Welcome to my BYO Beer Blog.  I am Ashton Lewis, known by BYO Readers as Mr. Wizard.  My journey as Mr. Wizard began back in 1995 when BYO was founded.  Not really wanting my name on my column, perhaps fearing that my mouth-loving foot may hinder my ability to get a job in the US brewing, I chose to use a pseudonym. 10 years later my name was attached to my column, a book compiling many of the Question & Answers followed and now 14 years after having a homebrew Q&A column I am beginning a Beer Blog. Part of my job involves travel and with that travel I try to visit places that either brew great, serve great beer or both.  I will give this my best and attempt to glean factoids of interest to BYO readers in my travels.

Last night, July 2^nd, 2009, I was in Sanford,Florida located outside of Orlando.  My reason for visiting was the low airfare available from Sanford to Springfield, Missouri where I live.  I was holed up in a hotel awaiting my early morning flight and hoping to find a local place to eat somewhere near Lake Monroe, part of the St. Johns River.  In my cruise of downtown Sanford I happened upon Hollerbach’s Willow Tree Café, “Where Gemuetlichkeit Happens”.  I saw the awning and German flag from the lazy street running in front of the café, was a bit skeptical until I saw a regular holding a German stein and heard the sounds of seemed to be live music, the kind lead by an accordion and lyrics sung in German.  The stein toting regular and the sounds of “Ein prosit” leaking into the street drew me in.

A complete German menu and excellent, fresh draught beers was the fare so I decided to wander inside. To my delight Hollerbach’s had Gaffel Kölsch on draft complete with proper Kölsch glasses.  I have to admit that I have had mostly disappointing memories of German brewed Kölsch in the US because most the beers I have drank have been oxidized.  The Gaffel Kölsch at Hollerbach’s was certainly not oxidized and was an excellent beer for the evening as well as a reminder of how a proper, fresh glass of Kölsch should taste; light clean malt flavor, assertive, but delicate hop bitterness and low yeast character.  In other words, an ale cousin of Pils.  It was also nice that my friendly bartender was a homebrewer who knew about their beers.  And if you have at least 5 people in your party you can order a 3 liter boot (I discovered the 5 person rule when I was denied 3 liters of Gaffel Kölsch!).

As an American craft brewer it is often tempting to seek out the brews of my American brethren without thinking about great beer from other parts of the world; it’s often too easy to put the blinders on and forget about where many of us get our brewing inspirations. And when you run into a place like Hollerbach’s that has really good, fresh beer from Europe paying homage to our brewing tradition seems like the right thing to do.  Prosit!