The Origins of German Beer.
German beer is world famous. Germany and especially the southern region Bavaria are famous and well known throughout the world for crafting tasty beers. Pilsener and Weizenbier (also referred to as Weissbier sometimes) are the most famous beer styles of this region. Wheat in German is Weizen, the grain mostly used in this beer style. Weiss is the German word for White. Weissbier is a top fermenting speciality beer brewed with malted wheat. Mostly you will find this crafted specialty as a cloudy and unfiltered beer. Often it is bottle fermented. Popular not only in Bavaria. Many beers have been made by monks in the past. Some of these abbey breweries still operate today. Most of those breweries are not operated by real monks anymore.
Which are German Beer Styles?
As the legend wants, Pilsner beer was invented by a Bavarian immigrant in the Czech city by the name of Pilsen (Plzen). He brewed this beer using a German bottom fermenting yeast strain. Bottom fermenting (also referred to as lager yeasts) can ferment sugars at substantially lower temperatures than top fermenting yeast (ale yeasts). Therefore they create a distinctive lager aroma used in many popular beer styles around the globe. Typically a Pilsener is light in color and many Pils beers are filtered. Pilsener beer is accompanied by other typical German styles and beer types. There are also top fermenting beers and ales. Pilsener Bier is by far the most popular beer type in Germany. This was not always the case. Export style has been very popular with drinkers some years ago. Other popular beer styles in Germany include Düsseldorf Altbier (or called only Alt). It is a top fermenting variety using darker barley malt. The other surviving German ale type is called Kölsch, or Kolsch, brewed in the city of Cologne. This filtered German ale is prepared with barley malts and very cold top cropping fermentation. These ales are mainly sold from keg directly at the brewery. But these styles are also available in bottles and shipped out.
Keller beer is an unfiltered beer style, that has traditionally been sold directly from the cellar of a brewery. This very popular beer style is among the best sold beers on the German market. Other popular varieties include dark lager and Schwarzbier, an almost black beer.
Sources of German Brewery Tradition
German beer making dates back to the Middle Ages and drinking culture has developed over the last centuries. Drinking beer is a daily routine in the nutrition plan of many people in Germany. Many brands offer their beers throughout the year. Often they also brew seasonal specialities. The yearly Oktoberfest is a celebration of beer and sausages in the city of Munich. Since 1810 the Oktoberfest is destination of more than 6 million yearly visitors. This festival is popular with both local immigrant of the city of Munich (München), but it attracts visitors from all over the world. Brazil, China and USA are frequent origins of bierfest-visitors. The fame of this annual celebration has made Oktoberfest one of the most frequented festivals in Germany.
Munich is also home to one of the world’s universities that trains brewers. The TU (Technical University) in Weihenstephan is part of München University. There are other institutes that develop brewers, such as Doemens academy and VLB Institute in Berlin. These faculties maintain laboratories to analyse beer quality and ingredients used in the brewing process. We employ state of the art procedures to constantly raise efficiency and to ensure product quality thought out the whole production cycle. We are in close contact with said institutions and source our personnel only from qualified sources.
Qualification of staff and best ingredients guarantee quality and taste of our products. Sensory parameters are constantly checked in a panel comprising of experienced staff members.
What is the alcohol content of German Beer?
There are many different beers of different alcohol contents available on the market. Bock beers are usually beers with higher alcohol levels. They are brewed to seasonal occasions or from some brands these beers are available year round. We are able to provide every beer style year round, according to your requirements. Especially during xmas season there are many different Christmas and winter bock beers available. Their ABV can go up to 10% abv or even more. The abv abbreviation is “alcohol by volume”. The alcoholic content is measured as a percentage of the alcohol in the overall liquid. Bock beers usually taste more intensive. Maltiness and sweet aroma dominate this beer style. Wheat beers usually come with alcohol levels of around 5% abv and a high carbonisation. Carbonisation is the level of carbon dioxide dissolved in the liquid beer. The more carbonisation the liquid has, the more bubbly it is. Helles and Export, two traditional style with low hoppiness, also have around 5% of alcohol. While traditional Märzen has slightly more alcohol, Pils has also around 4,8 to 5,2% abv.
You may refer to this site to get an overview of typical beer styles in Germany and Europe.
Which are the biggest brands in Germany?
Germany is a market dominated largely by number of bigger breweries. The other part of the market is split into a big number of small and local breweries that distribute their beers mainly locally. The biggest brands in Germany include Beck’s, Oettinger, Krombacher and Bitburger. Other famous brands are Warsteiner, Veltins, Paulaner, Benediktiner (name refers to a beer originally brewed by monks) and Erdinger. Many of these names point to the place where the beers are brewed. Erdinger for example is a brand that names the city of Erding as the origin of beers with this trade mark. While the latter focus mainly on wheat beers, the former are great manufacturers of Pils beer. You will find a large selection of German brewed beers exported to countries around the globe. China, USA and UK are among the main destinations for bottles from these breweries.
Many breweries use contract brewing to enhance their capacities. To read more on our services in Contract Brewing and Private Label Beer, please refer to this page.
What are the ingredients in Germany?
German beer has fame not only due to its taste. There is a regulation or law that dates back to the year 1516. It is referred to as the Reinheitsgebot of 1516, or the Purity Law. This law limited the ingredients to a small number of things. These are water, barley malt and hops. The regulation exists until date, although with minor changes. All ingredients used in German beer must comply with these regulations. This law also goes for imported malts and hops from other origins. Germany has maintained the regulations to create a unique taste experience that complies with German beer culture. Most breweries are family owned companies and their owners have kept the family recipe as a secret over several decades.
Why are ingredients so important?
Water and malt are the two main ingredients in beer. Therefore their importance cannot be overvalued. We source our water from own springs or use high quality drinking water. Our malts are Pilsener malt, Vienna Malt and Munich malt. We take only best barley malts to brew our lager beers. No artificial stabilizer, colourings or sugars are added to the process. The German rules for beer brewing prohibit using corn, maize or rice as sources for beer wort. As for the hops we use German noble hops sourced from the Hallertau hop growing region in the very vicinity. Bittering and flavour hops have been bred here for centuries. Hop growers have developed expertise in hops that are in perfect harmony with European beer types.
Is this market changing?
Beer culture in Germany is subject to change, as it is world-wide. More and more craft brewers enter the market and provide customers with their creative creations. Many craft breweries apply their recipes to beers. Many of them brew styles typically brewed in the USA or UK.
Online shops are a source for high quality beers, but also more and more craft beer bars and pubs arise in this context. Specialised craft beer shops open in larger cities such as Muni, Hamburg and Berlin. Also in rural areas the craft brewer movements goes on. Almost every mid-sized city by now has its own craft beer store.
What are the differences between German vs American beer?
While there is a growing number of craft breweries in the US, there apply other laws to the preparation of beer than in Germany. The range of ingredients in Germany is limited to malt, yeast, hops and water. Hop extracts may only be used under certain circumstances. And the usage of glucose syrup is not allowed due to the Purity Law. This promise of quality is maintained by the companies brewing beer in Germany.
What is it with the Steins in Germany?
Steins have different names in Germany and the world. Some call it Bierseidel, others call it Humpen. A Stein is a stony jug used to serve beer in it. The jug is thick walled and therefore maintains well the temperature of the beers served from it. These jugs are very popular at traditional beer festivals, such as the Oktoberfest. But these jars are also used at the tradition beer garden.
What is a beer garden?
In beer gardens typically in the south of Germany beer is served in glasses often referred to as Steins. These glasses are sometimes made of stone, sometimes they are made from glass. At most places of this kind there is not service, but beer is sold from the bar. This self service enables people to bring their own food if they like. But most beer garden visitors make use of the opportunity to also buy their accompanying food at the bar in the beer garden. Popular beer garden food includes pretzels, cheese and salads made from sausage. Main beer in these places is Bavarian Helles from kegs, a light German lager beer brewed from barley malt and lager yeast. High output of beer in these places assures a good quality of the beer. Beer is always fresh and people like to drink outside in the shade of trees planted in these gardens.
Which glasses are used to enjoy German beer?
Besides the classical Stein there are many different beer glasses to enjoy lagers, Pilseners and wheat beer. The finer glasses are often used for styles that are more hop forward. Smaller glasses are used for Kölsch, Alt and Export. For craft beers there are even more sophisticated glasses. Many manufacturers in Germany produce glasses for all purposes. These brand names include Sahm, Rastal, Ritzenhoff and Spiegelau. These companies use their expertise to develop new forms and materials for beer glasses exported to the whole world, mainly to USA, China and UK.
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