Grüezi from Schaffhausen, Switzerland

[jlpeifer]

Hi all... I married into Switzerland just shy of 3 years ago. When I first started visiting (about 5 years ago) I was sad & shocked to find very few ales. Almost everything here was a lager variant (the local corporate brewer dominates about 95% of the taps regionally and doesn't have much motivation to innovate). There are a handful of microbrewers nearby, but most of them are also brewing lagers or ambers... but nothing truly hoppy or distinct. To fulfill my pallet I've started brewing and am learning wild respect for the hobby. Looking forward to learning from y'all in the future!

 

[Ayzala]

Welcome to the rabbit hole. Enjoy and have fun!

 

[AJinJacksonville]

Yes. Welcome to the hobby!

 

[Sammy86]

Welcome to the community and obsession!

 

[Iseneye]

I spent 5 weeks in Switzerland in 2014. St gallen as home base but travelled around a chunk of the country. Swiss beer was bland boring lagers with zero flavour. Good idea to get into home brewing! Swiss bakeries are hard to beat.

 

[Taket_al_Tauro]

Hello from Bern!
...and welcome!
You are right, there isn't much beer tradition in this country, BUT fortunately, there is a booming craft beer scene in Switzerland right now. It seems to me that every second homebrewer is now opening some sort of micro- or nanobrewery...there are now more than 1000 registered "breweries" in this tiny country of 8 millions!!
Apparently the legislation is currently very "soft" when it comes to selling beer here...
So you can now find everything there, from crappy craft brewers up to very good ones.
It seems that the best and most innovative ones are tendentially located in the western, french speaking part. But there are a few very good ones also in the eastern part.

Among the craft breweries that have a somewhat wider distribution, check out White Frontier for example (from Martigny, Valais). They make good hoppy beers.
Steam and Anchor from Winterthur also have a very good reputation for hoppy stuff (did not have the chance to try much from them myself, though).

If you are more into sours and wild ales, check out Blackwell, l'Apaisée or "À Tue Tête".

Edit: Oh and BFM, a true pioneer of craft beer in Switzerland, is also really worth checking out. Their beers are a bit pricey, though...

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Welcome!

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the hobby, and the group, from Colorado

have dear friends in Geneva...