German craft beer

C'mon man...you seriously think the beer cultures and styles in Munich, Bamberg, Oberpfalz, Koeln, Duesseldorf, Berlin, etc. [hell, even the Ruhrpott, Hamburg, and far north] constitute a monoculture and don't reflect intact regional and cultural distinctions? I mean, you can believe whatever you want to believe, but you've gotta be joking here, right?

 

Most of the styles as they are brewed and how they taste today world wide were invented since 1800.

 

Living in Germany, I have to agree that there is a significant lack of craft beers, which is why I subscribed to this thread; in hopes to find something better, locally. I'm not a Pils guy at all, but I don't mind a nice Hefe, Bock, or Dunkel. But for me, variety is the spice of life and our Belgian neighbors have more of a selection of beers in their grocery stores than most German drink markets. And you go to a restaurant in Belgium, and there is usually quite a variety there as well. That would be the exception to the rule here in Germany. A lot of times you might only find a Pils, Hefe, or Dunkel in a given restaurant.

 

I find the "craft" culture with the same basic styles brewed basically the same way all over the world now to be way more of a monoculture than the traditional german beer world, where styles not only differ from region to region, but sometimes from village to village.

 

As a resident of the US, I agree with you. We're up to almost 30% IPA sales alone. I thought it was bad back in 2007 or 2008 when I first started drinking craft beer - but stats show the situation for diversity was far better at that point in time.

At least good imports from Germany weren't so crowded out. I'm sorry American brewers, but you still on the whole are brewing such bad examples of German styles that I will never buy them after trying them the first time. Even worse, buying American made hefeweizens in Kansas is awful because the good examples are never, ever fresh.

 

I agree that people should brew what they want (so agree with the overall point) but to push back against the monoculture idea, and the idea that "oh noes, lots of IPAs, that's just as boring as anything else!" - "IPA" is only a single style in the loosest sense of the term. There's a huge variety in what you can get in an IPA, and frankly that variety is only increasing (think about what IPA meant to you ten years ago as a craft drinker and think about what it means today - the variety now is stunning).

In that same vein, German craft brewers are experimenting with IPAs and developing their own take on the style. That's not to say they won't try and brew things that mimic some beers from elsewhere they like, but inevitably a focus on the ingredients brewers here use most (yeast strains and hops especially) are going to mean beers emerge that taste unlike what you typically find in the US or any of the regional variations there.

 

I hope you are right. I've been saying for a few years now that the entire thing needs to be scrapped and call them "hoppy ales" or "hopped ales" and people should come up with other descriptors based on that.

 

30% of the ~14% that is craft is in the IPA category. That is about 4% of the total sales.

When I became of drinking age in the mid 70s, that was monoculture.

 

Right, as much as people want to complain about the state of German beer, I'm looking at a market share chart from 2010:

Pilsner: 55.1%

Export: 9.8%

Weizen: 7.9%

Biermix: 6.5%

Hell: 4.5%

That's just the top five. Some could argue they're still better off in some ways than the US is, I suppose. I wish I had newer numbers.

 

And there are the thoughts of @jesus_man: "Living in Germany, I have to agree that there is a significant lack of craft beers, which is why I subscribed to this thread; in hopes to find something better, locally."

Cheers!

 

There's something also to be said about the start of changes like new craft movements.

Imitation is inevitable at first, but historically nothing is cloned or imitated perfectly, or for very long.

 

Painting with a pretty broad brush? I would agree there's some truth to your statement about the general quality/quantity of US made German styles, however I would not write them off altogether. This doesn't need to be an absolute "German-made or bust" environment. I cannot comment on the state of German styles in Kansas, but there are many very good German style brewers here in the Northeast. Furthermore, as @JackHorzempa often points out, the German made beers we know and enjoy arrive to the US in sub-optimal condition.

 

I've heard the east coast is a lot better off (where Jack lives would be beer paradise for me seemingly), but in Kansas and California where I'm moving to it's abysmal.

 

Does that explain your interest in homebrewing German styles? Fresh homebrewed hefes are a thing to behold

 

@Seacoastbrewer is a homebrewer as well; we corresponded last year on homebrewing a Pale Kellerbier. My batch turned out very, very well.

Once you get established in California and get your homebrewery set up you can satisfy your ‘fix’ by homebrewing your own German style beers. With homebrewing you are guaranteed fresh beer!!

Cheers!

 

Isn't there a law in Germany that requires that a brewery be brought up to current standards when it changes hands? Even from one generation to the next of the same family?

 

California = Trumer Pils. Seek it out, thank me later.

 

Precisely, living in the state where fresh beer goes to die does things to you

Same way that KC "BBQ" made me want to smoke my own. KC BBQ didn't cut it after growing up in the south around Memphis.

 

I get the monoculture thing i really do, i know ive said it before on this site but where i live currently (england) we have a really great traditional beer culture which can differ from city to city, however, the new craft style breweries and bars really do just seem to be american inspired and they're making similar beers with similar marketing and feel to each other, doing things like limited releases and special release days and things like that. Im over in germany a lot and although i love seeing new german beers alongside traditional stuff (franconia cant be beaten) it does pain me a little to see breweries and beers there that could easily be from any craft brewer in the uk/us/etc, same styles, same marketing, english language on the labels/marketing material

 

Ill also just say that its one of the things i absolutely live about germany is the local differences, i want a koelsch? Im going to koeln, i want alt? Duesseldorf, i need a good traditional lager? Franconia here i come. I know there are towns where in general the beer of choice is a slightly boring pils but in general those places have never been big beer towns anyway and have other specialities like cider and wine