Thick beer?

I'm sure everyone has heard stories of beers so thick you can stand a knife in it, and the knife will stand briefly before falling over. Or the beer so thick you need to chew it.

One of my roommates has told stories about such beers from Germany.

What I'm wondering is what causes a beer to get thick like that, and if there are any recipes that you might suggest to try to make my own?

Pitch your yeast into the mash tun? I can't imagine a beer that chewy, and I'm sure I've had my share of weird beers. Perhaps he was being hyperbolic in his speech. I genuinely can't imagine the scenario, you're essentially talking about a liquid that is a solid.

I agree with you on the hyperbole on a beer so thick you need to chew it, but the other should be doable, especially if you consider the head of the beer.

my questions remains, what kind of beer would that be? Is it purely a thick head? What would control how thick the head is? I figure it wouldn't be the beer itself, but I admit the possibility, but I have no idea what would cause the beer to be thicker than normal. I mean, it's still basically water. Foams however can be quite thick, so I figured that would be more likely.

You can certainly increase mouth feel by making a less fermentable wort, but standing a spoon may not be on the horizon. Increasing mash temperatures, and the use of many specialty grains can help to increase the perceived thickness of a beer........