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Budweiser American Ale

FEATURES

Portland Brewing Picture

Your beer will be a half-liter glass.
Don’t even ask for a smaller serving.

Wecome to the
Beer Garden!

In Germany, Beer Goes with Everything

by Conrad Seidl

• Introduction
• Beer Garden Culture
• The Product of Invention
• Tavern Replacements
• Simple Rules of Hospitality
• Family Friendly
• And That Beer Garden Music

Where to Find German Beers in America?

You cannot avoid it—even if you wanted: Beer is so central to the lifestyle in Germany that you even find people who have it for breakfast (along with the famous weisswurst, the boiled veal-sausage). The Germans drink beer at lunchtime. And after work.

 

ne big brewery suggests you should drink beer at Dresden's opera house. Another claims that beer is the ideal drink for a wedding party—indeed, there are lots of weddings and other family celebrations where you will find no sparkling wine, but plenty of beer. In former times, it was the custom to brew a batch of beer at the birth of a child and drink it to celebrate the christening a few days later.

Although traditional home brewing ceased long ago, beer is still omnipresent in everyday life, as well as for all kinds of private and official festivities. The German tourist board has a challenge even listing all the beer-related festivals. Of course, Munich's Oktoberfest comes to mind—but there is also the Cannstatter Wasen in Stuttgart, Bremen's Freimarkt , the Berchkerwa in Erlangen and hundreds of other festivals. Most originated from church-oriented celebrations of a saint, and some beers still carry a saint's name.

In many regions, the beer will come from a tiny country brewery, especially in Franconia where rumor has it that there are more breweries than churches. It would take you almost three years if you decided to sample beers from a different German brewery each day.

Surprisingly, few Germans are even aware of how much choice of beer they have. They take it for granted that Germany has a deeply rooted beer culture and enjoy their beers without a second thought. Well, yes: They give a second thought on where to drink their favorite drink—and in summer the place of choice will be a beer garden. They have opened everywhere in Germany, but if you had only one day to get acquainted with German beer and beer gardens, you should really spend it in Bavaria.

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NEXT: Beer Garden Culture

This story originally appeared in All About Beer Magazine in November 1999.


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