottle size: 0.33 l
Purchased from: Brasserie Stadtboden in Vienna, Austria
Perhaps not as legendary as the Belgian originals, but still quite a tasty rendition. Decent sourness. Not too much sweetness.
