German craft beer

Nope

The folks of the DDR had 1 brewery making 2 kinds of beer, both Lagers for 16 million people. Comparing that with the situation in the West is quite the stretch, innit ? Seeing Germans in a US bottle shop... Well, most Germans wouldn't even set fot in a US bottle shop because they still think that all US beer is nigh undrinkable, right ?

The reasons for the "Brauereisterben" are (in that order):
1.) Young people being to lazy to pick up a craft and rather work 8 to 4 and then punch out and go home.
2.) The EU, regulating small business to death
Young folks have ALWAYS had mixed drinks first. It has ever been the ambition of youth to distance themselves from the ways of their elders. Eventally they'll find back to the good stuff, just like I did.

Now you're getting downright absurd While I have had too many good US beers to fall into the trap of my fellow country men, a lot of the stuff I've had was rather limpwristed impersonations of the real thing. Again, there are exceptions but to call the situation a Nirvana

Because the good stuff is brewed in smaller batches and they can sell what they make in their Kaff. They have no need to search for you as their customer, they are just fine. So get off your high horse of entitlement. The consumer is only king until there are more consumers than there's beer

 

All he needs to do is move 100 miles east and he'll be almost in Bamberg...

 

I gave up on that mission a few threads ago

 

Scott, I have two words for you: Merry Christmas!

I hope that you find three BIG bottles of Schlenkerla Marzen under your tree tomorrow.

Prost!

Jack

 

Thanks, Jack. Merry Christmas to you and yours...from the land of malt and hops to the land of milk and honey . Prost! Scott

 

It's called SCOTCH beer for a reason. Because it's scottish. You cannot recreate something scottish outside Scotland nor can you recreate something indiginously Czech outside Czechia. Or any other indiginous place for that matter. You will always end up with a weak, second hand impersonation that will leave you craving the real thing that much more. I would hope that eventually people would understand that and stop trying to imitate what they can never properly achieve anyways and start coming up with ideas on their own. Develop an identity dammit.

 

Unfortunately, that identity was mostly swill for so very long. I'm happy that U.S. micros have taken on their own challenges to recreate (in more than one definition) the classic styles from around the globe -- some I appreciate, others I don't, but I'm still happy for their availability.

I'm also lucky enough to have a few breweries close by that can recreate reasonable facsimiles of German-style beers and I am quick to recognize them over the ones that can't!

 

I'm trying to challenge a change here. Quit brewing beer like the Japanese build cars. Research your history and your many possibilities and come up with something that is American

 

You think all the bases have already been covered ? Then I guess the future is mix drinks...

Unfortunately home car building is infinitely more complex than home brewing so I'm afraid there's not much hope there. I'm the wrong person for that anyways, I drive an Italian car (Alfa Romeo 156)

 

So adding more hops to a beer makes it a "new" or "American" style? Hopped up pale ales, brown ales, amber ale (I don't really see how this is even a "style" given all the variations that you find) and barleywines are nothing new and many of these beers were brewed in England long ago. I guess maybe the only 'style' I can see is the extreme ale, whatever the hell that is since Americans love the extreme.

Regardless of whether the beers listed in the link are American styles or not, I couldn't disagree more with Stahlsturm's point about developing our "own" styles and not trying to brew styles from other countries. The United States is a nation of immigrants who brought brewing traditions from their home country to their new home. It makes sense that the German immigrants continued to brew the styles they were accustomed to brewing back home and the local community had a taste for. The same goes for immigrant brewers from the British Isles. What would cause them to change and why should brewers in the US not brew those styles?

I don't know what new styles or beers we're supposed have developed. I'm happy I have access to beers from brewers who do a pretty damn good job with lagers (New Glarus and August Schell). Maybe they're not up to the same quality as what Stahlsturm has access to in Germany, but I enjoy drinking them, even if they're not 'American' styles.

Sorry for the rant. I mostly lurk in the German forums, but found Stahlsturm's assertion a bit much.

 

“So adding more hops to a beer makes it a "new" or "American" style?” I would argue that it isn’t so much the “more” part as much as the American hops part (but “more” is used as well). Let’s consider Pale Ales as an example. A typical English style Pale Ale will be hoped with British hops for late hoping (e.g., East Kent Goldings, Fuggles). An American style Pale Ale will typically be generously late hopped with American aroma hops (e.g., Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe, etc.). The American aroma hops provide a drastically different flavor to the beers.

An American beer style not mentioned is California Common (e.g., Anchor Steam Beer). This beer is a hybrid: a beer brewed with a lager yeast at ale type fermentation temperatures.

There are other beer styles somewhat unique to America; for example Cream Ale. The Cream Ale style was something that the Ale breweries in the US ‘invented’ to compete with the ‘new fangled’ lager beers being brewed in America in the late 1800’s.

Cheers!

 

The owner of Radeberger is the Oetker family, the Schörghuber family holds the majority at Paulaner and Schneider is ,well, the Schneider family.
Now - Why ist Radeberger not independant?

 

Agreed (2), but the big brewers have a problem. Most of them have a "competence" in just one style (Pils, Weizen), and if they try a new style criticism is often scorching. There is room for a new style in Germany (like IPA). If IPA will be a success, its a chance for smaller breweries.

 

What is the difference between an American Craft brewery and a Bavarian/Franconian craft brewery?

The American brewery started 10 years ago and has made 25 or more styles since then.The name of the company is familiar now to all beer enthusiasts in U.S. Their beers have funny names and colourfuls labels.

A craft brewery in Bavaria is 200 or even 500 years old and brewed just one style all the time (maybe a Festbier for the parish fair). The beer is available in the village and two pubs nearby.The name of the village is Stublang, Wattendorf, Geisfeld, Wiesen or Uehlfeld. The brewer has never heard the term "craft beer" and he does not care.

 

Because it's part of an industrial conglomerate that also owns ships, a bank and numerous other enterprises. It's all listed here for those who care (and understand German):

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._August_Oetker_KG#Unternehmensstruktur

 

Slapping "American" in front of any given style does not constitute the creation of a new style.

 

Yeah, nice "family owned" brewery there as well...
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schörghuber_Unternehmensgruppe