Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

“ …very few people (Germans) get the joke.”

That is because they don’t have Stahlsturm’s sense of humor!

Prost!

 

Yeah, we do...

There's actually not a lot of Currywurst in the towns around here. Franconia and the Upper Palatinate are firm grippers of Bratwurst while Lower and Upper Bavaria fancy Weißwurst. Currywurst is originally from Berlin and (at least around here) is called "Apachenzipf'l" which basically translates to "Apache's Dick".

If you read scientific articles about humour (Hard to believe there IS such a thing...) you'll notice that German humour is mostly feces based and not sexually oriented. Even though in some regions of Germany "Wurst" doubles as slang for number 2 we have much more colourful terms so wurst-based jokes are not really party hits anywhere in Germany.

 

I think Germans are all equally void of humour. What most people lack is an insight into the darker corners of the mind of a native English speaker. The more crude approaches of a language (though sometimes the most important terms to know and use appropriately) are sadly never part of any formal language training. I don't want to know how many wars have started over the Millenia because some poor innocent ambassador stepped right into the trap of double meanings while toasting his host and got his head chopped off for it.

 

“I think Germans are all equally void of humour.”

But you have a great sense of humor! Did you Rhode Island wife (who is Wicker Hard Core) ‘transfer’ some humor to you!?!

Cheers!

P.S. Did you notice the American English spelling of “humor”!?!

 

Yeah, I also notice the American English spelling of "wassup dawg!!&&??%%!!!" instead of the traditional (and much preferred) "How are you doing Sir ?" Your point is ?

 

Of course I suppose you mean, Wie geht es Ihnen? Opposed to "Wie gehts, Hund!?"

The best German humor I've ever encountered was of the very dry sort (something I'm also very good at). A bar tender at a small Stube once recommended a dish to me and I cleaned the platter. When he asked how it was I told him (auf Deutsche) it was awful. Somewhat astonished, he looked at the clean plate, looked up at me -- saw the sideways, wry look I was giving him, smiled slowly and nodded his head and took the plate away.

 

Always nice when you can get a German waitperson to "laugh"....

 

It's easy if you don't mind the manner of laughter. Most of the time they'll be laughing about you, not with you, especially when you are caught tipping like an American.

 

He sounds like an Elitist. If you can't drink his beer the way beer was meant to be drunk (= 1 Liter clay mug under the welcoming branches of a tree that's been there for 600 years) then maybe this guy needs to be avoided.


And yeah, I'm sort of joking, I just really don't like these people who think they are better than us...

 

Jealous ? Hell no, hahaha. He's welcome to brew whatever he wants, I just am very critical of this "geekification" (Yeah, I'm aware that's not a proper word... ) of beer. To me the attempt to raise beer drinking to a science (or an art form, depending on who you ask) is just as dangerous as Fernsehbier flat-rate parties. It's opposing extremes on the same scale and I'm very critical of either.

 

Again I must ask: how many breweries in Franken have you visited? Nearly every variation on Kellerbier could -- with some "creative" marketing, be designated its own "style." But really, what would be the point of that? The German brewers I've talked to about the future of German beer all agree that it is precisely in holding fast to, reviving, and/or finding greater acceptance for these traditions -- and not in any American style flavor bombs -- that the "innovations" of tomorrow are to be found.

 

And yet national consumption of beer and the number of breweries are on the decline and give indications of continuing to do so. Sometimes those in the midst of a sea change are the least able to foresee their future landing site. It's not unlike the smog in LA. Looking up at the sky one sees little of it, however looking across the basin at the horizon it's plain that " the smog is over there."

 

I didn't mean to imply that these brewers are simply stubbornly clinging to the old ways of doing things with no eye to the future (although I'm sure some of that attitude still exists, and is continuing to contribute to the decline in German brewing). Rather I'm talking about brewers such as Matthias Trum from Schlenkerla or Stephan Michel from Mahr's who have both already bucked tradition in many ways. For example, in 1993 -- my first year in Bamberg and a few years before Matthias Trum took the reins -- Schlenkerla produced 2 styles: Maerzen and Bock; now they produce 6. Same goes for Mahr's...and almost every other brewery in town. Moreover, Trum told me he has a dozen or so new recipes waiting to be launched when they are perfected. For many Germans, this in itself would constitute a "sea change," as most change comes very very slowly in that country -- and particularly in Franconia. Again, change is already there in Germany -- even if we, from our US perspective, can't properly see it because it doesn't look like the change we're used to.

 

Oops: make that 3 styles (Helles, Maerzen, and Bock) and now 7 (Helles, Maerzen, Bock, Rauchweizen, Krausenbier, Fastenbier, and Doppelbock).

 

A brewer cannot multiply output without compromising quality. I know it must be an alien concept to an American but these people have their corner of the market that allows them to make what they want and at the quality they want and they are happy that way and feel no need for expansion whatsoever. The idea that they should bend over backwards to serve a potential customer is on the same level as asking them to grow a 3rd arm or declare war on Winter. In a German perspective good beer is a privilege, not a right. You have to earn it. I know, I have it easy because I don't live in a makro wasteland like Bankfurt but the Brewer's guild will not budge from their time honoured traditions.

 

You are right of course. Seriously, you are. But I at least can't help but wonder, why do they feel the need to advertise their product like the craft version of Christopher Street Day ? Their claims of innovation and re-invention are clearly aimed at people who seek a new thrill and who don't give a flying f... about beer and who will move on somewhere else once the next thing comes around in 2 years and then we sit here in the ruins of what's left... I have seen all this in different scenes and I don't really care for a reply.

 

That was the Oper at the Hofbräuhaus who taught me the proper way to eat Weißwurst and Bretzel. I believe his comment was, "Weißwurst suppe?"

Was my first time being served in the traditional manner, but I remembered and never made the same mistake again!