The Germans And Their Beer

Good morning. In the final leg of our European adventures, we are wrapping up in Germany, one of the most famous beer countries in the world.

Spoiler alert: we drank a lot of German beer in the making of this newsletter.

-Brandon Copeland

The Germans And Their Beer

This past weekend we went to a wedding of some close friends who live in Bochum, Germany, an old mining town in the northwest of Germany. There is one local brewery which dates back to the 1800’s, Moritz Fiege, which was the only gig in town - every bar in the area almost exclusively served their beers. We went to a bar and I mentioned “we would like some beers” and instead of asking for our order, they just brought us 2 pilsners.

As an American, this sort of beer culture is surprising - with all of the innovation in the beer space, every American city has at least 3 - 5 craft breweries pushing innovation, even in smaller cities. In Germany it felt like there was a lot of pride in their regional incumbent breweries, and while I’m sure there are innovative new craft breweries elsewhere in Germany, that was not the case in Bochum.

That being said, I really enjoyed the Moritz Fiege beer and was able to taste all of the beers they have on offer in the 3 days I spent in Bochum. At the wedding, this was also the main beer, however they had one wheat beer from Bavaria. This ended up being important because the bride’s family was primarily from Bavaria, and after one round of tasting local Bochum beer, they switched back to the Bavarian beer. Wasn’t up to their standards…

One of the wedding guests from Bavaria was a brewer at a small brewery called Post Bier, and I was able to chat about the certifications he went through at a brewing school in Munich and his future ambitions to start his own brewery or to start a hop farm aimed at creating new hop varieties. It was really inspiring - I love meeting fellow brewers from around the world.

Cheers to Hendrik and Mara - thanks for letting us Americans “crash” your wedding and see how the Germans celebrate!

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Beer Trivia Question

🍺 In what year was the German Beer Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot) introduced which established beer must be made from only water, barley, and hops?

Read to the end to find out if you're right!

Brewgr Recipe of the Week

Mositric Fall Pale Ale

With Autumn weather fast approaching, a nice amber pale ale sounds like a good remedy for the season. The name of this recipe “Mositric” stuck out to me, because I love a Mosaic/Citra hop combination. The brown sugar addition as a fermentable gives it a fall theme to go along with an otherwise ordinary pale ale.

Credit: Rizero

Poll Results: Do You Prefer Craft Beer or Classic “Big Beer”?

When asking a group of homebrewers if they like craft beer or classic beer styles better, it’s not really surprising when the overwhelming majority votes for craft beer. Most of you who wrote in commented on the variety and the flavor that is available in craft beer - it’s what makes homebrewing exciting, there are always more creative beers to make.

However, there is something to be said for the classic “big beers” like Budweiser, Heineken, PBR, etc. To quote a homebrewer who wrote in and voted “Both”: “Still today the best beer to down when your hot and thirsty like after mowing the lawn, Is Pabst Blue Ribbon. Try to down one when your hot and sweaty and thirsty of course. It's the best.”

Couldn’t put it better myself!

And the Answer Is...

🍺 1516. The real reason for this law was to reduce competition between brewers and bakers for ingredients like wheat and rye in an effort to reduce food costs. This law was only changed in 1993 by the New Provisional Beer Law, which caused a craft beer boom in Germany.