Beer Scene in Feuerbach-Stuttgart

Yea, I'm in Columbia. Old-school English Old Ale in barrels sounds good. My homebrew buddy brewed a "Colonial South Carolina Ale" that made it to the SA Longshot finals. That beer was brewed with rye and molasses and aged in a Madeira barrel. Sounds like a potential mess, but it was actually quite subtle and delicious.

 

Sounds interesting. Here's a link to an article in the AJC than mentions my buddy's beer. http://blogs.ajc.com/drink/2011/07/20/beer-town-homebrewers-and-craft-brewers/

 

That's my point. Stuttgart, like all big cities is a beer wasteland (and located in Würtemberg, a traditional wine growing region to boot) and München (after a wave of corporate takeovers) isn't much better. If you want good beer in Germany you have to go to where it's brewed. Upper and Middle Frankonia and the Upper Palatinate.
I understand you didn't have much choice in where you visited and did try to make the best of it. I'm just saying, you haven't been to the good places. Those are out in the villages.

 

There's a big surprise

They aren't GERMAN styles. There really isn't such a thing as a "German Style" although, thanks to Fernsehbier we're getting there...

Amen.

 

Probably this. He's right, too, in a sense. I think part of the culture-shock that comes with being an American in Germany is thinking of beer as "German". I fell hard into this trap - "Why can't I get Uerige in Heidelberg?? It's German beer!"

If you think of beer as being "Bavarian" or "Franconian" or "Schwäbisch" or "Kölsch" or "Düsseldorfian" (sorry everyone, what's the correct word here?) then you might be better off...i.e, "great beer flows like water through Germany Franconia's streets," or "the beer in Germany Schwäbia is not to my liking." My two cents, anyway, I don't mean to speak for Stahlsturm.

 

Yeah, Stahl's our historian, and can speak from memory about German history, but I'm sure he'll tell all about Germany not really being a unified country until the early 20th century -- thus the old factions that make up the whole of the country... and beer tastes.

 

Yes there are. Köstritzer, for instance. Then there's every major Fernsehbier that produces a Dunkeles, which is also as bland as their Pils. You don't see those in the America, I'm sure.

raverjames: Don't fall into Stahlsturm's trap. He's still in revisionist history. By his thinking, I would be now living in the "country" of Prussia, which is what FFM was a part of from 1866. Yes, many Germans still think incredibly provincially, but just like I'm a Texan first, then an American, and all that chili... you get the idea. Germany was only "unified" into one country in the late 1800s, so many Germans still feel more affinity to their region than the country as a whole. That goes for food as well as dialects. I can tell you from personal contact that Stahlsturm has a cute but thick Bayrisch accent when he speaks Hochdeutsch, and I'm sure his spoken dialect is for me unintelligible if he went full bore. Beer, now that's a part of it. In Bayern they're extremely proud of their former independence, basically like Texans, and fiercely prouder of their cultural heritage, of which beer is one. However, he doesn't want to admit that there was beer brewed all over Germany in different styles, as well as the typical Pils style, which became wildly popular about 150 years ago (I think... correct me if I'm wrong), and was copied all over Germany, from Berlin to Bremen, from Freiburg to Flensburg. Yes, today they're ALL German styles, but they weren't 100s of years ago, and that's where the revisionism comes in.

I agree with you wholeheartedly in your assessment of the German beer market. It's dominated by mostly average and bland conglomerates, jokingly called Fernsehbiere for their ubiquitous advertising on TV and every other media outlet today, with a few smaller "craft" brewers that focus on quality ingredients and quality products, but mostly those are in BAVARIA, unfortunately. Nonetheless, things have changed a bit since I arrived here in 2008. There are some beers that market their "craft"aspect, there are some upstarts producing American styles, and best of all, there are some small start ups experimenting with mixing and matching German and other styles to make a unique beer statement. Like the craft beer movement that slowly coughed in the 80s, sputtered in the 90s and took off finally in 00s and now, Germany will take time, and maybe will never be the wild west-like scene that the American craft beer now seems to be in. But it will change. It has to because of 2 simple factors: demographics & an evolution in taste. Yet this is Germany, where change happens extremely unwillingly and will be stubbornly fought, see Stahlsturm as Exhibit A. But then things will change, slowly, and then there will be an avalanche.

 

I asked about "many," so far all I've heard is Köstritzer -- and Köstritzer a pretty good example.

We see Warsteiner Dunkel... unfortunately. Never one I'd recommend.

 

If Klosterbräu's Schwarzla is hanging out on the shelves of an Edeka in Stuttgart then I'm about to get very annoyed with Heidelberg...

 

If I were to refer to a Bordeaux or a Burgundy as "French" around my brother (Who's a serious wine freak) I would get a serious lecture about me being an uncultured barbarian who doesn't deserve what I'm getting.


Stuttgart = Württemberg = Wine country
It's like going to Saudi-Arabia and being disappointed you can't get pork sausages.

 

Trap ? What trap ?

Germany was politically unified in stages between 1871 and 1918. Bavaria had been an independent state for a Millenium at that point.

Wide ares of what today is referred to as Germany never brewed beer (or beer was only a very marginal thing) but grew wine instead. If you end up in such an area such as the former Kingdom of Württemberg then you're outa luck. People don't drink much beer, they prefer wine. Of course there are breweries here and there but the depth and the quality there is nowhere near that in an actual "brewing region".

Bah humbug! Wishful thrill seeker thinking
Seriously, when you look at who's behind all that new "craft" beer you'll see the hideous visage of corporate brewing trying for new markets. In reality at least here in Bavaria and Franconia we don't need a "craft revolution" because we never forgot our craft to begin with. Granted, other traditional brewing regions in Germany HAVE lost their way and they could use a fair amount of rediscovering their regional craft but I doubt that imitating American takes on English and Belgian beers will be the answer.

 

Köstritzer = Fernsehbier

"Der Betrieb wurde im April 1991 zu hundert Prozent von der Bitburger Holding übernommen."
Source = German wikipedia = http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Köstritzer_Schwarzbierbrauerei

Bitburger Gruppe =

• Bitburger Brauerei Th. Simon GmbH
• König-Brauerei GmbH
• Köstritzer Schwarzbierbrauerei GmbH
• Licher Privatbrauerei Jhring-Melchior GmbH
• Wernesgrüner Brauerei GmbH

Source = German wikipedia = http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitburger_Holding

 

Think so ? Remember last time ?

 

As I've often pontificated, that doesn't mean it tastes bad.