150. German Beer

150.  German Beer  

German beer is famous throughout the world and many of the German speaking people regard their product as more of a health food than an alcoholic beverage. The reason for this relates to the fact that German beer has been produced for many hundreds of years and by and large is made with natural products. I was once stunned to see an elderly female patient in a hospital secrete from the medical staff a bottle of beer behind the curtains on the window ledge next to her bed.

Traditionally German beer was made with water, barley, hops and yeast. Some beers are made with wheat rather than barley and are called Weißbier or Weizenbier (one of my favourites served often with a slice of lemon). The requirement was that the latter beers had to be a top fermented beer when sugar could be added.

Such was the strict nature of German beer production that a law called the Reinheitsgebot (purity decree ... the Rhein River presumably was seen as a pure source of water when it was named) had been introduced in the late 15th or early 16th century. This meant that all German beer had to adhere strictly to the above ingredients.

The 'arrival' of the European Common Market, however, put a spoke in the works because its laws demanded that all products made in its domain had to be manufactured to a modern and efficient standard and the basic nature of German beer production did not meet its requirements. Since 1993 some additives in top fermenting beers may be included in its production but must be removed as much as possible in the final preparation.

Germany has many many breweries in the towns and cities of the country and Bavaria has by far the greatest percentage of producers. During my stay in Berchtesgaden (population approximately 8000), I discovered it had its own brewery (Berchtesgadener Hofbrauhaus) and the excellent quality of its beer, I was informed, stemmed from its supply of beautiful alpine water. Certainly, the thing that struck me was the difference between German beers and their Austrian neighbours' beer and this was the lack of a chemical taste as I had been used to in Australia as well. German beer was not as 'gassy' and I think it is fair to say you could really appreciate the 'natural' taste.

I should add here that across the country there is a huge variety of beer types including Altbier, Schwarzbier, helles and dunkles Bier, Bock, Kölsch, Pils among others. For Oktoberfest Bavarian Festbier, a dark variety, is produced with a slightly greater alcoholic content.

Beer is served throughout the country in a wonderful variety of glasses and tankards depending on where the beer is produced. The best known is probably the huge glasses we see at Oktoberfest time called a Maß. In the English speaking world, people often speak of a Stein for a German beer jug but this is actually the short form of the word Steinkrug (stone jug), the preferred term.