Bundesliga & Beer: Augsburg and Riegele Edition

A winter 2026 Bundesliga & Beer trip to the Bavarian city of Augsburg.

Augsburg is the regional capital of Swabia and third largest city in Bavaria after Munich and Nuremburg. It's one of the countries oldest cities and home now to just over 300,000 folk.
My early arrival provided plenty of time to wander the streets on the only really chilly day of winter 2026 that I can recall, a flurry of snow in the air.

Sightseeing...
The Rathausplatz should rightfully have been my first spot for the perfect tourist photograph.  Except I had dull grey sky above the Renaissance town hall, a stage set up in front of it, and the bell tower (old enough to only need three digits when writing the date) covered in scaffolding.

European cities do love to set up a stage in the square at the slightest excuse, a habit we really don't share here in the UK.  Over the years I've seen pagan rock and wood carving on stage in Heidelberg, an AC/DC cover band in Slovakia, and on-stage hairdressing displays in the Netherlands.
Nothing so exciting in Augsburg - just a large proportion of the city's under 10's and their pop music dance routines. But they were very enthusiastic about it.

I skipped the chance to win a 4ft high soft toy or drink local bottled beer, but did partake in vegetarian currywurst in a styrofoam cup.

Beyond the town hall are wonderful quiet streets with fast-flowing waterways running between buildings and the fascinating Fuggerei - the world's oldest social housing complex.

Elsewhere I found an impressive door knocker on St Maria's Cathedral...

And a very obscure vinyl selection in the record shop - Der Polizeikasper, anyone?

Right, time for a beer.
For this I headed back to the station where the 1516 Brewhouse within the station itself is sadly long closed, but Riegele Brewery is very close and visible from the rail platforms.

Riegele WirtsHaus (Frölichstraße 26, 86150 Augsburg)
It's a grand complex with beer garden for warmer weather, bar and restaurant, shop and visitor centre.  The afternoon football fixture had ensured it was doing a roaring trade, with a queue to be seated and plentiful plates of food being whisked between tables.
I grabbed a stool at the bar and ordered the 5% Hefe Weisse.

There was a fair bit of choice beer-wise at Riegele.
The staple light-dark-wheat beer line-up, including pils and kellerbier were in place.  I quite fancied the Speziator beers - dopplebock wheat, dunkel or helles in 7%-and-upward ABV versions.  But figured these could be very unwise - I still had to navigate getting an electronic football ticket to work at the turnstiles.

Instead, my second pick was the sensible 4.9% 'Aechtes Dunkel', a toasty dark brew made with double-kilned malts.

The loos are worthy of a mention.  There's a random puppet display behind glass on the corridor to the facilities, then the choice urinal in the gents is the one on a tree trunk... 

  

Almost up there with the Combermere Arms.

As the football-shirted crowd was thinning out, I figured I should think about finding my own way to the stadium.
I hopped on a tram at the Königsplatz interchange which takes you to the city outskirts in around 20-minutes.  The WWK Arena really is in nowheresville, surrounded by modern industrial buildings and motorways.

Negotiating the security perimeter takes you into the spacious concrete area outside of the stands where there is a fan shop, lots of grilled meatiness, chips, pancakes, and more Riegele beer to be consumed.

My vantage point amongst the crowd of 30,107 was in the corner, directly above one of the camera operators.
The Augsburg ultras occupied the Ulrich-Biesinger-Tribune to my right and made an orchestrated wall of noise and drum banging throughout the game.

When I brought my ticket, both Augsburg and visitors Heidenheim were perilously close to the bottom of the Bundesliga table.  F.C.A. have had a few good results since, including the remarkable feat of being the only club so far this season to win at Bayern Munich.
I wondered how they managed that after 45 drab minutes with no significant chances created by either side.  There was a (very minor) bit of Forest interest 59-minutes in when one-time City Ground loanee Rodrigo Ribiero came on as sub - another in our long line of misfiring strikers.
Then on 80-minutes a breakthrough.  Augsburg converted a penalty and took a deserved lead.  Right...it's bloomin' freezing...can we go home now? 

I confess to leaving on 90-minutes and not staying to watch time added-on.  I was keen to get the blood circulating back to my toes and be on the first tram back to the city centre.
Catch the first tram and you get the one with Augsburg FC colours...

Options for a post-match beer were a little limited by Sunday evening opening hours, the streets of the old town already quiet at 7 in the evening.
I strolled past the cathedral on the streets of the old town to the first brew pub I'd spotted on the map.

Brauhaus Bayrisch Brau Pub (Frauentorstraße 38, 86152 Augsburg)
Claus Kröger's brewery was set-up in an existing pub in 2010.  It's a two-roomed lay-out with one section in the dark beyond an archway. Typical large chunky farmhouse-style tables, a display of beer bottles on high shelving, and a small library of beer reading.
Here are the ale choices...note the good old fashioned laminated menu...

I stuck with the Zwickl hell, strength unlisted (but quite high I suspect), coming in under €5 for the half litre.
It may be homebrew compared to the Riegele, but I loved it - my favourite beer of the day.

It was just a bit of shame that the place was so quiet, although I guess it was a February Sunday evening in sub-zero temps.  Four customers sat around the bar, the lights above the tables put on especially for my benefit.  I had worried it was closed, but was afforded a warm welcome.  Just a pity that the locals didn't start to chat to me until I returned my glass and was on the way out.

Under 10-minutes brisk walk took me to another brewery with a tap in the same part of town.
Thorbräu have a long history dating back to 1582 and are named after the Wertachbrucher Tower which stands opposite the brewery. They've been in the same family since 1885 and currently produce around 25,000hl of beer per annum.

Bräustüberl zum Thorbräu (Wertachbrucker-Tor-Straße 9, 86152 Augsburg)
Step through the front door and there is a cosy room to the right with a fair number of customers in, bench seating around the sides, retro wood panelling, beer posters, and yellowed ceiling.  To the left is the bar counter, with more rooms beyond which are opened up at busier times.
I opted for the last remaining stool at the bar.

"What beers do you have?" I asked in the absence of any kind of menu or list.
"We have everything."
I think Mrs PropUptheBar would dispute that when looking for sours and marshmallow stouts.
I asked for my default kellerbier - 'Maximillian's' being the Thorbräu version, a cloudy well-balanced 5.2% ale.

I stuck around for a half litre of the tasty 5.6% Dunkel, entertained by my fairly tipsy friendly neighbours who roped me into their surreal conversation and gave me a big hug when I announced I had to go home.

That marked the end of my evening in Augsburg, my bed beckoning after a long day.
I do wish I'd had a little longer in the city as there are a fair few more places I'd like to have visited given more time.  But never mind, there's always the brew pub at Munich airport to get one more dunkel before the journey home.

Nuremburg - right now the fun is about to begin

Disclaimer: blog post contains no fun.
As the banner predicted, the fun was about to begin for the Nürnberg ultras who were witness to a bit of a goal fest.  But PropUptheBar is grumpy and doesn't do 'fun', even with ample statues, historic sights and brew pubs in Bavaria's second city. 

Early on a Friday morning a speedy and comfortable intercity train on its way to Berlin took me two stops from Munich to Nuremberg in an hour-and-twenty minutes.  
Let's start the city explorations with a statue, of which there are a fair few to marvel, although it was Jürgen Weber's "Marriage-Merry-Go Round" by the White Tower that had me wide-eyed.

The whole thing is supposed to depict the various stages of married life, although this section of the huge statue which I've photographed doesn't look like the most fun bit of a loving union, does it?
The whole fountain actually disguises a subway ventilation shaft and came at a hefty cost which had local residents grumbling.

Here's the football sticker of the day...

Nuremburg's tourist hotspots begin in earnest as you cross the Pegnitz river and climb the gentle hills of Altstadt St. Sebald towards the castle. 
Great views over the rooftops from the highest point, although the first glimpse of blue sky of the day made for a much better picture of Tiergärtnertorplatz.

Aha, there's another oddball statue to frown at...

Handily just around the corner from this charming square and the Albrecht Dürer house is a brewpub.  Time for a beer, I think...

Hausbrauerei Altstadthof (Bergstraße 19, 90403 Nürnberg)
I couldn't remember this place at all from a previous visit to the Nuremberg, but can't imagine I didn't visit the original brewpub slap bang in the most touristic part of the city.  They've been concocting beers here since 1984.
The bräustüberl is remarkably small: just a few chunky large tables and a handful of high stools to the side of the bar on the route to a very cramped WC (don't try and negotiate it with your backpack on).
House beers chalked-up on a blackboard were the city's signature red beer, kellerbier, schwarzbier, or a rot-weisse.  I seem to have been very unadventurous on this visit and just stuck with the pale kellerbier.  

For a bite to eat I decided to head to a bar called Kloster which promised rotating local ales and home-cooked vegetarian fodder.
They'd done their best to hide themselves from me, scaffolding obscuring the whole place...

Kloster (Ob. Wörthstraße 19, 90403 Nürnberg)
This is a fantastic quirky little bar, once you've worked out the establishment you're looking for is actually behind the building site and actually open.  There were just a handful of tables plus stools at the bar, an eclectic obscure musical soundtrack, unusual decorations including a skeleton in the window and a coffin over the door.

Three draft beers gave you a choice of helles, dunkel, or weissbier from different local breweries, whilst the lesser-seen brews appeared to be those on the bottle list. 
I ordered the Brauerei Kanone dunkel and a GREAT chilli-sin-carne.

Suitably fed, I caught the U1 line to Bärenschanze.
This is where you'll find the Memorial of the Nuremberg Trials, an exhibition in the Palace of Justice.  In 1945 this was chosen to hold the trial of 24 of the most important political and military leaders of Nazi Germany.  Unlike most of Nuremberg, the court had remained largely undamaged during wartime bombing and the location was significant: the downfall of these men happening in the same city which held the enormous rallies as their party rose to power.

 

We've watched the movie 'Nuremberg' recently so are experts on this bit of history. 
This is the actual courtroom where Russell Crowe stood trial...

That bit of historic sightseeing from dark times complete, I was within walking distance of the Schanzenbräu brewery tap, which came highly recommended, the beer being a bit of a favourite with the locals.

Schanzenbräu Schankwirtschaft (Adam-Klein-Straße 27, 90429 Nürnberg)
This brewery - the beer being produced a couple of kilometres further west in the suburbs - was founded in 2004 although I'd never have guessed they're a 21st century outfit based on their retro tap room.

The first Schanzenbräu beers were created in the cellar of a workshop, with some innovation required to make up for the lack of proper kit: old barrels being sawn open to act as fermentation vats.  The current brewery in the Höfen suburb opened in 2016 with an annual output of 5000hl, their staple products being Rot Beer, Helles, Kehlengold and a Pils. 
I had the impression that only the helles was on tap in the bar, but may have been misunderstood when I tried to ask the question.  Chalkboards in every direction, but not a beer list to be seen.

Never mind - the Helles was excellent.
Quality frothy head.  On a super unfiltered, full-bodied, floral pale ale.
This is a fantastic little pub in which I could happily settle for longer if it weren't for time racing by awfully fast with a football match to get to in the evening. 

I walked back into the city centre, dropped by backpack at my hotel, then considered where I could grab one more beer prior to the evening's kick-off.
I'm really not sure how I ended up in the modern Bruderherz and am conscious there were lots of good places I missed.

Bruderherz (Luitpoldstraße 15, 90402 Nürnberg)
I think I may have been fooled by this one - it was once one of the city's brewpubs but appears to have closed in 2024.  Well, I can confirm it's open again, although it looks like the brewing kit you can see in the basement room may now just be for show.
At least I got to try the Schanzenbräu Rotbier which I'd missed out on at their pub. The red beer is something of a speciality in Nuremberg, an old style that has been revived in recent years - a kind of maltier, spicier Marzen - thoroughly enjoyable.

Six-thirty - time to start thinking about getting to the football ground for kick-off in an hours time.
If in doubt about directions, follow this chap...

Special S-Bahn trains are laid on to whisk you non-stop to the Nürnberg Frankenstadion station, a few kilometres south of the centre.

All the usual features of the walk between public transport and the ground were in place: stalls selling a vast array of football scarves, bratwurst and beer retailers, the scent of marijuana in the air, chaps with trolley bags collecting empty bottles, blokes in the bushes having a wee.

This was the weekend-opening Friday evening Bundesliga 2 game, Karlsruher SC the visitors at the Max Morloch stadium.
It's a big ground with a lots of empty seats at one end where visiting supporters were located, the impressive second tier attendance of 29,378 not coming close to making it look full.
I was at the very edge of the 'posh' seats in the main stand, looking across the running track towards the most dedicated and noisy Nurnberg fans.

Twenty-five minutes in, Julian Justvan grabbed two goals in three minutes to dash Karlsruhe's spirit.  The home side were having fun and looking like scoring every time they surged forward, going into half-time 3-0 up.  Despite the two clubs sitting next to one another midway up the league table, Nürnberg continued to dominate, Mohamed Ali Zoma scoring his hat-trick in an eventual 5-1 win.  It's the first time in my German football travels that I've seen a set of fans give up with their drum beating and chants, the Karlsruher support looking utterly fed-up and ready to head back to Baden-Württemberg by the hour-mark.

I could have dived into Nuremberg's Friday night city centre action once I'd travelled back from the stadium.  But all I wanted was my comfy bed and a cup of tea.
Gotta save some energy for more Franconian beer the next day.

Viktoria Köln and Craft Beer

Finally I've managed to make another Bundelisga & Beer trip to Germany - the first since Mannheim and Hoffenheim in 2019 - I'm somehow still blaming the pandemic for the gap.
This time around it's Bundesliga 3 side Viktoria Köln and Kölsch beer.

So without further ado...let's get on with trying to enter the ground through the wrong turnstiles and stickering the toilets.

With a 13:15 departure from Heathrow I'd figured I would have loads of time for a leisurely saunter to the stadium, which was a miscalculation on my part.  Not helped by the S19 crawling on a stop-start trip from the airport to the hauptbahnhof in three-times the time it usually takes.  Then being befuddled by the transport maps after dropping my bag at the hotel and trying to leave Neumarkt underground station by every exit except the right one to catch tram no.1.  The sight of a couple of football scarves reassured me I was heading the right way.

Sportpark Höhenberg, in the east of the city, is a short - very dark - walk from the tram stop of the same name.  I purchased my €15 stehplatz ticket from a portacabin and proceeded to try and enter through the wrong gate - which has become something of a tradition on these trips.

Once in the right gate, the rather alarming Gillingham-style stand greeted me...

I would have been slightly nervous had everyone decided to bounce in unison.
And slightly unhappy had it decided to pour with rain.

Behind the scaffolding holding the stand up was a merchandise hut, a bratwurst counter, and a beer stall.  I procurred myself a Früh kölsch and found myself a good spot.

The handful of Ingolstadt fans were situated on the (more stable looking) terrace at the half-way line.  The team from Bavaria spent a couple of seasons from 2015-17 in the top flight but have bounced between 2nd and 3rd tiers since.  I figured they may have brought more fans until I realised it was a longer journey from Ingolstadt to Cologne that the one I'd made from Oxford.

The game was mostly dominated by Viktoria, despite the two sides sitting next to one another - 10th and 11th - in the league and Ingolstadt having had better results in the past few matches.
And yet...against the run of play...Ingolstadt opened the scoring on 16 minutes, driving a long ball down the pitch which was cooly slotted in.

It took until ten minutes into the second half for Köln to make their possession count, David Otto tapping in a long throw that landed handily at his feet in front of goal.  I celebrated with another Früh.

Viktoria seems like a very friendly little club to visit.  I was comfortable on the terrace behind the goal with the drum-banging, flag-waving support - a wide range of different folk around me.  There were a few English voices to be heard, including those of a gang of Merseysiders who were spilling more and more of their beers from the cardboard carriers as they kept on topping up supplies.

Lex Tyger Lobinger (Lex Tyger? Have I really got that right?) gave Viktoria the lead on 68 minutes, then sealed the 3-points on the 78 minute mark with a superb volley, ensuring the majority of the 3,612 crowd went home happy.

I made a quick trip to the surprisingly well-maintained toilet block where the ceramic tiling provides an impressive gallery of Viktoria Köln stickers...

 

How did that get there?....

I returned to the city centre on the same tram line - this time an uncomfortable squash in the carriages with lots of people seemingly heading for a ghoulish night out, some inventive make-up and costumes donned for Halloween.
Time for post match craft beer for me...

Craft Beer Corner (Martinstraße 32, 50667 Köln, Germany)
Confusingly not really on a corner - it's only currently the last building on the street due to a building site next door.
This was a pleasant bar with several rooms, hops hanging from the ceiling, a decent Friday night crowd in, and a cracking beer list.

A mostly German-Belgian line-up from which I had no idea what to pick at first glance.
Hence I ended up conceding to halloween and ordering the Strabenbrau 'Pumpkin Ale', a 6% brown concoction from Berlin.

Then I was slightly foolish and grabbed myself the Hop Hooligans 'Apple Pie Lullaby'.  A 14% beast of a sweet chewy imperial porter from Romania's big craft brewery.  And - wow! - it was good.

I was in danger of getting no further than Craft Corner on my first night in Cologne.
So I made a concerted effort to catch the metro to the suburb of Ehrenfeld and tick off the second of the 'must-do' beard-stroking craft beer spots. 

Braustelle (Christianstraße 2, 50825 Köln, Germany)

Now this one is on a corner - in a bustling neighbourhood - looking not dissimilar to a pub you might find in north or west London.  It's open-plan within: an L-shaped layout with a section to the back containing brewing kit.
I took the easy option and grabbed a stool at the bar, ordering myself a 5% brown ale: 'Auturn Leaves', costing €4 for 0.3l.
Okay, not the best place to grab a picture of the place...

The Braustelle beers were chalked onto the beam nearby - the Triple Bock shouting out "go on, you know you want me!"
After a day travelling, racing across town to the football and forgetting to eat tea, a 9.4% beer at midnight probably wasn't ideal.  
What harm could it do?

With the beneft of hindsight, it'll make getting started the next day twice as hard as it should be - lying in bed eating cold Ditsch pizza slices whilst glued to Christmas movies dubbed in German.
I'll leave with a late night shot of the Braustelle brewing kit, before finding more German craft brews in Aachen in the next post.