Beer in Germany

Beer as major part of German culture. I always remember be told that if you was a car worker in Germany you could have beer as a beer break like we had a tea break here in Briton . Now how true that was I do not know but it gives you the kind of idea of how it is perceived by the world, or at least us Brits.

For years beer or brewing of beer was governed by Reinheitsgebot or the purity decree or Beer Purity Law.  The only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley, and hops. Later yeast became the fourth legal ingredient, also the use of sugar is permitted in top-fermenting beers. Now there is some dispute to who came up with the law or when 1516, 1487 or 1434 but before it was repealed in 1987 it was the oldest food quality regulation in the world. Since 1993, the production of beer has been governed by the Provisional German Beer Law, which allows a greater range of ingredients and additives.

There are about 20 different styles of German beer these are split into four categories over all Wheat beers, Pale beers, Dark beers and Unfiltered beer.

Wheat beers or Weizenbier or even Weißbier are the German names for wheat beer , Weizenbock or bock is a strong beer. Roggenbier is a dark beer made with rye, Berliner Weisse is  a pale sour beer brewed in Berlin. Leipziger Gose is an amber sour wheat beer with an addition of salt. Then you have Hefeweizen an unfiltered wheat beer and Kristallweizen is a filtered wheat beer.

Pale beers you have Kölsch a beer that can only legally be brewed in the Köln region. Helles a pale lager from Bavaria, Altbier  a darker  amber beer brewed around Düsseldorf. Export pale lager brewed around Dortmund that is fuller flavour to Pilsner. Spezial is a pale, full, bitter-sweet lager, Bock an amber, heavy-bodied, bitter-sweet lager. Then you have Maibock a pale, strong lager, Eisbock a freeze distilled larger and Märzen. Märzen is a medium body, malty lager and it is either pale, amber or dark and is taditionally served at the Munich Oktoberfest. Then you have Cloister beer or Kloster Bier a lager that is, or was, produced in a monastery or convent. And last of all the one we all know Pilsener.

Then for your dark beers, you have Altbier a top-fermented lagered beer Schwarzbier a bottom-fermented dark lager. Dunkles, which comes in three main varieties, the sweetish, the malty Munich style and the hoppy Franconian style.  As for Dunkler Bock, Rauchbier and Doppelbock these are all full-boded dark largers. Leaving Weihnachtsbier or Festbier beers brewed in the autumn to be drank at Christmas.

Unfiltered beer or Kellerbiers are conditioned in a similar way to cask ale, Kellerbier is German for "cellar beer". Also you have Zwickelbier , an unfiltered lagers like Kellerbier, but tend to be younger, lower in alcohol and less hoppy.

There are about 1300 breweries in Germany producing over 5000 brands of beer. Most of them in or around the city of Bamberg, in the Franconia region of Bavaria.  The Weihenstephan brewery , established in 725, is reputedly the oldest existing brewery in the world, starting out as a Benedictine abbey and brewing since 1040. The ABV or alcohol-by- volume in normally between 4.7% to 5.4% but you can get beers that is as strong as 16% , so you will never be spoilt for choice.

Also there is what you drink it out of that is important as well. You should have a glass that is narrow at the bottom and slightly wider at the top. This helps releasing the aroma of the beer, but also provides room for the often thick, fluffy head produced by wheat beer. It should hold 500ml and have room for the head. Beer stein is a beer mug that holds about 1lt to 500ml, made from stoneware, pewter, porcelain, silver, glass, or wood. They can have open tops or have hinged lid. The lid was supposed to prevent diseased flies from getting into the beer at the time of the Black death. You have a Maß often called a stein but is not. It is defined as holding exactly 1 litre. The Stange and Becher is a sort of stick or rod glass like a tumbler. And my favourite story behind a glass the Bierstiefel, or beer boot. It is believed that a general promised his troops to drink beer from his boot if they won a battle. They did win so the general had a glassmaker make a boot from glass, nicely side stepping drinking from his onw footwear.  

Now there are a number of beer festivals in Germany but the most famous , in fact the worlds largest beer festival is the Oktoberfest,  a 16 to 18 day festival held annually in Munich from late September to the first weekend in October. Other festivals include, The Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart, The Gäubodenvolksfest in Straubing, The Bergkirchweih in Erlangen, The Hanover Schützenfest, The Freimarkt in Bremen, The Volksfest at the Hamburger Dom to name but a few .