Recommend me a german beer

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Spaten is nice you can get it in Aldi. I also like the Shöfferhofer weizen as well.

Ahhh Spaten - the lowest of the Munich breweries.

We did a blind taste test in work with all the Munich beers and every single person rated Spaten the lowest.

Wurzelbert wrote: »

the thing with german beer is that that all decent german breweries still pretty much adhere to the 1516 bavarian purity law - as a question of honour like - which is no longer law as such but has certainly done a lot for german beer culture and helped keep brewing standards pretty high throughout german lands...though there are black sheep among german breweries and there is crappy beer in germany too...

I think there's a bit of a general misconception about the German purity law. The law places restrictions on the ingredients that can be used in the brewing process, this absolutely does not guarantee in any way a better or superior tasting beer.

There is plenty of crap German beer.

Wurzelbert wrote: »

think you better stick to your dutch gold...cheaper too...

Not a chance mate though its probably as good as if not better than some Reinheitsgebot brewed German beer.
I'll stick to my craft beer, preferably Irish and have an odd German one every now and again for kicks.

To keep on topic, OP if you want to try a fun German beer, look up one called Schlenkerla Marzen. Its a smoked beer.

BeerNut wrote: »

It also killed off lots of local German beer styles and made it difficult to find a beer in Germany that isn't pale lager, dark lager or weissbier.

Yes, you really notice it's 90% lager. Some of it is fantastic, but at least in Ireland if you want to drink different styles it's not too hard to do.

I was lucky enough to be living near the Gose breweries. Spent a few hot summer days in the beer garden at the Bayerischer Bahnhof brewery sipping cold, fresh gose. That's a beer you should get your hands on if you want to try something different, OP!

24 big bottles of Hofbrau just arrived at my door! That's the next few days taken care of now!

As a German I enjoyed reading this thread (ok, not every single word but most of it) and it is really interesting how people from outside Germany see German beer.

It's true Germany comes from a very long history of brewing with countless little breweries mostly in the southern parts like Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria and big famous players of which many where mentioned in your posts. Also some towns are famous for a brewing tradition like Cologne for the Koelsch or Duesseldorf (and surroundings) for the Alt or Dortmund for the Dortmunder Export. Btw selling Alt is not restricted to an area. You could find it in larger stores probably over most parts of Germany.

I also agree with the one of you saying that the Reinheitsgebot (purity law) doesn't make a beer a good beer. There are crappy beers spreaded all over the country. And nowadays most popular beers are hardly do be divided by taste. Many people here in Germany buy 'their' local beer, but in the end it's all Radeberger (=Dr Oetker) or a similiar industrial big player. A good example to show the historical development is my hometown Dortmund. Not so many people know that Dortmund was in the mid 90s the 2nd biggest place for beer in the world, famous for its special variety called Export. There were like 10 different breweries all over the city. All that remains today are the brands of which most are still alive - and they all belong to Dr Oetker and are brewed in the same brewery at Dortmunder Actien Brauerei. So if you enjoy a Dortmunder Kronen, a Stifts or a Brinkhoff's - it might taste different (surely it does), but the differences are more marketing, not caused by the art of brewing. And this phenomena is to be found all over the country and probably you could referr a story like this to most beers you guys mentioned before. That's why most popular beers are tasting the same. If you buy a Warsteiner or a Krombacher doesn't really matter. If you drink Paulaner or Hofbraeu is not really important.

Anyway Germany still is a place of big choice for the beer lover. From dark beers, smoked beers, Pils, Export, Alt, Koelsch, White, you could start today and get a different beer each day for the next couple of years. And if I have to choose from Heineken, Bud or a German Pils I definitly would choose the German one. Not for patriotic reasons, but for the taste. Somebody mentioned the body of a beer in his description - most German beers do have one. To me Heineken is like water with a beerly flavour. It's ok, but...you know?

Hope some of you found it interesting reading the pov of a German on this topic! Cheers mates!

21% what? Dunkel, hell, alt, other? Why do you specifically recommend one so strong? What particular 21% beer have you tried?

Trond wrote: »

I think its some of the lighter pils that it applies to.

I don't think it really depends on the type of beer. There might be differences, but I guess it's rather about what you eat & drink beside than the beer itself.

Niall_daaS wrote: »

I wonder how you guys see those German beer mixtures. Since I was young I remember people drinking pils mixed with coke, fanta or sprite (called Pils-Cola, Alsterwasser and Radler) and Alt with coke (Krefelder) and White with banana juice. The last say 10 yrs this got a little bit out of control and you can buy beer mixed with everything. I'd say here in Gemany in a regular shop the department of mixed beers is as big as the depart of pures. I never saw someone mixing beer with anything in Ireland so far. Does that ever happen?

I liked radlers when I was in Germany - lovely on a hot summers day.

I suppose a shandy (half beer, half lemonade) is the closest here - available in a pub. Not sure if any on sale in shops that are premixed. There might be one or two that others know.

Pinch Flat wrote: »

I liked radlers when I was in Germany - lovely on a hot summers day.

It is really more refreshing (maybe that's where the name is from). And we used it when hungover to get in the mood again. Gives you an easier start to another drinking session.