Germany is one land that knows its beer right. And especially if you visit Bavaria, you will be all the more convinced. Every beer brewery has a garden in the back yard. These beer houses are almost restaurants serving varieties of cheese with the varieties of beer they brew in-house. There are several beer breweries in Bavaria or South Germany though a handful of them are really big and brand market their beer.

In the North of Munich, my local friend took me to a local beer house. This one had a very old school charm around it and around 5 in the evening in early May, the crowd had gathered up for their first round of drinks. Though the crowd was a mixture of young and hep population from the nearby university campus, most others were grumpy old men playing card and sipping beer from their liter large mugs.

Yes, the small size beer in these beer houses is 500 ml. And an average German wouldn’t touch any less than a 1 liter mug. By the way, as an average Indian woman, I couldn’t lift the 1 liter mug with one hand to toast ?

Towards the South of Munich, the garden culture becomes more common as the graveled roads lead up to the square which houses famous breweries. Haufbrauhas is one such famous beer house. I loved the real atmosphere of Haufbrauhaus on a weekday evening with an old school band performing and good old men sitting in tables around us and chatting away their lives.

Tasting most things on house is a hobby I have. So there came Raddler beer, brown in color and tasting more of Barley and Cola; Weiss Bier, looking white and tasting like corn and the normal liter that was anyway ordered, after which I can’t remember much…

To me, this is the flavor of Bavaria you can savor than the Auto Museums, which Germany has always been famous for. By all means, visit the museums. But I would say, don’t miss out on the local life.