Been a minute since I last posted anything. Blame it on British Columbia, where I've been on holidays for the past while. Anyway, today: Brno!!! Brno is one of the most underrated beer towns I can think of. Read on for places to slake your thirst. 🍻🍻 tempestinatankard.com/2026/05/14/t...

Nice dinner a few nights back with grilled shrimp in a coconut sauce with garlic and Aleppo pepper, purple grits from Anson Mills, and a carrot salad with herbs from our garden. Dessert: Sticky rice with coconut milk and peaches. And the beer: a stellar 2023 Abrikoos from De Cam in Flanders.

I suppose you could just read the intro if you don't want to read the whole post. But if you do want to read the whole post, it's best to pour yourself a beer before you settle in. 🍻

Just in time for German Beer Day tomorrow! Whether you're a fan or a critic of what we now call the Reinheitsgebot, it's a potent cultural phenomenon that shapes German beer and brewing. But how did it come into being, and why? tempestinatankard.com/2026/04/22/s...

To my 313 followers (I know, I'm not on Bluesky all that often), please consider following Jack Anderton's @europeanbarguide.bsky.social if you aren't following along already. It's bar-none the best resource out there for pubs and such across Europe. 🍻

Beer and hiking. Two great things that go even better together. Add in the scenery of the Bavarian Alps near Berchtesgaden and you've got the makings of something sublime. tempestinatankard.com/2026/04/09/s...

Communal brewhouses and coolships: that's how Zoigl in Bavaria's Oberpfalz gets its start. But it's in the Zoiglstube (tavern) where the magic happens. Cheers to @pelliclemag.com for publishing my article on this enchanting region and its unique beer culture. 🍻 www.pelliclemag.com/home/2026/3/...

Jack of @europeanbarguide.bsky.social is absolutely right: good wholesome fun, with a spot of wholesome beer into the bargain. Cheers for the kind words, Jack! 🍻 Everyone else: Give the piece a read when you've got a sec. And cheers to you all, too! 🍻

Zoigl really is an excellent word, a signifier of so much of cultural import in the Oberpfalz. It was a total joy and pleasure working with @katiematherkm.bsky.social, who edited the article, and @totalcurtis.bsky.social, who gave the piece the initial thumbs-up. Super cool illustrations, too!

La Fleur en Papier Doré in Brussels, one of my favourite places for its eclectic surroundings.

Me and my electrolyte replenishments after 56 miles of gravel a few weeks back.

A few days ago I posted a photo of one of my favourite Franconian beers. Today it's a photo of one of my favourite beer pix tout court.

If you're a fan of German beer, chances are you've been to Munich. And maybe you've taken the train to Salzburg in nearby Austria as well. But what about all those Alpine towns between Munich and Salzburg? There's some good beer to be had along the trainline. tempestinatankard.com/2026/03/24/r...

One of my favourite Franconian beers. What's yours?

On the topic of trains and trams, this is still one of my favourite photos of all time. Lisbon, March 2009.

So, I really like trains. I can lose track of time watching the trains coming and going from the overpass near Vienna's Westbahnhof. Since I really like trains, I randomly started liking train photos on Bluesky. Now my feed is filled with more trains than it is with beer. Prost!

It's Starkbierzeit in Munich! As a dedicated malthead, I'm drawn to the Doppelbocks and Lenten beers that come out during this season of strong beer and liquid bread. And that connection with Lent? Some call it bunk. It's not. Liquida non frangunt ieiunium tempestinatankard.com/2026/03/12/s...

Seems rather fitting these days to be re-reading Sebald's Austerlitz.

This one's for all the fans of old-style pubs, of Central European beer and wine taverns that transport you back several centuries. The Trödelstuben in Nürnberg tempestinatankard.com/2026/02/27/a...

Prague, my old friend. So nice to see you again and share a few beers with you! tempestinatankard.com/2026/02/09/p...

Wiethaler's Goldstoff Festbier. Looks great, tastes even better. One of the beers in my annual roundup of beers that grabbed my attention this past year. 🍻🍻 tempestinatankard.com/2026/01/30/t...

I drink a lot of Ayinger. But it's been ages since I bought a 4-pack of Celebrator. Where did all the plastic goats draped around the bottle's neck go? For those wondering, the bookshelf is merely where I charge my phone. Nature this, nature that. I guess the goat's demise is good for the enviro.

My annual roundup of tasty beers I had the pleasure of drinking in the year previous. 2025 saw me return to Japan and the Czech Republic for the first time in ages, and I visited Slovenia for the first time. Also includes the other usual suspects. Prost! 🍻 tempestinatankard.com/2026/01/30/t...

In which I write about the folks who helped fuel my beer adventures in 2025. Not pictured: @stanhieronymus.bsky.social @evanrail.bsky.social Joe and Will of Big Friendly, OKC Gregor Fransson Rich Carbonara Manuele Colonna Etc. Prost, everyone!! 🍻🍻 tempestinatankard.com/2026/01/15/2...

U Slovanské Lípy, Prague Been a while now since I've posted anything. Why not break the drought with a few photos from what quickly became my favourite tavern on my last trip to Prague?

Lazy Leaves Märzen, The Big Friendly, OKC I can't even begin to tell you how honoured I feel at being included as a collaborator in this beer set to release tomorrow at the Philbrook Museum's annual Lager Land Festival. tempestinatankard.com/2025/11/07/l...

Wine gardens for beer lovers I've been lurking more than posting these days, but today I have a reason to post something: the Viennese Heuriger! If you're a fan of beer gardens, you'll love the Heuriger (wine garden). There's tasty wine, food, and Sturm!! tempestinatankard.com/2025/10/13/b...

La Fleur en Papier Doré, Brussels. One of the more fascinating tavern interiors I've come across. More in the post 🍻 tempestinatankard.com/2025/09/17/l...

If you're a lover of beer festivals and you happen to find yourself anywhere near Bamberg this weekend, head on over to the Sandkerwa, perhaps one of the "best" beer fests in Bavaria. Best or not, it's among my faves. Great selection of Franconian beer! 🍻 tempestinatankard.com/2025/08/18/b...

"All Schnitzel cooks agree that the color of a Wiener Schnitzel should be light golden brown. Certain Breughel paintings and Stradivari violins have the perfect Schnitzel color." Fine food writing. Joseph Wechsberg, The Cooking of Vienna's Empire (1968) H/T @evanrail.bsky.social for the book tip

The very sound of the word Munich is enough to conjure up fond memories of languid afternoons in beer gardens, of joyous and occasionally raucous beer festivals, of winter evenings in beerhalls drinking mugs of beer to drive the cold away. tempestinatankard.com/2025/08/06/i...

Some "classic-ness" happening this afternoon right here in Oklahoma. Seems I haven't had Samuel Smith's Yorkshire Stingo since 2012. That's not for lack of tryin'. It's not something we see here where the wind blows down the plains. Had to go to Wizard of Oz country (Goebel in Wichita) to get sum.

A "counter-factual": What would the history of beer (or the history of anything, for that matter) look like without myths and legends? I ask this as a historian, but also one who is decidedly *not* a positivist historian. (The myths and legends we tell ourselves can be revealing for historians.)

Wasn't expecting to find a reference to Braudel in the intro @eoghanwalshbxl.bsky.social 's delightful History of Brussels Beer. Much as I love Braudel (I wrote a paper in grad school on narrative scale in history and read the whole damn Mediterranean), I'm glad you stuck to 50 objects. 🙂🍻

Annafest, that beer garden festival to end all beer garden festivals, is coming up soon. Here are a few more beer places you can visit in Forchheim once you're done exploring the Kellerwald (cellar forest). tempestinatankard.com/2025/07/21/f...

In case you find yourself in Munich this summer or autumn and are looking to visit some beer gardens away from the center. tempestinatankard.com/2025/07/14/b...

The Oberpfalz is one of my favourite German beer regions. Why? Zoigl. Zoigl's more than a kind of beer. It's an ethos that upholds an age-old brewing tradition that has vanished in the rest of Bavaria. One of the most important "ingredients"? The Zoiglstube tempestinatankard.com/2025/06/29/a...

Me, I don't need Chat GPT or other generative AI software to help me blunder my way through writing. Plenty of alcohol seems to do the trick.

Adler Bräu (Stettfeld, Franconia), Altfränkisches Lagerbier. One nice-looking beer. And one of the 25 delicious beers on my summer beer travel list. Cheers! tempestinatankard.com/2025/06/18/t...

Latest work from my old friend, @daeganmiller.bsky.social , on one of my favourite travel writers, Robert Macfarlane.

Lots of interesting interpretations of beer and pubs in art/literature in @beerdiary.bsky.social 's round-up of last week's Session.

More poems, indeed! And long live (the memory of) Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip.

If you ever find yourself in any of these cities, check out these pubs. Jack knows his stuff. A few cities on the list I haven't been to yet. 🚂🍻

The Session: Beer Blogging Friday was an institution in the 2000s and 2010s. Alan at @agoodbeerblog.bsky.social revived it earlier this year. Phil at @beerdiary.bsky.social hosted this month. I finally got around to writing something for the occasion. 🍻🙂 tempestinatankard.com/2025/05/30/e...

If you’re in Brussels for more than a few days, the bustling multicultural neighbourhood of St. Gilles is a treat. And so is Brasserie Verschueren, an elegantly faded Art Deco beer cafe that evokes the Brussels of yesteryear. tempestinatankard.com/2025/05/27/b...

Any Radler fans in the crowd? Personally, I'm not a fan of Radlers (or any kind of beer mixed drink, for that matter). And FWIW, I'm not 100% sure if this is where the Radler was invented. But anyway, I'm a sucker for the history of these kinds of things. 🍻🍻 tempestinatankard.com/2025/05/14/k...

On idioms: Back when travel by horse-drawn coach was common in England, highway men would kill people for a few pennies. Coach companies thus required travelers to have a last will & testament before allowing them transport. Hence: "When there's a will, there's a way."

Street scenes in Vienna when they still delivered beer by horse-drawn wagon. In Wagner, Das große Buch von Bier (1984). Date of photo unknown. Photographer unknown.

I could seriously go for an Altbier right about now.

Oktoberfest may get most of the love, but look a little closer and you'll find dozens of smaller beer fests in Germany. The Walberla Fest in Franconian Switzerland is among my faves. Check it out if you're in the area this weekend! tempestinatankard.com/2025/04/28/a...