As of 7.4.04 we here in Georgia are enjoying some “higher-alcohol content” beer, but I think I may have led myself to believe in my own fairy-tale, and I hope some of you beer connossieurs can set me straight.
See, I thought that when they “upped” the alcohol content, I would begin seeing my beloved Bitburger beer and other Pilseners, Dunkels, etc., in my nicer liquor stores, but this hasn’t been the case so far.
The only beer I have been able to find that actually resembles a German beer is Optimator from Spaten in Munich (München, dammit! :D) and I don’t recognize the brand or the manufacturer! All the others which purport to be German imports carry American names like “Lightning Strike”, etc.
So I guess what I’m asking is, " Am I going to be able to go to my beer store here in Georgia, ask for a case of my beloved Bitburger (“Bitte ein Bit”), and get what I would get back home in Germany???"
My future happiness depends on your answer!
Just kidding, but I sure would like to know for sure!
Don’t know about package stores yet, but I have found real European beers in bars in Atlanta. For a price, unfortunately. Hopefully that will change soon.
Ummmmm… I don’t know how to break this to you, but Green’s Liquor Store on Ponce in Atlanta sells Bitburger, Optimator, Spaten, Paulaner, Augustinerbrau Warsteiner, Holsten and just about every other major German brand you can think of. And as far as I know, they always have. Of course, they might be “diluted versions”, but I guess my point is… try a liquor store that’s not in Dallas.
I have written an e-mail to *Bitburger[/ii] in Germany, and if they tell me that what I get here in Georgia isn’t the “real thing”, you’d better believe I’m gonna be major pissed!
Do you know if the Bavarian Purity Laws apply to German exports as well? I know that many European beers have additives to keep them fresh on the long boat ride from the EU to the USA, but I don’t know if that applies to German export beers as well. Given the nutty “patchwork” nature of US alcohol laws - Georgia’s state motto: “If you think OUR beer sucks, try Florida’s” - it’s entirely possible that a weaker or adulterated version is sold in GA.
But then, maybe it’s all in your perception… For years the “US version” of Coleman’s English Mustard was made in New Jersey and Brits swore it wasn’t the same thing. Nowadays the stuff you buy at your local grocery store is made in England, and I for the life of me can’t tell a difference!
In the 1970s, when most Americans still considered wine an exotic beverage for very special occasions (more exotic than champagne is today), I returned from Germany with a fondness for Apfelkorn and a certain very inexpensive but (I thought) tasty national table wine. (I was young. I didn’t know any better.)
To my amazement, I found a local liquor store that sold both. Alas, the Apfelkorn turned out to be Berentzen, which wasn’t much like the local brands I’d enjoyed, and the import version of the table wine was… well, let’s just say that it would have made a creditable grapefruit soda.
Of course, I didn’t learn this until I’d bought a case of the stuff to share with my friends. When I did, there was much gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes… and when we woke up, much writing of disappointed letters. The wine company told me that the American version was indeed, regrettably different in an effort to suit American ‘tastes’. By way of apology, they arranged with a local distributor to have me recieve a case of the real stuff.
It was all very embarrassing :D. You don’t want to open yourself up to that risk. Just imagine how you’d feel when the Bitburger truck pulled up!
I was so mortified that I didn’t have the heart to tell them that, in the interim, I’d discovered a regular supply of both beverages, in their pristine overseas form, at the local Air Force BX. Oh the shame! I was forced to drown my sorrows. Again. Come to think of it, I never heard from Berentzen. The bums.
I’ve found various Pilsners, Bitburger, Dab, Dunkel, Spaten, and various other Bavarian and German biers in various grocery stores in Charleston, SC. I didn’t know, and don’t think, they have higher alcohol content than other beers. I would guess 5% at the most. Harris-Teeter (if you have those) carries a wide variety of beers, but I’ve seen some of them at Piggly-Wiggly and others.
Even if they were made the same and not altered in any way, they do not taste as good as if you bought them in Germany because of freshness. The fresher the beer, the better the taste. That’s why microbrews taste better.
Some states do and others don’t. “Florida beer” is notorious for being weak because the upper limit on alcohol content in beer used to be something like 4% - this must have changed because FL stores sell “ice” beer which is typicall over 4%. Anyway, in my “early drinking days” I remember beer bottlecaps in FL used to say “FLORIDA” on them instead of the fancy brewery logo or what have you. Again, this might have changed.
To answer you question of “why”… Who knows? Alcohol regulations have traditionally been handled by state governments - which means that the US has 50 different laws, all of which seem strange. For example, in GA a beverage is defined as “alcoholic” by whether it’s fermented or distilled, rather than alcoholic content - so minors are forbidden to buy alcohol-free “near beer” not necessarily because of some moral crusade to keep kids away from beer or near beer, but because of the technical definition of “alcoholic beverage”. I know that for a long time some state - Indiana? - allowed 18-21 year-old girls to buy 4+% beer but males the same age could only buy 3-4% beer. Why? Who knows? But if I remember my constitutional law class correctly, the law was thrown out due to the “equal protection” clause. And let’s no forget blue laws - in some states you can’t buy ANY alcohol on Sunday, in others you can buy just beer or wine on Sunday (some states say you can’t buy it before 1pm though), some places are 24x7 alcohol sales. Why? Well, religion enters into it, but for the most part, I have NO IDEA why these laws are so screwy!
I wonder if SCOTUS would now hold that any and all blue laws are unconstitutional due to separation of church and state. Not all religions observe Sunday as the day of religious observance. Further, since they are based upon religious reasons, does the state have any business regulating them? One would think not.
It’s been brought up several times but I don’t believe there’s ever been a ruling on that. Besides, let’s not talk about your screwy “airplane bottle” state!
…back to the OP - Green’s on Ponce (just around the corner from the house) has installed a nice new beer cellar with the ‘high gravity’ beers that have just been legalised. I have a huge belgian blonde in my fridge right now with a big ELEVEN percent label. Also a Russian BALTIKA at 8.
You folks out there must understand that we’ve been hamstrung to SIX percent forever because of the old laws and some politicking. No triple-bocks, no aged (vintage) beers, nothing like that.
It was tried in 2001, but smacked down because the sponsor (my neighbor) was young and female:
I haven’t had a drink in ten years, so things may have changed, but in Washington, beer was limited to a whopping 3.8% alcohol content. I think that, if you wanted a higher content, you had to call it something else. Hence, “malt liquor”.
However, it seemed to me that the microbrews and imports always knocked me on my butt faster than, say, Miller Genuine Draft or Budweiser. And I even drank the “specialty” beers much slower than the piss-water beers. So perhaps they somehow got away with a higher alcohol content in their brews.
