German beer
Categories: Beer and brewery stubs | German beer | German cuisine | German culture
German beer is highly diverse and an important part of Germany's culture. There are more than 1300 breweries in Germany, the highest number of breweries in the world. The German beer market is a bit sheltered from the rest of the world beer market by the German brewers' adherence to the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot (purity requirement) dating from 1516, according to which the only allowed ingredients of beer are "Wasser (water), Hopfen (hops) und (Gersten-)Malz (barley-malt)". Many breweries worldwide adopted the Reinheitsgebot for their own beers. After its invention, cultured yeast became the fourth legal ingredient. Through the agreement (which was law up to 1988 but it still adhered to by virtually all German brewers), beers from Germany tend to have a good reputation for their quality. The Germans are slightly behind the Czechs in their per capita consumption of beer due to an increased preference for wine and mixed alcoholic drinks, especially among younger and urban people.
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Varieties
There are a variety of different styles of German beer, such as:
- Helles — lager from Bavaria
- Weizen — fermented wheat beer
- Kölsch — top-fermented beer from the Cologne region
- Alt — a dark beer drunk around Düsseldorf and Dortmund
- Pilsner — a lager with more prominent hop character
- Export — a milder version of Pilsner, more suited to "international" tastes
- Bock — a dark, very strong beer
- Märzen — medium body and broad range of color
- Rauchbier — dark in color and smoky in taste
- Dortmund — from the West German city of Dortmund
- Dunkel — a dark Munich lager
Brands and breweries
While the beer market is weaker but more centralized in northern Germany (the biggest brands Krombacher, Warsteiner and Bitburger each selling about 400 million liters), the south has lots of very small, local breweries. The highest density of breweries in the world is found near the city of Bamberg, in the Franconia region of Bavaria.
In total, there are approximately 1350 breweries in Germany producing over 5000 brands of beer. One of these breweries, the Benedictine abbey Weihenstephan (established in 725) is reputedly the oldest existing brewery in the world.
Alcohol content
The alcohol content is usually between 4.7% and 5.4% for most traditional brews. Bockbier or Doppelbock (double Bockbier) however can have an alcohol content of up to 12%, beating many wines.
Oktoberfest
The Munich Oktoberfest is well known for the quantity of beer drunk as well as the friendly, social atmosphere created by the massive marqees with long tables and bench seating. Almost 6,000,000 litres of beer is served every year at the festival.
de:Deutsches Bier