Is German beer really THAT good?

different strokes for different folks.

 

I say everyone has an opinion and a preference. I also say that I crave a good, smooth Helles or Dunkel as often as I crave a good, hoppy APA -- does that make one side of the spectrum better than the other? No, it makes for great choice in beer to drink.

To that, I'd take an Aventinus over a Siberian Night any day.

 

Well, I currently have the Schneider Weisse Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock as my favorite beer ever, and have Ayinger Brau Weisse rated as a perfect 5 hefeweizen, so I may be a bit biased the other direction. But whatever works for the drinker!

 

A simple ingredient list does not always = boring or bad. I've liked many that I've tried and yet some I thought were rather plain or not exciting.

 

German German beers are that good.

Show me an American lager that tastes as good and complex as Kostritzer or Aecht Schlenkerla Maerzen

 

You may get a more 'spirited' discussion if you placed this thread in the Germany forum.

To the question of "Is German beer really that good?", my answer is that for many German breweries (e.g., Mahrs, Ayinger, Schlenkerla, etc.) the answer is a resounding YES! For breweries that sell a lot of German beer (e.g., Becks, Warsteiner, etc.) the answer is not a resounding yes.

As you already know, you will not see the same diversity of beer styles in Germany as we have in the US. It would appear that you are missing the style diversity and are craving the beer styles that are not available to you. I can understand that.

Cheers!

 

Are you talking about reinheitsgebot? That's pretty much long gone, and revisionist history has redefined what it was really about. Also, I haven't been to Germany, but don't they pour fanta into their hefeweizens? That's something even we won't do.

 

It's all about variety. There's a time and place for everything. I absolutely love quality German beer. I also love quality American craft beer. If I'm in the mood for a nice Dortmunder Export I'll choose it over a stout. The same goes for the opposite. I'll choose a stout over a Dortmunder if I'm in the mood for a stout.

The part about German beer being boring compared to American craft I totally disagree with. While some German styles may not be as complex as some American craft beers, they're just as tasty and I'm just as happy to have one. American brewers use ONLY the same four basic ingredients most the time too just so you know.

 

Go to Bavaria, ask for a Hefeweizen, ask them to top it with Fanta and see what kind of look you get.

Seriously, that's a trend that is not widely embraced.

 

Yes, they're that good. Looking forward to my next Germany trip.

 

Having spent time in Germany just recently, the bigger problem isn't the so called Beer purity laws, it's the fact that choice there is incredibly limited. Foreign beers for sale... forget it.

If you are new to it, then it's wonderful, drinking a bunch of amazing pils, but the Getranke shops carry all the same dam product, and you have to go out of your way to get specialized items at a store that is if they exist where you are. It's also considerably more regional with selections getting even more narrow depending where you are in the country.

Luckily there is a lot of amazing and good solid beer available in my opinion, but it's often the same.

 

A brewer can brew 15% Imperial Stout with just H2O ,malt, hops and yeast.

 

Variety is the spice of life right? that being said...yes they are that good at what they do. when u want a bavarian hefe or great german lager, nothing will scratch that itch besides the real deal.

 

Where I will agree with the OP is that it's not an even spectrum. In America, you have thousands of wildly different options and in Germany, thousands of different variations on a few (for the most part) closely grouped themes. (Yes, a rauchbier and a kellerbier are really different from one another, but I'd still say they're less different than a BA stout from a APA.)

Average quality is probably higher. It's a simple matter of doing a smaller number of things really well and having a lot of tradition to back it up ... versus doing everything imaginable (and some that I wish people didn't imagine), sometimes failing miserably and others succeeding gloriously, but rarely letting convention hold you back. Experimentation is messy. (Notice that the description kind of mirrors what is great and horrible about America as a whole?)

 

If you're not happy in Germany, make the short trip to Belgium. Similarly steeped in tradition but their beers seem better received here, likely due to the more intense flavors of dubbels, tripels, quads, and lambics. We don't do German beers better than Germany, abbey ales better than Belgium, and no American wild is quite on the level of the legendary lambics. Enjoy all three for what they are while you're there, and don't take them for granted.

Also, as @enjambed said, the Reinheitsgebot hasn't been a law for some time.

 

To that I would add that a needlessly extensive list doesn't equate excellent beer either. The difference being instead of plain and not exciting they can end up muddled clusterf#·$ks.

It all hinges on if what you are comparing a beer to is actually something comparable.

 

Maybe German breweries aren't as experimental/radical as their American counterparts, but when it comes to "German-style" beers, I (personally) can't think of one American-brewed example of a hefeweizen/dunkel/bock where I'd say, "You know what, I'll have that instead..." as opposed to ordering the Weihenstephaner, Ayinger, or Schneider that is on the menu. So yeah, I think German-brewed German beers are that good.

 

Schneider Weisse is my favorite brewery, their weizenbocks and many other German weizenbocks, as well as other German styles like altbier, schwarzbier, dopplebock, and dunkels that have so much more complexity than many American beers that are often one or two notes of really strong flavors, still very tasty but they don't have the same depth. If you like funky stuff too don't forget about Berliners and Gose, and many of the German lager styles are not only clean but have depth as well, even within the small limits of ingredients, many incredibly well crafted brews come from Germany.

 

Ja