Germany Regional Forum

Have you ever considered making it Germany/Austria/Switzerland?

Maybe you could throw the Czech Republic and Slovakia into the mix by simply calling it Central Europe.

 

I wasn't asking for a link to the forum. I know that it exists. I'm suggesting a change. To me it seems logical to group the Germany forum in with some neighboring countries. It's kind of like the Texas/SW Region debate that is going on right now in another thread.

 

I really want people to realize that the Central European brewing scene is not limited to Germany.

Some thoughts:

• One of the great defining beers of this region is the pilsner which has it's origins in CZ, but was a part of Austria-Hungary at the time.
• The Oktoberfest beer is a Märzen which has it's origins in Austria. It is also a very popular style in CZ.
• Zwickel/Keller beer is experiencing a resurgence all across this region.
• For some reason, a lot of the more creative brew houses here make a hemp beer or a disgusting chili beer as their deviation from the standard helles/dunkles. Other herbed beers are somewhat common, but to a lesser extent. Ie. Gusswerk and Nova Paka.
• Decoction mashing was/still is done in this region.
• Poland could maybe be considered a part of this region because a large part of it used to be Prussia. It's products and traditions are more similar to what is done in Germany than to what is done in the British Isles or Benelux.
• Saaz and other noble hops are used all across these borders.
  
• Think of the foods, music and clothes that you associate with these regions, compare them to each other and then compare them to other brewing regions. I'm not saying that these things are all totally the same in these countries or that they are totally exclusive to CE, but I think that they have a stronger connection with each other than they do with other places.

Please consider changing to Germany regional forum to Central Europe. We already have a Benelux, British Isles and Scandinavia forum. It makes sense that this forum would follow suit. Just a few days ago, we had a guy chastised for posting about Prague in the Germany forum and there is currently a recent post about a guy's trip to Austria. Let's just embrace it.