German Old People Beer

Generally in my experience it's whatever the large local pils is.

 

In my experience, in the south the local tastes are pretty much alive, and the older generation prefers whatever is locally brewed.
In the cologne area, I think you'll never see an older person drink anything else than Kölsch.

 

From what I've seen.... the Eltern drink whatever local Lager/Pils is available.... stress on local, from my experience.... Prosit!

 

Old folks make up a decent percentage of the patrons at most Bamberg (area) breweries -- especially at the Stammtische. As to what they drink: well, that brewery's beer, obviously. Used to love seeing a group of old ladies in their 70s come into Spezial or Schlenkerla in the early afternoon to pound a few Rauchbiere.

 

Bitburg but I live in the Rhein-Pfalz and that's the local brew here.

 

Older famiy in Munich continue to inhale Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier like there's no tomorrow while the even older relations in Sachsen still drink Radeberger thinking it has remained completely unchanged since inception. So set in their ways to drink local yes but they are certainly worthier ways than factory brewed BMC/Molsonesque 'product'. Thankfully there are no obscenely overly dominant national breweries in Germany.

Not sure what Germans will make of BrewDog beers and the new Stone brewery in Berlin but knowing Prussians they'll likely embrace them both if for no other reason than giving them an opportunity to piss off other German states.

 

If you want to see what the older people near Munich drink - show up right when a place opens. Thanks to jet lag, I'm usually up at the crack of dawn and am on the streets not long afterward. If you show up anywhere at that hour, you're almost assuredly the only person who hasn't been retired for a while. In general, I haven't noticed any differences in drinking habits. Usually the standard mix of helles/weiss/dunkel/seasonals in that order.
I had an old German guy at Prost (in Denver) tell me that he always thought of dunkels as being for "old poor people" or something along those lines. Anyone else heard of that?

 

Because... they're priced differently than the other available beers?

Ignorant, unsubstantiated prejudice really knows no borders. Maybe he thought the "old poor people" were getting more nutrients or filling calories from the Dunkel? Beats cat food, I suppose.

 

I wouldnt say its for women, plenty of men drink it, but it does have a grain of truth in that amongst women the dark beers are perhaps more popular, they tend to be quite sweet which is often cited as the reason

 

ive had a few munich natives tell me they see dunkel as an older persons beer

 

I'd argue that Dunkles all over bavaria is seen as old-fashioned and traditional. However, that is not inherently a bad thing for most costumers, esp. in franconia were many breweries make nothing but Dunkles. For the natives there, the labels "traditional" and "old fashioned" are seen as positives, so not only old people, but the younger generation as well loves the local brews, no matter if they are pale,dark or anything in between.

 

Older person's beer, maybe -- because it's from a different age -- sort of like Real Ale in the U.K., but old poor person's beer doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

agreed

 

I´ve had a lot of Dunkels between winter and springtime and now i am slightly worried.

 

here in pommerania bock beers seem to be considered "old people beer"
while the "nachkriegs" generation seems to be pilsner-exclusive.
drinking hefeweizens gets some weird reactions by that generation

 

Can't imagine how I looked to both generations -- I bounced between everything!

 

Foreigners get weird reactions regardless.

 

Hah -- no white tennies on me! Gotta say, I could work some magic now and again to blend in well. However, that was mostly in Österreich, so who knows?