German craft beer

Travel to find the best beers the world has to offer. They are all still out there. Max Mustermann gets at least 6 weeks of vacation, right?

 

Amen, brother. Now pass the peas.

Now, One-Horned one, this is starting to slowly change, slowly, as everything in German changes, very slowly. There wouldn't be a beer app for Bamberg (mentioned in another thread) IN GERMAN if there weren't demand in D-land.And, the websites which have popped up in the last few years to sell Bayern & Bambeg beers are still in business, whether it's barely hanging on or not, I don't know, or maybe it's just MJ & I who keep them in business. The most interesting is Bierkompass.de, which focuses solely on selling EXPENSIVE (for German conditions) American, Belgium & Danish craft beers. So, don't give up, but for 99.7% of Germans, you are 100% correct.

 

I didn't say Max Mustermann should "travel for beer," rather that Max Mustermann, when traveling (as Germans typically do far more extensively and frequently than Americans), should drink the local specialties whenever possible (i.e. the beers that comprise a sense of place, individuality, and culture). Only then will s/he begin to appreciate, and perhaps help protect, genuine beer culture the world over.

If you believe that taking them to a shiny new brewpub serving mediocre product that could be just as easily produced in Frankfort, KY as Frankfurt am Main is the way to save world-class beers and beer culture, then -- as Bodhitree says -- keep preaching it, brother.

As to the Max Mustermaenner I have piqued the interest of regarding world-class beer in Germany, I can count my fellow grad students, friends, colleagues, and relatives among my "converts." How did I accomplish their conversion? By suggesting they try specific, individualistic, local beers in places we traveled to...be they the tiny place in a village outside Bamberg they (as Bamberg locals) had never considered visiting, to Braunschweig locals ordering a Mahr's U instead of a Becks with dinner on a family trip to Franconia, to Erfurt Uni colleagues trying Schmitt/Singen Pils instead of Braugold, to Lueneburg locals opting for a crate of Dithmarschen at the Rewe Getraenkemarkt instead of Flensburger.

And, if that ultimately isn't enough to impress upon them the importance of appreciating local beer, then it's probably a lost cause. Cluttering up the beer landscape with ever more mediocre shiny-new offerings is, IMO, only going to cause the true gems that remain to get further lost in the mix.

 

Coincidentally, this review of a Pils from Gnodstadt just came out today, and encapsulates my perspective pretty perfectly (note esp. the last couple of sentences). I couldn't care less if the overall rate of consumption drops Germany-wide, as long as people continue to discover -- and consume -- beers like this: http://bierdestages.de/blog/brauerei-duellgnodstadt-pils-nr-1148/

 

It took me a minute to figure out who Max Mustermann is.

 

Put down that boring beer, pick up a Düll beer?

 

Not all "dull" beer is created equal.

 

That article (what I could understand, anyway) was a good read. At the bottom they list "similar beers" and name Distelhäuser's Pils. I've had a few Distelhäuser beers in my day and almost always enjoy them.

 

Don't mean to single that place out. But in every one of the cities I listed there are (very) similar places I have tried, and they were all wholly mediocre. Call me biased, but I, for one, have had enough of such places...ever since they first started appearing in the late 80s and early 90s. Nein, danke.

 

...and FWIW, none of those existing olaces has helped changed perception of "craft" beer in those cities as far ss I can tell.

 

Okay, I'll ask: Are all of them Zwickel beers? Why do they all look so cloudy?

 

I find that there's an interesting conundrum at work here. On the one hand you have the kind of beer culture which is described by herrburgess, of high quality, good tasting traditional beer being produced and served, and enjoyed in a traditional, local and quaint way. On the other hand you have the modern concept of a more contemporary beer bar where sense of place and tradition aren't the guiding principles, instead news and diversity, or ecclectisism are valued. At the more extreme end of this concept you have a beer bar like Brewdog, but there is certainly a spectrum to this, and where I think something like the Braustil place described above seems to find itself on the less extreme end of this, by offering up traditional styles (and in this case brewing them themselves), albeit perhaps with some twists, in a more modern setting. Between those two examples there's alot of room for different takes on what I would call a modern, as opposed to traditional, bar and beer experience.

We will all have our preferences of course, and my own sensibilities are much closer to the traditional side compared to the more modern side of things. The Brewdog style of arrogant smugness and cartoonish counter-culture aesthetics is intolerable to me, even if I find their beers, the ones I've had from them, to be competent and tasty beers. Something like Braustil seems positively quaint in comparison, albeit lacking the atmosphere which is sensed from more traditional places which have been described and "reviewed" here in the Germany forum. I write sensed since I have no experience with these places (such places do not exist in Sweden).

I think you are correct in your assessment of "something is going to have to happen which engages the consumer", and I think it is safe to assume that that something wont be sparked by the traditional places with their particular atmosphere and more traditional aesthetics. Best case scenario is that they get to live on in the places where they exist now, whilst elsewhere places like Braustil manage to rekindle people's interest in German beer. Some would of course say that this inevitably means that something important gets lost along the way, and that the beer loses its sense of place and uniqueness as herrburgess has described it. But I think it is true nonetheless.

Of course there's also the question of what kind of beer that people will want, aside from the type of bar or pub that they wish to frequent. It seems to me as if excitement in beer is intimately associated with the new styles coming out of the US, and so it seems logical that the same would be true for Germany, if there were to be a renewed interest in beer there. Traditional styles may play an auxillary role in this, similar to how lager beer has found a niche in the US craft beer market, but it would seem reasonable to expect that US influenced styles would be the focal point of this interest, as it has been elsewhere, if Germany experiences the same kind of excitement for beer which has gripped other countries in recent decades.

I just don't see the same kind of excitement being generated by pilsner, helles, dunkel, märzen or similar lager beer styles, even high quality renditions from small independent producers. The mania, and the money, will require something which is seen as new, modern and different. Consumers will need a reason to be excited and to spend alot more money on beer, which in turn pushes producers to make more of these products. That is the logic of the craft beer scene, and I don't think the logic will be any different in the case of Germany. As crass as it may sound, and as unappealing as it may sound.

I guess my point of view is that I view the two types of beer culture as unrelated, and that the one wont necessarily benefit from the other growing stronger. On the other hand, the old traditional beer culture might still survive in a market where the competition is waged between the larger German brewing companies and small upstart craft breweries, as a niche market which is only marginally acknowledged by the craft beer scene.

What is my point in all of this, I guess it is the simple fact that people want different things, and that changing status quo wont necessarily make everyone happy with the changes, or make everyone feel as though something has been gained from it. And that there might be unintended consequences associated with those changes. I.e, Germany might gain a craft beer scene similar to that of the US, in exchange for its traditional beer culture. Is there enough room for both, or will the latter become collateral damage in the competition between the big brewers and craft beer upstarts?

 

@Crusader, that was an OUTSTANDING treatise. Very thoughtful and very well written. It is worthy of being published. I am not 100% sure what is the proper publication; maybe you could submit it to Todd/Jason for inclusion in the BeerAdvocate magazine?

Cheers to Patrik!

 

Frankfurt is a makro wasteland (much of Tony's beer agony stems from that) and vast tracts of Germany are like that. The only REALLY good places are parts of Bayern and Franken and even withing the realm of Bayern there's areas that are pretty beerless like the districts of Unterfranken (Mittel and Oberfranken are beer nirvana) or that of Schwaben. They both have good spots too but travel through all of them and you'll notica a remarkable difference.

 

I shouldn't... Should NOT have read that. I was thirsty already but now I'm in positive agony

Only one question remains, where the heck is "Gnodstadt" ?

 

I saw that too but those are merely all others "Pils" that the guy had reviewed, an automatic linking and by no means a reason to ever touch Distlhäuser Pieslwasser.