Notes from the 2003 European Brewing Study Tour: a.. Sleep deprivation is a good substitute for narcotic use, and has similar effects. With only about 12 hours sleep over the last 4 days, this keyboard looks like a stack of Scrabble tiles. b.. Whatever you order in German restaurants, you will receive some sort of pork product in it. Salad, mineral water, even the tofu milkshake must, by some sort of unwritten law, contain at least 4 ounces of pork. If you order pork, they ask you if you would like a side order of pork to accompany it. I think the Pork Marketing Board must be Germany’s biggest lobby group. c.. Brewpubs are increasingly common in Germany. AirBrau at the Munich airport serves damn fine hefeweizen, and is so busy that they brew 7 days a week just to meet their in-house needs. Their Doppelporkweizen is also lovely, but it was a little porky for my tastes. Brewpubs here have amazingly ornate design, with brilliantly polished copper everywhere. You have to love a country that takes such pride in presentation to build & maintain such systems. d.. The visit to Brauerei Fritz Gutmann in Titting (don’t laugh at the town name) has so far been the high point of the tour. Hundreds of years old, this traditional-looking brewery hides a huge state-of-the-art commercial brewing system in a series of subterranean “caves”. The quality of their beer (especially their weizenbock) is exceptional, much of it owing to the fact that they have their own in-house maltings. Hospitality was tremendous, with a breakfast of white sausages & big-ass pretzels coated in pork chips presented to starving students along with a continuous stream of Bavarian beer. e.. The students are having a great time, with much off-key singing & drunken multinationalism being practiced. There has been much adventure-seeking at night, making the morning role call of critical importance in order to assure that all students have been accounted for before traveling to the next town. We have lost only three so far, which is a fairly good average. f.. Our overnighter in the Czech Republic was far too abbreviated to get much of a feel for the country. Roads are fast & dangerously narrow, and are populated by Soviet-era cars seemingly powered by lawn mower engines. Something in the water seems to be hostile to hair, with my morning shower resulting in a hairstyle that gives me a decidedly cubic appearance. g.. Did both the Budvar Brewery and Pilsner Urquell in one day. Experiencing both beers at the peak of freshness was beautiful. The Budvar brewery is in a transitory phase, with uncompleted facility improvements showing a shocking level of dilapidation. State ownership appears to have let the place run down, but the head brewer informed us that the facility will be stunning by the time the upgrades are complete. We didn’t tour Urquell, but had dinner in their huge restaurant facility. Damn fine beer, and it was a kick watching the throngs of local blue-haired regulars waltzing to the live band playing marginal hits from the 1970’s. h.. Hamburg was a cool city, comprised of luxury shopping malls, historic buildings, and porn stores. It is strange that a nation with so many churches has so much porn. I guess you need something to confess every now and then. i.. Duesseldorf & Belgium today. Will have a beer for all of you. Maybe two. Keith “More Pork, Please” Lemcke Siebel Institute of Technology