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Beer, Munich

I'm in Munich this week, and I plan to be drinking in the Paulaner Brauhaus (Kapuzinerplatz 5, 80337 München; click here for map) from 7pm on Monday 18th. All welcome! (Yes, I will sign books if you bring them.) If in doubt, look for the plush Cthulhu!

UPDATE: due to the weather, we're in the beer garden at the back.

63 Comments

1:

Oh, the agony. Zürich isn't exactly very far from Munich, but not that close either to quickly hop over on a work-day.

2:

I so wish I was there.

I shall instead look for recipes to roast a Schweinshaxe and have the cats chasing crackling shrapnel all over, and drink a nice dunkelweizen with it since the sun is out today.

3:

Any other dates in Germany? Berlin (he asks, hopefully)? We have better beer up north, you know?

4:

like I just whined on Twitter, the 18th is my sons 5th birthday, so my chances of getting to Munich in the evening are .. close to nil. Still, would only take about 1:20 hours to get there .. Hrrrmmmm.

How long do you foresee you would be sitting there for? Who knows, maybe later in the evening ...

5:

This is awesome. I'll grab my copy of Halting State and visit you for a beer. Looking forward to drink a beer with you.

6:

great choice charles, hope you'l have a good time here! that's a really nice beer hall/brewery you picked out. I recommmend the "Brotzeitplatte" with lots of cold cuts, spicy bavarian cream cheese and awesome lard with crackling in it to go with your beer.

@3: BigCityNights: don't be f*cking ridiculous!

7:

Yes, Berlin!

More beer here, yes, not sure it's better … and distinct confusion over what constitutes Weißbier.

8:

Seconded - All my favourite German beers are Bavarian!

9:

Actually much better beers are brewed in Franconia (technically part of Bayern, but up at t'North end .....) Bamberg beers, especially ..... Then there is the Kölsch style, as well.

Hic Burp

10:

not a German, I just live here, but I feel like I have to give the canonical answer of anyone-not-living-in-Köln:

KÖLSCH IS NOT BEER!!1!eleventy!

11:

Great way to an an evening of free drinking with friends you haven't met! Great job, keep it up, and have one for me! ; )

12:

Damn, I leave Munich tomorrow.

13:

The only proper beer is Abbott Ale and it's effect is testified to by the number of sightings of black dogs, headless horsemen, flying saucers and other assorted occult phenomenon in Norfolk & Suffolk.

14:

Abbot? Pish! Nothing like what is used to be.

15:

We have the ghost of an RAF Air-Gunner on a bicycle.

RAF Hibaldstow was on the other side of the River Ancholme from North Kelsey, and opened in May 1941 operating Boulton Paul Defiants as night fighters. A few weeks later a 255 Squadron Air Gunner was non-operational with allergic rhinitis And he borrowed a bicycle, and cycled along the road, across the old bridge, up through the Carrs, to North Kelsey, and to the Butchers Arms pub.

Mary Ann Robinson, who was running the pub at the time, apparently testified that he suddenly looked rather queer, at about half-past-nine, and decided he had to get back to the airfield.

It turned foggy that night. He was reported missing, in the morning. The local Home Guard and ARP both turned out, it was Sunday, and about Midday they found him and his bicycle in the river.

It turned out that his usual pilot had gone out after a German bomber that had been reported, with a new air-gunner, almost straight out of training. The fog had closed in the 'plane had tried to return to base, and crashed on finals.

As near as anyone could make out, he must have gone into the river at about the same time. And, since then, on misty nights in the Kelsey Carrs, people have at times heard the noise of bicycle tyres. And something that might be a distant aeroplane.

Oh, North Kelsey is also supposed to have a Black Dog. They say that if you see it you should choose a different road to go home.

16:
Abbot? Pish! Nothing like what is used to be.

If it was good enough for Victor Kiam (he liked it so much be bought a pint) it's good enough for me...

17:

Getting back to the topic, i.e. Meeting OGH in a munich bar. I checked train-timetables and could, I guess, be at the place by 22:40.

The question then is, would that still make sense or would OGH have gone back to his Hotel by that time?

looks like I'd have approximately 2 hours before having to catch a train back home in order to get some rudimentary amount of sleep.

18:

No wait. Damn. Trains back are a problem. There's one at 23:00 (which is uselessly early even if I manage an earlier one for the way there and arrive at the place around 22:00). And then the next one leaves at 03:25 or so, which is quite a bit late. Damn.

checking car options ...

19:

Well if I left Berlin at 12:42 I could be in Munich by 18:38. Then I could get the 22:09 train and be back in Berlin in time for breakfast (7:36). I can't see it happening, especially as I'm already traveling with my wife from Dresden to Berlin on Monday morning.

Far be it from me to suggest that the French might ever be more efficient than the Germans in anything, but the TGV does have its attractions.

20:

right. Replying to myself yet again.

Guess I'll just take the car. If I manage to leave home at around 20:30 I'd be at the place at around 22:20. Probably. So the question remains whether that is too late for any meaningful interaction or not?

21:

I am jealous. I first encountered Paulaner products in 1974, when I was visited some American students who were studying at the U of Maryland annex on a US army base in Munchen (they put me up in the ironing room). The beer was wonderful and I loved the city.

I was still very young and naive. I thought it was great that they served beer in the McDonald's but I was disappointed when I tasted it (Lowenbrau).

22:

If in doubt, look for the plush Cthulhu!

Cute-hulhu! ;-) I want one....

23:

As a data point, it is 23:10 and I am back in my hotel room.

This is less likely on Monday (I have a 7am start tomorrow, and a job to do: Tuesday is a vacation day), but even so, I can't guarantee staying awake past 2330. And I'd rather not encourage anyone to drink-drive.

24:

achtung! Link funktioniert nicht

maybe this one would be better

http://www.paulaner-brauhaus.com/

25:

The link isn't broken: the European TLD registrar had a huge reverse-DNS whoopsie today that took down lookups for a bunch of European domains. http://www.paulaner-brauhaus.com/ is a secondary for the real thing.

26:

And so it begins, multiple-game economies being merged by gaming companies:

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/category/economics/

Any bets if this results in a speculative bubble?

27:

Errr. Kölsh IS BEER. It is in fact a Brit-type beer, top-fermented, not bottom-fermented and then kept (Lagered) before selling. IIRC, Dusseldorfer-Bier is also "top-fermented". As for Abbott, well it's fabricated by Greene King (SPIT) who are the modern-day Twatbread. Taking over perfectly good breweries & closing them. Neither Rhona nor I will ever forgive them for closing Kimberly ... The really sad thing is that they still CAN brew decent beer, but the don't seem to care to be arsed to do so.

28:

well if I were, in fact, to drive, I certainly wouldn't drink (alcohol).

Still. Pondering.

29:

Oh bugger. I forgot to mention, and plug a product, whilst at it. [ Advertisement ] London is going to get even more visitors than usual, this year, and CAMRA are pushing their London, City of Beer idea, which will include a glossy booklet/magazine, to be published later this month, or early July. This will include a centre section ( 8 or 16 pages ) on foreign beer in London, and where to get it. We hope we've done a good job, and any readers are welcome to comment. [ End advertisement ]

Your 'umble servant is one of the author/photographers for said part, since, apparently the discussion went: "We must have section on foreign beers, who do we get to do that?" "Oh Greg & the Gnome" And so it was, with the addition of P. Sutcliffe, who also knows about these things.

Incidentally, if for any reason anyone wants to contact me, on a relevant subject, try ... fledermaus [AT] dsl [DOT] pipex [DOT] com

30:

If you don't mind my opinion here, I'd say this.

Firstly, I'd avoid spending more time travelling to get somewhere than I actually spend there. 3 - 4 hours travelling to spend perhaps an hour with Charlie, much as I like him, is way past my personal rule.

Secondly, Charlie does flag late of an evening. Like me, he'll be sneaking off to bed while our womenfolk are still going strong. And that means that come 23:00, you're really not getting full value any more.

And thirdly, it's really not fair to possibly guilt trip him into staying up later than he wants to just because you've come such a long way.

If you do go, I would suggest sort out some way of getting there much earlier.

31:

good points and basically underlining the things the rational part of my brain was shouting at me anyway ..

sigh another time .. maybe ..

32:

OGH does get to Germany every now and occasional, what with the odd convention and book fair. Perhaps next time will be more convenient.

34:

And www.hello-cthulhu.com

35:

That site appears to have been hacked

36:

Hah, that's nothing compared with what Japan has done with Nyarlatotep. Google "nyaruko-chan" if you have no sanity worth preserving.

37:

That may be why I couldn't raise it then; browsing from here can be so flakey that I was blaming my employer's nannyware.

38:

That is just so wrong. I need to scrub it from my memory

39:

I would very strongly recommend Augustiner, as the best of the main six breweries. The Augustiner Keller in summer is magnificently soothing...

http://www.augustinerkeller.de/

40:

damn. I live in munich. I already had decided to drop another appointment on monday evening for this: http://www.oeku-buero.de/terminleser/events/co2-lonization-was-die-gruene-oekonomie-fuer-indigenas-bedeutet.html

decisions, decisions.

41:

Just checked with my co-parent, he will do the baby-sitting, so I'm free to go.

How many books are you willing to sign?

(I think I restrain myself and bring only 4, otherwise you won't have time to drink your beer ... and books are heavy)

Enjoy your stay in Munich!

42:

Any slots in Switzerland? Munich is just a bit to far from Freiburg im Breisgau ... (4 hours train, one way, or something like that).

43:

I'm willing to sign one of everything, for you. If you want to bring extras for friends, well, I may push back if you turn up with a large box! But there's no set limit. I'll sign until my hand hurts.

44:

I haven't visited Switzerland in 32-35 years. This is a public speaking gig with a vacation tacked on, not a signing tour!

45:

[trimmed and resubmitted, with Berlin error corrected to Munich] Suggest that you see, Mr. Stross, something I think you'd enjoy, emblematic of self-publishing against censorship, and daring free thought: the monument to the White Rose, near Munich University, I think. Etched metal and ceramic photoreplicas of pamphlets that these students and faculty had distributed against Hitler. Set into the sidewalk. Plus a photoreplica of the memo ordering their execution. Think you'd like it, a hint of an alternate history of World War II.

46:

Should you actually get to Switzerland, and should you end up visiting Basel (something we consider worth doing every year), then you could pop up to Freiburg and go to Martin's Bräu Freiburg.

There's also the Freiburger Weinfest should you enjoy trying the local Badische wines. Which are really rather nice, and which you almost certainly won't find in a British wine merchant.

Downside - it can get really quite hot in July. Upside - you can ride the Schlossbergbahn up the mountain. Downside - that's not a very long funicular.

47:

I was in the Augustiner earlier this week. And I'm not changing the venue of a pre-announced meet-up once it's announced for any reason less pressing than the venue being closed. Otherwise someone will fail to notice the change ...

48:

And even the worst Bavarian is still several steps up from a typical McEwans or Tennants tied house, right?

49:

Since I live in München, naturally I'll be there with bells on.

FYI, the Paulaner Bräuhaus is all of 400 meters by foot away from Albert Einstein's childhood home http://goo.gl/maps/GxdC so that may be something that you may want to make a brief Pilgrimage to at some point during your stay here in the Gotte's Land of Adam Weishaupt's Bavaria.

One thing though, while I have purchased your books they're all in digital format, (ergo, I have nothing physical for you to sign), so if it is no trouble I'll be bringing my cameras and if you don't mind I'd like to get at least one pic of us with that plush Cthulhu.

Looking forward to meeting you at your Stammtisch this evening, wouldn't miss it for the world.

Kindest Regards,

Nyc Labretš

50:

I'll be there as well.

51:

UPDATE: We're in the beer garden.

52:

There's also the somewhat longer ride with the Schauinsland cabin train up the Schauinsland mountain. And the Vauban quarter (PV, carless green academics to the max in a newly built subutb). But I guess a visit to Basel/Freiburg is not very likely ;-)

53:

Hi Charlie,

it was really great meeting you, your charming wife and our fiendish, evil (well not really) overlord today in Munich :-)

It was a real shame I had to leave so early (was the guy sitting almost directly across from you) and there was one question I didn't get to ask in the whole "evolutionary advantages" discussion and maybe you're still interested to answer:

Do you believe that consciousness is an evolutionary advantage over the rest of the biosphere or that it'll turn out to be a disadvantage, like Peter Watts seems to think?

Thanks, Alex

54:

Hey Charlie,

Nice meeting you guys yesterday. It was great being able to pick your brain and hearing your take on everything from William Gibson to the euro crisis. After you remarks on Fuller I'll have to go back read the Fuller Memorandum again (also as a warm up to the Apocalypse Codex).

  • Jens
55:

The more I think about it, the more I have the impression that Munich is to Germany what Chicago is to the U.S.

I came to this by what of that:

http://www.msichicago.org/

While thinking about the Deutsches Museum.

56:

Do you believe that consciousness is an evolutionary advantage over the rest of the biosphere or that it'll turn out to be a disadvantage, like Peter Watts seems to think?

It's not looking good right now, but if we're still around in 250,000 years I'd be willing to reverse that position. (Especially if I am still around to reverse it!)

57:

Actually, Alain, the best way to think of München is the way we think of the American Deep South, Bavaria is more or less the Alabama of Germany.

58:

Thanks so much for meeting with us all last night, it was a real pleasure.

Here's a little snippet of you discussing the cover selection for "Rule 34":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWiS0kqzGWA&hd=1

Already made one sale, a High School fiendr of mine said that she went ahead and picked up the copy of it that she meant to buy last year, hopefully there'll be more.

59:

Human beings are the most widespread macrolifeform on the planet -- we exist today at the North Pole, the South Pole, hundreds of metres underwater and 400 km above the surface of the Earth. We didn't spread that far by being stupid.

Other macrolifeforms with limited ranges such as pandas, tigers etc. exist only on our sufferance and could be wiped out in the natural world by minor disease epidemics in a closely-limited population or by habitat destruction. On the whole, in the short term (i.e. the last few hundred thousand years) intelligence has been good to us.

60:

I enjoyed talking to you, would do it again.

That book playing in a library city I mentioned was The City of Dreaming Books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_of_Dreaming_Books

And I'd really love to see you at the 29c3, ideally as a speaker :)

61:

Human beings are the most widespread macrolifeform on the planet -- we exist today at

Ahem: as a species, we've only been around for about 200kYa. Moreover, our spread to those locations has happened in the past 100Ya; we've only really bloomed in the past 30kYa (spreading out of Africa and erupting across the planet). Meanwhile, we've triggered the sixth great extinction event in the past billion years, going by the known fossil record. As we're a climax life form we coevolved with a bunch of other species and if they go away we may be in serious trouble. Spike and crash is not a healthy population dynamic, and may be unsustainable in the [evolutionary] short term.

As a typical species has a life expectancy of over 1MYa, I think we have to say that the jury is out until we've stabilized and been around for at least five-digit more years in our current form.

62:

Maybe people like to think of the mentality of Bavaria as being similar to that of Alabama (or Texas), but is it really?

Under its quaint (and they are extremely, radically quaint in places) exteriors Bavaria is an industrial Lander. In addition to big names like BMW and Adidas the have tons of middle sized and small industrial enterprises. They also have complex universities and specialized schools that feed into that.

When I look at a place like Alabama, I see the Redstone arsenal / Nasa Huntsville center and little else. The biggest employers in that state are all government agencies.

63:

Dear MR. Stross,

Thanks for the opportunity to meet you and for the book!

I will get back to you some time in Aug when I get back to Chile for a postal address.

Cheers, the guy from ESO

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