Is German beer really THAT good?

1. All opinions should be treated as facts until proven to be wrong.
2. Deutsches Bier ist scheußlich *!

*Save it all for me, bitte.

 

I use this as a guiding principle especially for the 1,119 new, American Craft Breweries that have opened in the past fifteen months. And frankly, I'd rather drink a nine month-old, pasteurized Helles than a six month old American Craft-brewed Helles -- if there were such a thing...

 

Does anyone else find the phrase German Purity Law a little unsettling? Just sayin.

 

I think American breweries try to emulate German styles because they can - there are no regulations stopping them, there is a market for them - and because there's a lot of European / German heritage in the US. It's no coincidence that many of the best breweries doing German styles are in areas with German heritage (New Glarus, Lakefront, Victory, etc). It's also worth noting that many American breweries playing with German styles are taking them into terrain that German breweries never have ... sometimes for good, sometimes not. Jack's Abbey is a good example (though their lager inspiration isn't strictly German.)

On the other hand, there aren't a lot of "Americans" flooding into Germany and the German populace in general doesn't have a taste for many of the American styles. Just because a culture / community doesn't like something, e.g. IPA, doesn't mean they aren't good. I bet that plenty of German beer geeks would be happy if some German breweries were kicking out high quality BA Stouts and IIPAs. I'd also guess ingredients have something to do with it. It's pretty far from Yakima (hops) or Kentucky (one source of bourbon barrels) to Munich.

So I don't think that's a real argument. It just restates the OPs post that American breweries experiment in a lot more areas than German breweries do.

 

FWIW, I enjoy drinking Victory Lager and Sly Fox Helles Golden Lager; they are both tasty Munich Helles beers. I can typically get them with less than a month of age on the bottles/cans (and on draft).

I will be at the Victory Brewpub an a few hours. I will drink a fresh Victory Lager and say: Cheers to Chaz!

Cheers!

 

IMO, it is better. To each their own though.

 

If i was a straight forward hefe ill go German, ayinger is great. its hard to get an american hefe that stands up to an imported. thats just me. everyone is different. cheers!

 

For the same reason they emulate British , Belgian or any other brewers.

 

Jack, you need to make the acquaintance of a friend of mine who bemoans the fact that he cannot get fresh and authentically-brewed Helles* in the U.S.A; I keep telling him that he should bite the bullet and switch his stylistic allegiance to cheap, nasty imported Pils, but he is as stubborn as all other Germans Bavarians.

Cheers!

*There is one available in the upper Midwest now, but it is not widely-distributed yet.

 

Not if it's Becks.

 

Can you really call that German on this side of the Atlantic now?

 

OK. Three and a half months is a short time. Once you've lived there for an extended period of time, and have really absorbed what there is to know about the culture and the beer, you may have an entirely different point of view.
I would say, based on experience, you're craving super hoppy or barrel aged beers. Once you get over that craving and learn to fully appreciate German and European beer along with the high quality ingredients used(American malting barley doesn't hold a candle to European malting barley) you may be singing a different tune.
Until then... well, our opinions will differ. It's all good, for different reasons.

 

I went to a beer bar in Paris where the bartender couldn't be more excited to have an American beer guy there; we talked about all the great stuff he'd love to try, he told me about French breweries that are inspired by the American craft scene (up to and including importing hops from America), etc.

When I was in Saxony, I listened to a 60 year-old man tell me about how American beer is terrible while he sucked on some Lowenbrau; I got weird looks for ordering a Berliner Weiss without syrup; and was given the classless-American treatment when I said Guinness was just an okay brew (and responded with some American beers when asked to name a better stout).

There are different hegemonies out there: the one where all American beer is complex and flavorful and European beer is bland, and the one where American beer is only AALs and comparable European beers are better (e.g. Stella, many mediocre German brews, etc. that are understood by many to be better simply for their European-ness). The truth is that there is amazing beer being made in both places, in both places you need to know how to find it, and that people have a fondness for styles they're used to having no matter what that style is.

With that said, I think it's reasonable to notice that there's a lot of excitement in the American beer scene right now. I don't think it's a coincidence that new breweries overseas are inspired by what is happening in the states, although I wish more were like De Struise -- who make some creative versions of styles traditional to their area, even if they're hit or miss -- than simply doing the American brewery thing and making RISs and IPAs.

 

I think there a lot of great German beers out there. In fact, two German beers actually made my personal list of top 10 best beers of 2013. Those two were Aetch Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock and Schneider-Weiss Aventinus Tap 6. Both are great beers!

 

Good point but even when it was brewed in Germany it wasn't that good.

 

A lot of Becks is still brewed in Germany which is relevant to the OP (@DieHippieDie ) since he is in Germany right now.

Cheers!

 

This is truth. It's easy to forget how many people there are out there that don't know anything about what they are drinking. This doesn't lend to a very deep appreciation for what you are drinking, and kind of makes it more about getting inebriated.

 

BA @Crusader made a very compelling point in a German thread this morning (well, afternoon to him): namely that there is not necessarily as much overlap as one might think between fans of U.S.-style "craft" beer, "traditional" local beer (esp. from other countries), and macro beers. Each has its fan base and can be quite exclusive when it comes to preferences. Traditional German, Czech, and UK (cask) beers honestly do not seem to truly appeal to most U.S. "craft" beer geeks -- and I am beginning to think that they never will. And (as Stuart Smalley used to say) that's...OK.

 

Also a good point, but it was still better than a lot of other pretenders out there. Just don't get me started on their "Oktoberfest."

 

Yeah I do hear there are lots of prepackaged Radlers available these days. The folks I was hanging out with on my last couple of visits had a great deal of contempt for those, preferring to pick their own beer and their own proportions of limonade to be added to the beer, rather than rely on some (expletive best not translated) brewery to produce the beer and do the prepackaged mix.... :-)