Is German beer really THAT good?

I see Camba now has a Imperal IPA:
http://www.cambabavaria.de/en/beer/camba-ales/camba-imperial-ipa/

I'll have some delivered to the haus.

 

Camba's Pale Ale is very good as well, I don't know if you've had that one yet.

 

I live in Germany. I ordered the German beers from the websites at the bottom of this post. It doesn't matter where you live in the EU, there's no duty, no worry of extra taxes, for you pay your VAT at point of purchase. I could've bought these in Belgium, or anywhere inside the EU, even UK. However, the farther you're from the source country, the more expensive shipping is. Usually, shipping a box of 12 to 20 beers is less than €5 to €10. The topic of whether these sites ship to the USA has come up a few times within the German forum. As far as I know, no German (I can't say for other countries) will ship to the USA due to A) it's illegality in many states, B) cost and C) insurance for the company shipping it.

You're best bet as an Ami is to have a trade with someone like me, who lives in country, who orders the beer online, then ships it off to you in the states labeled as "collectable glassware." Otherwise, come here and enjoy a week of beer drinking, but skip Munich and focus on the Bamberg, Regensburg and surrounding areas of Franken and Bayern.

Of the beers I have in the pics, Kneitinger Edel Pils is in my opinion a top 3 of all Pils in Germany, and thus the world. Their Kneitinger Dunkel is also one of the best ever. Maybe @Stahlsturm, @mjtierney2 and anyone else in the will confirm this. As with the Kneitinger, Eichhofener comes from the area around Regensburg, Germany, and truly hotbed of multiple breweries within a stones throw of each other. Brasserie Faust also makes a top 3 Pils, but their Schwartzvierteler is one beer that's on the top the list of most unique and best in the world: a mix of Dunkel Pils, a slight note Rauchbier, with caramel and roasted flavors that blend together to just give you Wow! Maxbrauerei is a small Craft Beer outfit that makes American, British and German styles, all of excellent quality. Fürst Wallerstein and Wertacher also were wonderful beers, but not at the level of the others mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph.

And Camba Bavaria's beer are also world class, and I recommend Schönramer, too. Both do wonderful German beer styles as well as IPAs. Camba Bavaria is new collaboration between a few German brewers, and everything they do is very American-Craft-Beerish; whereas Schönramer is an old, traditional brewery run now by an American who has in my opinion, the 3rd of the top 3 Pils in Germany, and a wonderful IPA.

 

Yep, Kneitinger's Pils and Dunkel are both fantastic (ditto Faust). I've heard good things about Kneitinger's Bock as well, but have never had it.

 

The German forum has seen all these pics before, but here are some from previous posts I've reviewed in the German forums and in BA at large.















Herren Pils and Mahrs Bräu's Pilsner are also in the top 5 of Pils in Germany, which of course means the world.


ALL of these were ordered online and delivered to my door.

 

Jon,

Based upon Tony’s (@boddhitree) reply you might be interested in knowing that Fürst Wallerstein is exported to the US. I have had the pleasure of drinking both the Pils and the Dunkle and I thoroughly enjoyed drinking both of those beer brands.

Cheers!

 

German beer is the bollocks.

 

Yes--if you're in Germany and you're drinking a fresh German beer, at cellar temperature, tapped directly from the barrel, then yes it is THAT good. Traditionally brewed beer doesn't really get any better than that!

 

Here's a nickel's worth of homework:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot
Key text: "TheReinheitsgebot is no longer part of German law: it was replaced by the Provisional German Beer Law in 1993..."

Don't worry, most German's aren't aware of that either.

 

Thanks.

And now that the EU is involved there's also a court ruling in place such that if a German brewer claims to brew in accordance with the RHG for beer sold in Germany, but violates the provisions of the RHG they can get hauled into court and fined. So not following the RHG when you claim to be doing so is now more in the vein of false advertising, i.e., you say you follow the RHG to sell the beer but don't actually adhere to the RHG.

 

That some Germans pretended and marketed their beers under the RHG umbrella is an interesting piece of history. I would think that at one distant point (1500s or so), ingredient guarantee was a novel idea. German beer is by no means monolithic, and a beer explosion is happening again in Germany. I would love to see a Stone Stone Ale. I think Stone just may be a bit of a helpful stimulus.

 

At the beginning the RHG had nothing at all to do with purity or ingredient guarantees except in the sense that there had been a few years of crop failures and grain shortages and the resulting competition and price pressures were causing prices for basic necessities (bread and beer) to rise rapidly. So the man in charge of Bavaria created a law that said that wheat could be used in bread but not in beer and that barley could be used for beer but not for bread. It was introduced as a form of price control and intended to prevent brewers and bakers from driving up the price of grains through competition for scarce resources. (An exception allowing the brewing of wheat beers was made for the brewery/breweries owned and operated by the royal family... )

And as I pointed out in my own reply to the Stone post about the RHG, certain legal aspects and consequences of the RHG are still alive and well in Germany so it isn't just a piece of history yet.

 

Oh, I know. But the RHG marketing in modern times is somewhat troubling. I know damned well that the Von Polnitz (Von Poellnitz) family was growing barley in Bavaria probably before recorded history. These guys- my family- were some of those politicos.

 

Well if the majority of your customer base will only buy/drink a beer if it was brewed according to the RHG how else could one market it that wouldn't involve the RHG?

Edit: BTW didn't realize you knew a lot about the RHG. Large numbers of people here and in the US know very little about its history, etc. Apologies if I was explaining something you already knew.

 

Exactly. They worked themselves into a perfect corner- stodgy old European position. Americans do not like being told HOW things should be made and look at what is happening! When one goes to Germany, so much of all of this becomes very clear. The beers are phenomenal and the land is well cared for! Cheers.

 

Actually, if I remember correctly, while talking to some professional brewers in Germany recently, they said if you don't brew according to the RHG in Germany, you can't legally call it "beer." You can call it an Ale, an IPA, a Stout a Pils, a Märzen, whatever, but the word beer can't be on the label. Anyway, with the availability of so many kinds of malts and hops with all kinds of flavor profiles, unless you're brewing a Belgium beer such as Trippel requiring Belgian candy sugar or a spiced Belgian style, it's quite easy to brew by the RHG.

 

So many German beers are at the top of their style. I love those styles and I'll have to say a definitive yes. If you don't enjoy the styles that are typically brewed in Germany, I would think your answer will likely be no. But that doesn't take away from them being great.

 

Yeah, in retrospect I did choose my words rather poorly there. Good call.

 

Not familiar at all with German beer, but bought a bottle of Weihenstephaner today solely due to this thread.

 

Went to a Aldi-like supermarket which sells they're own beer brand and a few national, Fernsehbiere too at Lidl.

Here's a photo.

Notice the prices. Bitburger is 75¢ a 0.5L can. Krombacher is 79¢. Lidl's own brands are 34¢ for an Alcohol-free beer, and 35¢ for a pils, and Gold is a whole 28¢ a bottle. It's hard to see, but the Grafenwalder uses plastic PET bottles. The Pfand, or deposit, on the cans and PET bottles is 25¢ per... almost as much as the beer itself!


Here's a receipt of some beers I bought a few months ago. Notice the price is just a little more than than the deposit? It's almost as cheap, but a few cents more than the Nestlé water when you reckon it per 1/2 L.

Anyway... this isn't good beer.