Life of Brian with Brian Hicks
The Munich Beer Festival, the Oktoberfest, is the biggest of its kind in the world with six million visitors over two weeks.
It has been cancelled for the second year running and should have been in full swing now.
I managed to go to an English version in Richmond instead where many visitors were sporting Bavarian Lederhosen and Dirndl.
German beer is brewed to stringent standards that date back to the Bavarian purity law, Reinheitsgebot, introduced in 1516 by the joint rulers, the brothers Duke Wilhelm IV and Duke Ludwig X. It specified that beer could only be made from water, hops and barley, omitting to mention the yeast.
It was adopted throughout Germany from 1906.
Wheat was later used as well as barley and these beers are mainly brewed in Bavaria as either clear or cloudy versions, the latter with yeast still in it.
Most wheat beers have a non-alcoholic version, which sell well as they are tastier than their barley equivalents.
Bavaria has a very large hop-growing area with what is claimed to be the world’s oldest brewery, Weihenstephan, founded in 1040. It is owned by the State of Bavaria and the brewing department of a local university is based there.
The most popular German beer is Pils or Pilsner. This lager-like beer with a hoppy flavour is named after the Czech town of Pilsen. It was first developed there in 1842, albeit with the help of a German brewer.
The Germans love their beer but are drinking less.
Today the Czechs are the biggest beer drinkers in the world, with 189 litres consumed per head of population in 2020.
Germany was in fourth place at 99 litres per head, although consumption was 146 litres when it peaked in 1980.
The UK was 22nd with 70 litres per head.
The Germans are kings of recycling and beer is sold chiefly in bottles that often get reused 30-40 times. The bottles of German beer that are exported have thinner glass. Germans buy their beer mainly in crates of 20, with 500ml or 330 ml capacity. They pay a deposit on the crate, €1.50, and each bottle, €0.08, which they get back when returned.
These can often be inserted into an automated machine which gives a credit note.
Few cans of beer are sold compared with bottles and the deposits are €0.25.
Beer in German supermarkets is about half the price of here but in pubs is about the same.
Water is also mostly sold in crates in Germany. There are usually 12 bottles of 0.75 litres per crate with a deposit of 15 cents per bottle. There are many drink supermarkets, Getränkemärkte, in Germany that are piled high with crates. Some have a hundred or so brands of beers and water on sale.
Most leading German breweries have retained their independence. However, some have been acquired by leading international beer companies, such as Holsten (by Carlsberg) and Becks (by AB InBev). Smaller breweries are growing in importance, accounting for 8.7% of German beer production in 2020 compared to 7.4% in 2005.
Most Germans are not keen on unchilled beers and regard British draft bitter as too warm. One of the closest German beers to a bitter is Altbier, a dark-brown speciality of breweries in Düsseldorf and the surrounding area. This is served chilled, usually in distinctive 200ml glasses, and there are several pubs in Düsseldorf that brew their own Altbier.
Breweries in the Cologne area make Kölsch (also the word for the local dialect spoken in Cologne), a light beer that is not as bitter as Pils. Not much Altbier is sold in Cologne and very little Kölsch in Düsseldorf, mainly due to the long-standing rivalry between these two cities.
I prefer Altbier, as it has a lot of flavour, but I have been influenced by nine years working in Düsseldorf.
