Roughly the first two weeks of November, I was fortunate enough to be invited along on a press junket to the Bavarian part of Germany along with a dozen colleagues. The trip was sponsored by the Bavarian Brewers Federation and a German Agricultural organization, along with some additional industry support. Most of the dozen journalists arrived in Boston the evening before our flight and had a wonderful dinner at the Publick House & Monk’s Cell with the Alstrom brothers from Beer Advocate as our gracious hosts. The following afternoon we boarded the biggest airplane I’ve ever been on (a Boeing 747-300), the kind with a lounge upstairs for an overnight flight to Frankfurt. Our intrepid host and trip planner, Horst Dornbusch, met us at the airport and we boarded a small bus, which would be our home for the next eight days, and headed to our first destination: the sleepy town of Miltenberg.

Miltenberg is an idyllic-looking small town of less than 10,000 people, that lies along the river Main in Bavaria’s Lower Franconian Region. Though known for its wine, it once boasted four breweries though today only the Faust Brauerei remains.

Our first stop in Miltenberg was our hotel for the evening, the storied Gasthaus Zum Riesen, which is the oldest tavern in Germany. It was founded in the 12th Century and the earliest ention of it court documents is from 1411.

The sign above the Zum Risen with its brewers star and the Bavarian flag flying overhead.

The empty streets of old Miltenberg early Sunday morning.

The town square with its public fountain.

A new unsinkable Titanic sits on the back of the Main River with Miltenberg’s old bridge in the background.

The bridge’s gate from the middle of it.

Looking across to the old part of town from the bridge. The large church in the foreground is in front of the town square pictured above. Above and to the right is Miltenberg’s castle and the building on the hill on the left is some kind of inn (I hiked to both of them later in the day).

Looking down on the town from Miltenberg castle.

The Faust Brewery just down the street from our hotel. It’s still owned by the Faust family.

When this building was erected, in 1900, it was one of several Lowen-Brau’s (or Lion’s Brewery’s) in Germany.

The Lowen-Brau was originally founded by the Faust family in 1654.

One of Faust’s beer delivery trucks in front of the brewery to fill its tanks.

Fellow travelers Andy Crouch, Jason Alstrom, Jeannine Marois and Tony Forder in front of the Faust Keller (or cellar) Sunday evening.

Brewery owner Johannes Faust tells us about his brewery as we enjoy our first beer of the evening.

Then it was back to the Gasthaus zum Riesen for a beer dinner put together by head brewer Cornelius Faust.

Our first taste of German cuisine, with the requisite dumplings

Which was paired with the Faust Naturtrub.

A light dessert paired with the requisite beer schnapps that virtually every German brewery makes or has made for them.