Food & Beer Culture

Leipziger Allerlei is the city's best-known dish: young vegetables like peas, carrots, and asparagus, in its classic form paired with morels and crayfish, tossed in butter. It's a dish for early summer, when the young vegetables are at their peak. It pairs well with Gose because the acidity cuts through the butteriness and the salt highlights the delicate flavors.

The Leipziger Lerche also belongs to this beer city. This shortcrust pastry with almonds and nuts recalls a time when songbirds were caught and eaten. Saxony banned the hunting of larks in 1876, and ever since, this sweet replica has taken their place. It pairs well with coffee, and against a sour beer it makes for a fitting counterpart.

Hearty fare is never far away in the taverns either: Bratwurst, potato soup, or Saxon sauerbraten with dumplings. The salt in the beer and the fat on the plate balance each other out, and the acidity lightens up a hearty bite.

Part of the city's beer culture are its taverns with long histories, chief among them Auerbachs Keller, mentioned by Goethe in his "Faust." Add to that the trade fair, which has drawn merchants and visitors to the city for centuries. Those who traveled from far away were often handed a glass of Gose early on.

Gose itself is a summer and beer-garden beer. The Gosenschenke "Ohne Bedenken" has its own beer garden, and the establishment proudly highlights its historic building from the 1920s. Visitors to the city should drink Gose slowly and in good company, not as a quick thirst-quencher.