German craft beer

I think not. Germany will gain a craft beer scene similar to the US in those vast areas that are makro wasteland right now. In places like Franconia and Eastern Bavaria where the traditional beer culture has survived war, pestilence, famine and all attempts of consolidation by InBev and similar parasites this will be laughed off as the hipster wave it is. Sure, some of the breweries will hop on that trend (pun intended) and attempt an IPA or some other alien monstrosity but it'll be localized and brief. People around here don't want it and more importantly, they don't need it.
But the areas where beer is healthy in Germany are few and far in between and places like Frankfurt, Berlin or Hamburg where all traces of their indiginous beers have been razed to the ground, they are ready for IPA with moose droppings and they deserve it It'll be yet another thing where they can turn their uppity noses at the rural places which haven't turned their traditions into shiny illusions of superiority.

 

Near Marktbreit (SW) and Ochsenfurt (SSE)... Visited once - the Pils was superb!

 

The ironic thing for me is that U.S. style "craft" brewing is billed as the great savior of German brewing, when many of its exemplars are themselves little more than Biermischgetraenke.

 

I have been hearing such things with increasing frequency. And why wouldn't it be good for the industry?

 

Raise awareness of world-class traditional German styles among the new vanguard of global brewing via the Internet? That or retire somewhere in Oberfranken and watch from the sidelines as the "craft" vanguard battles it out with the BMC bogeymen...while drinking my boring old man beers.

 

I had to look up Biermischgetraenke, but so many craft beers don't even taste like beer. They have so much other crap in them.

 

I thought that was innovative?

 

I wish I could "like" this more than once.

 

Today's beer: Gwen Ale from Privatbrauerei Sander in Worms. They are brewing bio-beers in a vineyard in Rheinhessen. The beer is brewed with 50 % wheat malt, and so it naturally reminds me of a regular German Weißbier. It even has the typical aromas of banana and clove. I don't quite know which style it's supposed to be. There is only a moderate taste of hops, 22 IBU. It's like a German Weißbier with a little twist of a Pale Ale. Overall, nothing overwhelming, but a very well done beer. It makes me more curious to try their other styles.

 

Wonder what the water composition is like on Ruegen....

 

Lots of chalk, I suspect

 

The BBC news site had an interesting article the other day about recent developments in German brewing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25807126

Not sure I agree with everything in it but worth a read....

 

My local Getränkemarkt has an ever expanding craft beer section:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Craftbeer-Store-Baden-Württemberg/1418953734982910

http://www.heinrich3000.de

 

Looks like you have 2 more craft beer stores in Stuttgart than we do in FFM.

 

I got more from Privatbrauerei Sander which I wrote about above already.

Their Rubi Ale is an Amber Ale. Quite pleasant, very smooth, rather mild with slightly sweet tastes of malt. A bit yeasty too. Quite good, but not exactly very good.


Their Pils No. 1 is a rather bitter example of a Pils from the southern part of Germany. You can taste the malts somewhat, but Perle and Tradition add up to 40 IBU here. It's not bad at all, there was an absolutely perfect head in my glass and overall it was a refreshing and very crisp Pils! But I wish the bitterness was a little more balanced. I guess their aim was to produce a northern, hoppy Pilsner. And I prefer the southern balanced Pilsners. No picture unfortunately.

Earlier this evening, I had their 736 Ale, an IPA at 7.5 % ABV. On their website they write, the name 736 refers to the year of the first reference of hop growing in the Hallertau region, 736 AD.
I found this a rather good one. As all of their beers, very smooth (maybe their water?!), somewhat yeasty. The hops flavors -especially the typical Cascade aromas- were intense, but not overpowering. 50 IBU seems to be about right for me for a well balanced IPA. Mind you, I haven't tried many American IPAs, so I know there are probably a lot of heavier examples that work out well too that I just haven't tried yet. But from the German IPAs I've tried so far, this one was on the good side of the spectrum.