Homebrewing in Germany

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I have until next Monday to tell my boss if I accept the relocation package from the US to Frankfurt, Germany.

Can anyone share their experiences home brewing in Germany?
 
Some German film students visited here last fall and did a documentary on one of my brew days. They were amazed by Canadian homebrewing; saying it was next to non-existent (maybe even illegal without a license) in Germany. Not the most reliable of sources, but FWIW.

Living in Germany would be pretty cool, though. Was to Munich for a week a few years ago and loved it. Permanent move or something you can do for awhile then decide?
 
Congrats on the job opportunity. Can't help you with Germany, but I moved to France in April for a 2 year assignment and have been homebrewing since then in the land of wine. I have not found a single homebrew shop in the entire country. Since I can't get good beer here (except belgians), bringing the equipment over was a requirement. I had to downsize from 10 gallon batches in a keggle to brewing 3 gallon batches in the kitchen, but I have a kegerator full of beer now. Just brewed a Rye IPA today in fact... I brought about 5 lbs of different american hops with me and various dry and liquid yeasts. I mail order all my grain from Belgium and harvest the yeast for subsequent batches. Since downsizing was a requirement, I brought four 3 gallon kegs and 3 and 5 gallon fermentors to make smaller batches. You shouldn't have a problem getting ingredients in Germany, and mail order works pretty well once you get everything figured out. The hardest thing for me to get was CO2, they wouldn't ship my bottles and I wouldn't be able to fill them here anyway with the US standard fittings...
 
Is the rheinsebegot actually a law? (presuming that you can brew;))

It hasn't been a law since the '80s, and doesn't affect home brewing. As far as I know (based on the German Wikipedia - for what it's worth) you need to track your brews to report to the taxing authorities (in same cases ahead of each brew, in some cases once per calendar year), but they won't charge you anything unless you go over 200 liters a year - after that you have to pay regular beer taxes. Some may stop by and inspect your brewery. And I don't know if homebrewers actually worry about this in practice.
 
Thanks everyone... I am making a giant mind map of the positives and negatives of the move, something like this is a big decision and will be the next three years of my life.

It does appear that home brewing exists which is a big positive. :)
 
I would probably consider hanging up homebrewing for an opportunity like that..

AGREED.


Really, the time spent brewing could be spent touring abbeys or breweries.

HELL, I would see if I couldn't volunteer at a german brewery or get paid to do anything short of just sweeping the floor.
 
i'm sure there are suppliers on the sad side of the border but for sure the big belgian homebrew supplier (brouwland) ships to germany no problem. i know for a fact that the german authorities will check moustache girth and twirl before issuing a permit
 
Homebrewing it´s legal in Germany, but there is some paperwork and a limit of 200l per year free of tax, after that you supouse to pay taxes but who is going to tell you that you brewed more?
Here is a link from speidel (the one´s that manufacture the Braumeister) that explains this a little more:
http://www.speidels-braumeister.de/Legal-Matters:_:30.html
I don´t live in Germany but I have bougth some things in German websites
This is the one that I use and haves a good variety at ok prices:
http://www.candirect.de/
THe German site it´s better than the english even they are the same company the selection seems bigger in german.
 
I got yeast from a brewery in Dusseldorf. He happily (drunkily?) filled my containers, which I brought home. I got the feeling from him that home brewing was very uncommon (although he had done a bit of it himself). At another brewery, Eurige, I was not given yeast. I was also told that no one had ever asked before (that brewery has been there for 500 years-ish). So there's some data points for you. Check here for lots of pics and video.
 
I'd say go for it. If you don't get to homebrew that much, you can still drink some of the best beer in the world. I'm not sure how old you are, but I were younger, I would've jumped at the chance...I've been there a few times and I'm going back next month. It's a great country.
 
So from January to August 3rd of this year I was in japan on a similar assignment and I met a German home brewer. He and I obviously drank quite a bit and spoke at length of home brewing in our respective countries. According to him, Brewing in not illegal in Germany, however you have to register with the city hall of the town you will be living in and they will want to collect taxes based on how much you brew. But, that being said, his take was that there is little to no "scene" for home brewing and it is quite difficult to get supplies without mail order. The other thing he stressed was that there is no such thing as a german IPA as there is not commercial example that her knew of being brewed. So if you are looking for something other that a traditional german style it commercially it might be difficult.

Adam
 
Back in the 70 my family moved to iran for 4 year. it was the time in my life, dont let this opportunity pass you by
 
Glynn said:
Back in the 70 my family moved to iran for 4 year. it was the time in my life, dont let this opportunity pass you by

So what's the homebrewing scene like in Iran? ;)
 
Had a customer in the shop recently who lives in a conservative middle-eastern country. They get several of their ingredients from Iran.
 
So from January to August 3rd of this year I was in japan on a similar assignment and I met a German home brewer. He and I obviously drank quite a bit and spoke at length of home brewing in our respective countries. According to him, Brewing in not illegal in Germany, however you have to register with the city hall of the town you will be living in and they will want to collect taxes based on how much you brew. But, that being said, his take was that there is little to no "scene" for home brewing and it is quite difficult to get supplies without mail order. The other thing he stressed was that there is no such thing as a german IPA as there is not commercial example that her knew of being brewed. So if you are looking for something other that a traditional german style it commercially it might be difficult.

Adam

Actually I think the German post system is probably the best in the entire world, It might just be the HBS I order from but I never received anything later than two days, from order date, and no more than about 10 euros for delivery. Got everything in the picture delivered for 10,05 and hops I put in my freezer. Also they sell American hops. The distance is about an hour North of Munich but you would have to travel if you are not comfortable with the German post system but very difficult to get anything other than Belgian, Pilsner or German traditional but not necessarily a bad thing :)

IMG_1236.jpg
 
AGREED.


Really, the time spent brewing could be spent touring abbeys or breweries.

HELL, I would see if I couldn't volunteer at a german brewery or get paid to do anything short of just sweeping the floor.

Aye! Not only would you be living/working within the motherland of all things brau-related, you're within a days' driving distance of epic Belgian breweries & abbies.
 
I'm a German homebrewer, and I'm not the only one. If you speak any German, there's a forum here: http://hobbybrauer.de/ Even without any German knowledge, there are enough of us who speak some English to help you out nonetheless.

I am not aware of physical homebrew stores, but there are several mailorder companies that should give you most of the supplies. Some things tend to be done slightly different than in the US, for example BIAB, ice chest mashing or glass carboys are rare, but there's certainly nothing stopping you from continuing your hobby in metric.
 
I'm a German homebrewer, and I'm not the only one. If you speak any German, there's a forum here: http://hobbybrauer.de/ Even without any German knowledge, there are enough of us who speak some English to help you out nonetheless.

I am not aware of physical homebrew stores, but there are several mailorder companies that should give you most of the supplies. Some things tend to be done slightly different than in the US, for example BIAB, ice chest mashing or glass carboys are rare, but there's certainly nothing stopping you from continuing your hobby in metric.

No carboys? How do you guys ferment then? I am moving to Germany in March and am not giving up my carboys and imperial measurements!
 
Actually I think the German post system is probably the best in the entire world, It might just be the HBS I order from but I never received anything later than two days, from order date, and no more than about 10 euros for delivery. Got everything in the picture delivered for 10,05 and hops I put in my freezer. Also they sell American hops. The distance is about an hour North of Munich but you would have to travel if you are not comfortable with the German post system but very difficult to get anything other than Belgian, Pilsner or German traditional but not necessarily a bad thing :)

What place did you order from? Still looking for some mail order places when I get over there.
 
30 Liter plastic buckets are common for fermenting, but glass carboys are equally reasonable to find.
check out out hobbybrauerversand.de Im not familiar with that shop as im in Switzerland, but Usually you can arrange (by appointment) to go pick up your order at the shop and have a look around as well. I would guess if you post on hobbybrauer.de you'll find quite a few shops around online (I know of 4 in Swiss and it's a much smaller country). And then you may have to order from diffeerent shops for different hops. THis http://www.brewstock.com/brewstockbrewing.html I found super useful for making more american and english recipes with Weyeremann equivalent malts.

Cheers

Almost forgot, I've found the same equipment (particularly carboys) for much lower prices by going to a shop selling basic farm supplies.
 
Dirty25 said:
No carboys? How do you guys ferment then? I am moving to Germany in March and am not giving up my carboys and imperial measurements!

Hardware stores and mail order have plastic fermenters in all sizes. Homemade cider is common, at least here in the south.
 
No carboys? How do you guys ferment then? I am moving to Germany in March and am not giving up my carboys and imperial measurements!

I'm not in Germany, rather Croatia. You might be able to find some demijohns, though. They're like carboys but better, IMHO. They come with a plastic holder which is quite nice. A bit rounder shape. They're from Italy and come in 10, 15, 20, 25, 34 and 50 something liters size.

Like so:

304507_10150412707459622_6902_n.jpg


10328_153082379621_6943022_n.jpg


As for Imperial units, I use a mixed system myself. I use Fahrenheit as it's more precise. But grams are much better for hop additions rather than all these weird fractions of ounces. And it's easy to get used to using liters and kilos/grams for grains. If you end up hanging out with locals, they'll understand what you're talking about when you talk recipes. And metric just makes sense. 1 liter of water = 1 kg. For starters, use 100 grams of DME for 1 liter of starter. Nice.
 
Maybe you already speak german but those demijohns Matt pictured are called 'glasballons' and my beer supplier has them under the wine category.

+1 to metric!
 
What place did you order from? Still looking for some mail order places when I get over there.

ludwigs-sudhaus.de/

I use this guy and he is pretty reliable oh I forgot to mention he is a vendor for wyeast

And the person that mention the wine glass carboy, I actually like them much better than the American glass carboys. > dehner.de < has them in Germany

Metric +1!!!! I use grams for my hop additions just like the guy said much more precise.

and if you ever get into kegging> knorr.de < fills tanks... and has high temp tubing
 
I will be going to Germany at the end of March and would really like to see the Speidel Factory. I have searched High and low but can't seem to find an address. I am actually considering bring back a 20L BM with me. Does anyone have any experience with this?
I am in Western Canada.
Thanks
Lylo
 
I lived in germany for 2 years, i did not homebrew while I was there but picked up the hobby when I came back to the states because I missed the German brews so badly.
Go, even if you find homebrewing difficult. Beer is cheep and much more ingrained in the culture. Its generally very good quality and available anywhere.
Take your equipment, when you get there find the nearest breweries (Almost every town has its own small brewery) and inquire if they would be willing to sell you malt and hops, that would take care of most of your needs. Mail order the rest.
 
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