Is German beer really THAT good?

No

 

Yeah that's an excellent point mate

 

Ingredients, yes. Procedure, I doubt it.

 

I'll venture a question, where in Germany have you been staying and finding your beer?

 

Definitely not, and probably not the same sort of passion.

 

Maybe these days, but I still think it's too soon to tell. My group definitely has an appreciation for traditional as well as modern beers, and it's probably just because we've been at it longer.

 

When in Europe, you've got to roll with the punches. Initial hostility towards Americans will happen, you've just got to swing back(gently, and respectfully.)

 

Yeah, probably for much the same reasons not many outside of SC find any appeal in Frogmore Stew or Chicken Bog.

 

Not to mention scrapple outside of Penn?

 

Not even the whole of PA... :-)

 

Actually could there be a way to combine every beer rating of all thousands of American brewed beer here on BA and get 1 average rating that woudl say...US bees = x.xx, and compare to the average combined rating of every beer brewed in Germany and rated on this site? That would probably give you the answer as to which country makes the better beers overall (with slight issue that most German beer ratings are Americans and could be freshness issues with the German imports having slightly lower ratings). Lets see though.

 

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout is over 15% and many Imperial Stouts are over 10%.

 

Is beer really even THAT good?

 

This would accomplish nothing, given the site's bias towards American beers, and big bold in-your-face flavors.

 

Yes, for several reasons. They have the tradition of drinking that our country which happened to be populated by a great many of them freaked out over to the point that prohibition came about, and also its because Americans can also knock you on your ass with that same restrictive (so you say) list of ingredients.
Also: Perhaps you are drinking with a different set of expectations than the ones Germans drink with.

 

DFH WWS does get a bump in fermentable sugars from added Dextrose.

 

A year and a half ago right before I moved to southern Germany to live, I too was a typical American craft beer drinker who was totally clueless and ignorant of the technical skills German brewers have acquired over a millennia plus years of beer brewing. I'm not says all German beer is great, and some just plain sucks, but there is a much small proportion of bad beer to great beer. An added cool factor is the German bier culture - I think most Americans think they know German Bier Culture based on movies and TV shows, but really there is much much more to it. In fact the next time some bearded, hipster, craft beer barista presents me with a hefeweizen poured in a shaker pint glass I'm going to walk out of the joint.

 

How 'bout we just throw Samichlaus into the debate -- I suppose we could all argue .01%, but c'mon.

 

Bump to @DieHippieDie