Favorite Reinheitsgebot beer?

Yes, only at the depot. So happy to hear another BA likes Yokel. So underrated, one of the most perfectly balanced beers I've ever had. First round of Zwickel sold out in 4 days, I went last week when more became available. Not sure if it's still there, perhaps give a call first.

 

Thanks - I'm a few hours away, so I doubt I'll be seeing this, sadly. Didn't know Yokel didn't get much love. Totally agree - a super well-balanced, deceptively simple beer.

 

Well send me a BM, if you are close to me I'll toss ya a couple bottles. I'm not greedy with my stuff, good beer is for sharing

 

"Expect this bier to be assertively hoppy, complex, and slightly cloudy."

Sounds awesome to me!!

You are a lucky beer drinker!!

Cheers to you!

 

If they're like my local places, they'll just ignore you because they don't give a crap.

 

Here in PA where most beer is still sold by the case (because of an unusual state law I won't explain) I've learned that by far the majority of cases that are delivered by the wholesaler do have a dating of some kind of the case (not all, but most), even when it is not on the carry pack or the bottle.

So you can explain to your beer guy that you want a particular beer as fresh as possible and you'll be happy commit to buy some if he can tell you the freshness information on the beer and get it fresh enough to meet your standards.

If you are willing to go to the point of actually ordering a case from your retailer you can get him to ensure that the case is fresh. I've had one of my primary sources tell me that I had to wait still longer because he didn't accept delivery on a case I'd asked for because they sent him one that was almost out of code.

 

After a bit of thought-
Seasonal would be Hofbrau Oktoberfest. Year-round is Schlenkerla Urbock.

IOW- no surprises for me .

 

As I understand it the main purpose of RHGB had little to do with beer.

Duke William hadn't been on the throne long before his brother attempted a palace coup which started a civil war. Needing money for troops to fight his brother, DukeW turned to his counsel to raise the dough. All the bureaucrats could come up with was raise taxes, but taxes were already at the max so what to do? A higher beer tax was shot down on the grounds beer was already taxed so heavily there was a thriving black market on the stuff. People were already making beer from pea shells and anything else fermentable. One guy said to collect more on every tankard of beer we'd have to station soldiers in every tavern, alehouse, farmhouse, outhouse and shed where the stuff was being brewed and the troops would cost more than any additional revenue received.

Then a light bulb went off over someone's head who said, "wait a minute, forget about the beer, let's tax the ingredients". A profound silence descended on the counsel room as this momentous thought slowly sunk in. Of course, that's the answer, it will be a lot easier to count bags of barley and hops than keep up with the moonshiners, why, heck, we can use the tax guys already on the payroll and send the troops out to fight.

So with beaming faces the counselors approached DukeW with a surefire plan. Limit beer production to hops and barley only, raise the rates on those goods while also lowering the cost of tax collection. Money for troops and the wheat crop freed up for bread to feed them.

Well the Duke knew a good thing when he saw it and was canny enough to carve out a small exception. RHGB was signed into law and everybody had to comply except one small brewery which would be allowed to continue making wheat beer for the trade. That special little brewery was of course owned by DukeW himself and for the next 325 years his heirs reaped a tremendous fortune generation after generation from that exclusive franchise, finally selling the rights in the 1840s.

So the RHGB was really about war, politics, taxes and insider trading.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Came to say exactly this.

Glad it is seasonal--the anticipation followed by the enjoyment--the epitome of fall.

 

Britain had similar rules before 1880,use only malt and tax it

 

Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s main lineup is mostly beers that are brewed to Reinheitsgebot standards and are usually rated outstanding+. I don't think they beat any German-made beers, but stateside they take my cake in that category.

 

Interesting idea. Any sources to support this interpretation vs the idea of price control over grain shortages resulting from crop failures vs the idea of preventing use of "inappropriate" ingredients?

 

You are not missing something.

But the Reinheitsgebot never really was a law until the 20th century, and the current "Reinheitsgebot" as in "the federal law that Germany calls 'Reinheitsgebot'" explicitly allows wheat. It also allows addition of sugar in top-fermenting beers. And the addition of acidic components to increase the stability of the foam, as long as you filter them out before bottling. And and and...

If you go by "original Reinheitsgebot", there is no German beer which fulfills it, since they all use yeast as an ingredient (and Lambic uses wheat).

The only way one could expect to get an "original Reinheitsgebot" beer nowadays is if Jean van Roy were to blend an Iris without the sugar syrup fermentation. Maybe using a Geuze blending method.

When you ask me what my favourite "Reinheitsgebot" beer is as in: My favourite beers among those that Bavaria would allow to produce in Bavaria, it's: Aventinus and Schlenkerla, hands down.

 

I just grabbed a sixer of the new Weihenstephaner kellerbier. Didn't look at the receipt until I got home. $16? Better be the best fucking German beer I've ever had...

 

Agreed, though I wouldn't turn it down in the spring...or summer...or winter...

 

Olde Mecklenburg Capt Jacks Pils. Actually all of their beers suscribe to this, nothing but, water, hops, yeast, malt, nothing else. It's on the side of their trucks.

 

I do drink them fresh, I live in France. And it's still not my favourite aroma profile. The banana is nice and quirky in a beer (weissbiers mostly) but it just doesn't feel right for me. German beers are too sweet for my taste. When a beer is sweet, I like it to be balanced by toasted, smoked or coffee flavors, which German beers don't have (or not enough). I never know what to pair a German beer with in terms of food. For a doppelbock they say to pair it with pork or ham, strong cheeses and chocolate cakes, but to me it only works with cured meats as a snack before a meal. I'll have a German beer on a hot summer day with friends and snacks. Then it works OK.

 

What brands of German beer are exported to France? Is it mostly Fernsehbiere?

Cheers!

 

Schlenkerla Urbock is my favorite beer period. Always have some around the house.