Home brewers could save Germany's sacred beer tradition

Those German home brewers are late in getting into the game.

One might say that Germans have more choice in beers unlike us here in the US so the motivation is not that great to start making your own.

Late is better than never.

Like Vince Shlomy says, "You know those Germans make good stuff!"

I'd like to walk into a German homebrew shop!!

Slightly OT

I have a work buddy who grew up in a small German town named Zusenhausen, population 2,000. They have a regional brewery that has been in business since 18-thirtysomething.

For a high school science project, he and a couple of his classmates homebrewed a 50L batch of lager. The brewery donated the yeast.

He said the taste wasn't so good but it didn't go to waste.

Schlenkerla said:

Those German home brewers are late in getting into the game.

One might say that Germans have more choice in beers unlike us here in the US so the motivation is not that great to start making your own.

Late is better than never.

Like Vince Shlomy says, "You know those Germans make good stuff!"

I'd like to walk into a German homebrew shop!!

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More selection....huge numbers of local/regional breweries, home delivery, decent beer cheaper than bottled water, Biergarden every 15 feet with a nice atmosphere/no karoake/good beer/quiet/good selection........heck, it's amazing Germans would even think about home brewing!

I lived in a little town called Gebrunn, outside of Wuerzburg, for nearly 4 years. The local beverage shop delivered a case of beer to me every friday morning......and I got a bill in the mail every month. The initial cost was 30 dollars (roughly, I actually paid in DM) for the bottle/case deposit, and about 12.00 to 18.00 dollars for the beer itself (usually 20 x .5 liter bottles). There was no delivery charge within the town itself. As long as you leave the case w/ the bottles on your door step, you never pay the deposit again until you cancel the service, then you get it back after you return the case/bottles. Any time you bought a case at the shop, you paid the deposit, plus the beer cost, and it was returned when you brought back the bottles/case. The cases were nice hard plastic crates. I didn't get a lot of deposits back.......and hence I have several of those awesome german crates and hundreds of flip tops for my home brew.

One may note that in GE.......you very rarely see broken glass or tossed bottles......they are flat out worth to much. I've often thought that America took a massive wrong turn with the twist off non reuseables. The germans don't "recycle" their beer bottles......they reuse them. They clean/sterilize and replace the gasket on the flippers if applicable, then refill and ship. I think this system alone has helped keep the price in check and it certainly cut down on wasteful disposal, trash, energy use.....etc.

Did anyone read the title of the second news article under the first paragraph?

Catch-22 said:

Did anyone read the title of the second news article under the first paragraph?

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British fascinated by Nazi Super Cows? How could I miss that!

LOL:

* Man gets off for sleeping with underaged prostitute - Society (23 Apr 09)
* British fascinated by Nazi 'super cows' - National (22 Apr 09)
* Hookers offer discounts amid limp sex trade - Society (17 Apr 09)

The "declining variety" the article alludes to probably has something to do with most of the smaller and some of the bigger breweries, (even the ones that had been in continuous operation for hundreds of years), are being bought by larger "corporation" sized breweries. The names stay the same, but regionally it is getting hard to find beers that taste different. Where a few years ago, you could get a different Hefe just down the street, you now find the same tasting, differently labeled beer.

This is a somewhat recent development.

@Ewbish I also lived in Weurzburg for a couple years.

Whiskey said:

The "declining variety" the article alludes to probably has something to do with most of the smaller and some of the bigger breweries, (even the ones that had been in continuous operation for hundreds of years), are being bought by larger "corporation" sized breweries. The names stay the same, but regionally it is getting hard to find beers that taste different. Where a few years ago, you could get a different Hefe just down the street, you now find the same tasting, differently labeled beer.

This is a somewhat recent development.

@Ewbish I also lived in Weurzburg for a couple years.

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When were you there? Army?

ewbish said:

One may note that in GE.......you very rarely see broken glass or tossed bottles......they are flat out worth to much. I've often thought that America took a massive wrong turn with the twist off non reuseables. The germans don't "recycle" their beer bottles......they reuse them. They clean/sterilize and replace the gasket on the flippers if applicable, then refill and ship. I think this system alone has helped keep the price in check and it certainly cut down on wasteful disposal, trash, energy use.....etc.

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The difference between the German system and the American system is that in GE most beer is brewed locally and therefore the transport of beer to the consumer and returnable bottle to the brewery is all local. In the US brewerys are national and the bottles are often shipped across the country. A reusable bottle would increase costs considerably as the heavier bottles would increase the shipping costs to the customer then you would also have to ship the heavy bottles back to the brewery. Then you still have to pay for cleaning and inspection. Its not practical for a national brewer.

I like the German situation better.

Ofcourse nearly all of my bottles are reused many times, and local means the basement.

Craig

CBBaron said:

I like the German situation better.

Craig

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I don't. Try getting a Kolsch in Dusseldorf, or an Alt in Koln. The problem with Germany is that it is TOO regional, and most beers aren't available in any one place. It would suck being limited to what is in one's own back yard.

Belgium is a paradise... the country recognizes good beer, and it can be found anywhere, all over the country.

jpc said:

I don't. Try getting a Kolsch in Dusseldorf, or an Alt in Koln. The problem with Germany is that it is TOO regional, and most beers aren't available in any one place. It would suck being limited to what is in one's own back yard.

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And people's preferences always change. I have relatives in Austria....which shares the same culture and history to Germany. That is where Wiener Schnitzel and Vienna lager were invented. But now, if you're looking for a good Vienna lager, every good beer drinker knows you go to Mexico for that! I've noticed Vienna has a couple microbreweries now (due to the latest microbrewing fad)....but most all taverns are "heurigers" that serve wine (they used to put wreaths out letting people know their wine was in harvest...now many heurigers just serve commercial wine from the region). And my Austrian uncle, while following the Austrian tradition of having more proclivity to wine now, believes that if he wants beer...the piss general lager he gets at the local market is better then any craft German, English, or American beer.

jpc said:

I don't. Try getting a Kolsch in Dusseldorf, or an Alt in Koln. The problem with Germany is that it is TOO regional, and most beers aren't available in any one place. It would suck being limited to what is in one's own back yard.

Belgium is a paradise... the country recognizes good beer, and it can be found anywhere, all over the country.

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Well....I never found that limiting. What with cruise control and the autobahn.......you're not more than 3 hours at any given time from any beer style you want.

Belgium and GE are the epicenters of beerdom. It's like the brewing gods blessed the countries along a line from Ireland, England, then to Belgium, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. The rest of Europe was cursed. You start out in say......portugal, and beer is crap. As you travel through spain, and then france....it's all swill, but marginally improves.....until you hit Belgium and Germany, which seems to be the epic peak of beer goodness. You can go West across the pond to England and Ireland, and the beer is awesome.......or you can go East......and the beer remains awesome through the Czech Republic or SE to Austria and it's drinkable. Then........it tapers back to swill.......by the time you cross Slovakia you're back to sewage runoff (any good beer brewed in Slovakia....is shipped west...poor bastards don't even get to drink their own decent brew). By Hungary, you're willingly dropping hard currency for "imports".........In Romania......you look for horse dung filled mudpuddles to rinse the taste of the Romanian beer from your mouth.

ewbish said:

When were you there? Army?

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Yep, I was stationed in Schweinfurt for 7 years 95-2002. Lived in Wuerzburg for the last two of that. 3rd then 1st ID. I lived right across the street from the Marienberg.

ewbish said:

Well....I never found that limiting. What with cruise control and the autobahn.......you're not more than 3 hours at any given time from any beer style you want.

Belgium and GE are the epicenters of beerdom. It's like the brewing gods blessed the countries along a line from Ireland, England, then to Belgium, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. The rest of Europe was cursed. You start out in say......portugal, and beer is crap. As you travel through spain, and then france....it's all swill, but marginally improves.....until you hit Belgium and Germany, which seems to be the epic peak of beer goodness. You can go West across the pond to England and Ireland, and the beer is awesome.......or you can go East......and the beer remains awesome through the Czech Republic or SE to Austria and it's drinkable. Then........it tapers back to swill.......by the time you cross Slovakia you're back to sewage runoff (any good beer brewed in Slovakia....is shipped west...poor bastards don't even get to drink their own decent brew). By Hungary, you're willingly dropping hard currency for "imports".........In Romania......you look for horse dung filled mudpuddles to rinse the taste of the Romanian beer from your mouth.

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Of course... if you noticed, the "beer" areas you mentioned are areas that, due to climate, traditionally grew grains. The other places, like Spain and Italy, grew grapes and are more "wine" cultures. In Russia and Poland, it's Vodka (traditionally made with potatoes, from what I once heard). I once was at a dinner with Michael Jackson (or was it Roger Protz? Old age is catching up to me) where this was mentioned, and it makes sense. I had never thought of that before.

on a different note, did anyone look at the night life pics in Germany. I need to go to Germany for 2 reasons Beer........and the ladies....HHHEEEYYYY!!!

Edit: and a lot of the German guys look like tools, we would be shoe ins. Yes ladies im American.

jpc said:

Of course... if you noticed, the "beer" areas you mentioned are areas that, due to climate, traditionally grew grains.

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Well Austria was mentioned as an alright place for beer....as someone with an *above average* knowledge of the place, I would say you wouldn't know that Vienna is linked to a historic beer style. If you went to the historic taverns outside the tourist districts, you would find they would serve local white wines (and a few also serve reds). You can now find some good beer at brewpubs 1516 and SiebenStern Brau. They are not a return to beer culture there though....they produce good *popular* styles that are found in the good brewpubs here in the States. They seem to be the same response to current craft brew craze that everyone else is happening on. That's not to discourage anyone from visiting though....Vienna has plenty to do....and if you can muster the courage to try blood sausage with a caraff of house wine, it'll be a good change of pace!

I bring this up because I do believe that the scale of brewery is more important then tradition. A German friend of mine, who doesn't like beer, has shown me articles on how quickly wine is becoming more popular for consumption then beer in Germany. The small scale breweries (no matter when they were established) cannot survive if they stay regional and local tastes switch to something larger. I think the Czech Republic has the best potential for keeping the beer tradition alive for central European lagers, as they have older breweries that are also growing in business. Plzen will still be able to produce "authentic" beer no matter what

RunNakeDnECU said:

Edit: and a lot of the German guys look like tools, we would be shoe ins. Yes ladies im American.

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And beauty is in the eye of the beholder....I've heard the type of guys some of my German lady friends are attracted to....and they are nothing like American sex symbols!

Whiskey said:

Yep, I was stationed in Schweinfurt for 7 years 95-2002. Lived in Wuerzburg for the last two of that. 3rd then 1st ID. I lived right across the street from the Marienberg.

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Hey, if you were there for the reflag from 3rd to 1st, we were there at the same time!

"If you're going to be one, you might as well be a Big Red One."

At least once we were Big Red Ones.......we didn't have to sing Dog Faced Soldier at boards anymore.

ewbish said:

Hey, if you were there for the reflag from 3rd to 1st, we were there at the same time!

"If you're going to be one, you might as well be a Big Red One."

At least once we were Big Red Ones.......we didn't have to sing Dog Faced Soldier at boards anymore.

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Yep, my battalion was last to reflag as we were down in FYROM at the time. I still here the dog face soldier song in my sleep.....