A Pint Half Full

Note: This is part 4 of a series documenting the countries of Epcot Center and the beer they serve.

Our travels take us from the Far East back to Europe as we entered Germany in our trip around the world.   If I learned anything from Epcot about Germany, it seems like it'd be that the country is all about Octoberfest, pretzels, chocolate, sausage, and castles.  And that's ok by me!  As you stroll through the little German town with the stone cobbled streets, surrounded by medieval architecture, Epcot once again transports you to a new country.  The color themes are in contrast to the brightness of China and now I see that this was probably by design.

Apparently, Snow White lives in Germany too as we passed by a photo stop where you could take pictures with her.
Rather than wait in line with the rest of the 4 year olds, we took a picture from afar.


Of course the first things you see when you enter Germany are shops filled with sweets (I didn't realize Haribo was a German company) and crystalline figurines for you to look at and buy.  We escaped the temptations of huge bags of gummi bears and left the shop.  I immediately scoured the landscape for my next beer.  I noticed the Biergarten restaurant, which I heard attempts to impersonate an Octoberfest-ian beer hall (and does a pretty good job) so I knew if I kept looking eventually I'd find it.  There were stands for pretzels and brats so I knew it had to be next to those things. 

Sure enough, there was the beer line.  By now it was noon so the sun was blazing and I was thirsty and hungry - and the line was long.  After waiting patiently, I picked up a huge pretzel (alot better than the stuff you get at the ballpark, surprisingly) and a 22 oz DARK beer, Spaten Optimator.  They also were selling souvenir beersteins, tempting but I held it together.


The Spaten Optimator was really good.  It was sweet and malty and smooth as expected from a darker beer.  It had a depth that the Tsingtao just could not measure up to.  It was really a pleasant beer to drink even on a hot day and of course went well with our pretzel.  I would buy this beer as it is solid and tasty.