Monday, November 21, 2005

Beer drinking Angst

What? We’ve got to worry about drinking beer over here now, too? Well, no. Not yet. But I hear a little buzz in the Kneipen (neighbourhood bars) now and then - Hermann himself is an honorary agitator at three of them, by the way - and this discussion comes around regularly in roughly six month waves/intervals, crashing over our heads like frothy Pilsner and leaving us high and dry – but only for a minute or two. Tops. 

 

We had another discussion about it last night at the Zwiebelfisch. Word is out that the Reinheitsgebot (The Purity Decree) is in danger of being watered down (literally) by the evil global globalization conspirator mongers. And you know who they are, right? The Purity Decree is some goofy law enacted way back in 1516 by King Ludwig der Blaue (I think) somewhere far away in a place called “Bavaria” which stipulates that beer (they call it Bier here, just for your information) can only be made from barley, hops, water and (later) yeast. 

 

Duh, you might say. What else are you going to brew your beer with? Do not ask this. American beer is allowed to be brewed using over 100 ingredients. Talk about your melting pot. Yuk. 

 

I am not political. But having just reread these last few sentences I might be prepared to jump over my own shadow for once. I mean, geez, is nothing sacred anymore?

 

By the way, here are a couple Berliner drinking establishments that may be of interest to you.

Posted by clarsonimus at 16:07:27 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |
Comments
1 - As an American who's been suffering beir envy for over a decade, I greet this news with some trepidation. However, do note that some of those American beers are actually made better by the addition of extra ingredients - if you look only at real ingredients (do not include preservatives, color additives, etc.). I've had some really great microbrews using different types of grains, molasses, maple syrup, even -- this isn't nearly as bad as it sounds -- bananas! I used to brew myself at a little "brew it yourself" place, and liked to experiment once in a while - sometimes to horrible effect, but sometimes I was also delightfully surprised.

So much of the other crap we put in our beer has to go, though. I've never had a genuine German imported beer that tasted like chemicals to me, as a lot of the American brands do. That was one of the reasons that the "brew it yourself" place appealed to me so much. (Comment this)

Written by: Doug at 2005/11/21 - 16:46:18
2 - I wouldn't worry about it. Even if the law become watered down, as it will because of European Union law, most of the German brewers will voluntarily stick to it. In fact, it will probably become a marketing plus that the beer is brewed according to the traditional 'Reinheitsgebot'...

Nice blog BTW - I'll try and read some more later on...
 (Comment this)

Written by: P.inBerlin at 2005/11/24 - 13:03:30
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