Hello, i am Stephan from Alburgh VT. Now 61, i started drinking beer in 1978 in Germany. Bitburger Pils was the only easy available beer at that time in my hometown Bitburg. Nowadays pretty famous it was not well known at that time. I am Organ Builder, Organist and Pianist. Since 2016 I live together with my lovely wife, a German too, here on the Alburgh Peninsula, often called South Quebec.
Welcome Steven! Are there any local breweries in Vermont that you like to visit / buy? Do you get a chance to hit Quebec and get some of their beers occasionally? I've enjoyed your organ and music posted in WBAYDN, as well as your beers. One of these years I'll return to the East, not sure if this year is the year. Would be cool to hit the various craft places I paid no attention to since I didn't get into craft beer / beer as a primary drink option until 2015. I wish the MLB will return one day to the market they destroyed (Montreal) and same with the NHL and Quebec City. Cheers!
BTW, Burghaslach may be the other side of Germany…. Any chance you knew of, or drank, any beer from a small brewer - Brauerei Finster? They closed in the early 1990’s?
Yes, i´ve been to Würzburg in 1985 and had some of the local brews. I know "Finster" was one of them but don´t remember the taste. BTW: in 1990 when i visited the former GDR (DDR) shortly before the reunion (10.3.1990) most of the east german beers were not drinkable. The bitterness didn´t from hops but from fish gall.
Nice to meet you, Stephan. Since moving here have you focused on American beers, or do you still drink many beers from Germany? The Alburgh Peninsula sounds like an interesting place. If I ever travel back to Vermont I'll have to check it out. Are there many tourists there?
Wow, very cool. You are the first person I know of, after my grandfather, to have actually drank their beer. He was more of an avid bourbon drinker than beer, so I don’t know what he thought about it, other than it was the home-town brewery. So, Thanks!
Many brewers once used isinglass as a fining agent: Only in recent years, (2015) Guinness to become vegan-friendly as fish bladder isinglass filtration process ditched after 256 years but, as noted, it was not used for bitterness and all I've read about isinglass it is relatively neutral tasting. As for East German beers in general and those brewers using it as a bittering agent in place of hops, I'd consult Ron Pattinson aka @patto1ro
Pretty sure that's total bollocks about DDR beer. Do you have a source on that? Because I've got a full list of the ingredients which were allowed in their beer. And fish gall isn't on them. I drank beer from a couple of dozen East German breweries, which varied from just about OK (Gothaer) to really good (Mülhausener). But all drinkable.
Well; me and my girlfriend were in Weimar for several days and later in East Berlin at that time and tasted all the local brews. None of the beers was good and we had headache every morning. My girlfriend had to stay in bed the whole day after drinking just a few of them. That didn´t happen in Prague a few days later.nor in Poland...
