I was under the impression that Beck’s was an Anheuser product brewed to taste like a German beer. It’s really German then?
From what I’ve heard about this beer, it’s actually more like a liqueur, syrupy, and not meant to be consumed by the pint.
Yes it is. From Bremen, in fact. It is quite popular in that part of Germany, but as far as I know, Warsteiner is the most popular beer in Germany.
You are sounding like a bavarian. Stay away with these yucky south german brands.
Yes, I must also vouch for the fact that Beck’s is German. It was my exchange student’s favorite beer, and he was ecstatic when we found some imported Becks.
Them south german brands are the best!
OTOH, maybe it was the whole experience of the biergarten… up in Hamburg, they weren’t half as fun 
I was told by a German friend that Heineken was brewed in England and the Czech Republic too, and that the Czech brew was the only one worth drinking. Is that true?
By quantity that seems likely, but keep in mind that this doesn’t say anything about quality. Warsteiner is certainly not a quality brand, not even compared to other nationwide breweries. Beck’s is a bit controversial (my opinion: it’s an abomination)
but it has a community of fans. What was special about them is that they were one of the very early breweries that exported aggressively. That’s why you can buy them all over the world.
In the “Purity Law” system a very important factor is freshness because preserving agents are banned. So locally brewed beer has a certain advantage over nationwide bottled beer that maybe spent weeks on its way to the customer.
Therefore local (but non-micro) breweries play a very important part in the business.
Looks like you, pulykamell, prefer top-fermented beers (e.g. ale in America.) That’s a matter of quasi-religios debate, and has only little to do with the south.
As I understand it, beer that is imported into the US has to be pasteurized by law, whereas local beer or foreign beer sold locally (eg Gereman beer in Germany) does not. This can change the taste.
[QUOTE=kellner]
By quantity that seems likely, but keep in mind that this doesn’t say anything about quality. Warsteiner is certainly not a quality brand, not even compared to other nationwide breweries. Beck’s is a bit controversial (my opinion: it’s an abomination)
but it has a community of fans.
[QUOTE]
I don’t know where you come from but here in northern Germany Warsteiner is considered to be one of the nationwide quality brands. Otherwise it would be hard to explain why it is more expensive than Beck’s for example.
Now that that question’s been answered, can someone tell me how to find real ale in the US? I’d give my right arm for a Wetherspoon around here. (I’d give my left arm too, but then I’d have to drink my ale through a straw!)
First, to dispel some misinformation, most beer regardless of where it is brewed has 6% or less alcohol. Much more than that and it doesn’t taste like what most people think of as beer.
Next, the question. In the U.S., we had prohibition in the 20’s and 30’s. Our federal constittuion was amended to allow alcohol, but technically all this did was leave alcohol to be regulated by each state. As a result, there is a patchwork of laws. Worse, many of these are protectionist and designed to protect special industries. In Georgia, for example, it is illegal to sell beer that is greater than 6% alcohol. This is the case in some other states. In some states, beear in excess of a specified level, often 6%, has to be labeled “malt liquor” which many Americans don’t realize is beer. Most beers with this label are marketed to poor people.
Even if a real German beer has less than 6% alcohol, it faces 3 other challenges. First, you need to apply to each state to sell it. The states tax it and therefore have very specific regulations to ensure untaxed beer is not sold. You have to preapply for labeling, size of container, and other matters. Next, you need a distributor. In most states, you cant be the brewer and the distributor. Finally, you have to decide that all this is worth the hassle and the investment. For many small brands in Germany, its not. Additionally, beer is perishable and you would probably want to set up manufacturing here. I don’t defend this system, but I understand why many German brewers do not want to try to penetrate it. The distributorship system is required by law in many or most states. Originally it was a mechanism to ensure collection of the tax. These days, it protects established players, and the alcohol industry in each state are among the most generous to state politicians.
While this is true (I do prefer top-fermented beers usually), Spaten, Hacker Pschorr and Paulaner all produce popular bottom-fermented lagers, as well. (And for Spaten, I was specifically talking about the lager.)
Last time I was in Germany, I remember seeing a map of where wheat beers were popular. Most of the market was concentrated in Bavaria (of course, where they’re mostly brewed), and there were patches in the north (Hamburg comes to mind) where less than 5% of beer sales were what beers, as opposed to fifty or more percent in the south.
As for Beck’s, I think of it as the (American) Budweiser of Germany.
While I haven’t tried this one, I did try the tripple-bock when it first came out. The phrase “spiked maple syrup” was burned into my mind. Just awful, you couldn’t drink more than a shot or two of it at one sitting.
-lv
If you’re in Houston/Dallas/Austin, you can probably get St. Arnold Cask conditioned Ale- from a hand-pump and everything, just like in the UK. Good stuff- very similar, except for the US ingredients.
I’m pretty sure CAMRA would approve of it. (had lots of CAMRA-approved beer this past summer in the UK, and St. Arnold’s Cask conditioned is right up there)
Cripes, 24% alcohol content by volume? That’s more than sherry, isn’t it? I mean, is that beer anymore? When do you start calling it a malt liquor, anyway? Actually, now that I think about it, malt liquor may be brewed differently, and hence not be determined by alcohol content alone. But still, that’s an insane amount of booze per beer. What would it taste like?
If you’ve gone to a bar in the US then I’d be shocked if you haven’t encountered it. It’s not exactly a secret beer.
Another one you should try is Pete’s Wicked Ale. Very tasty.
I once tasted Samuel Adams Millenium ale, which was 20% alcohol by volume. It was not syrupy, like Triple Bock. It was pale, and the taste and aroma were reminiscent of port wine.
And I’m pretty sure that imported beer does not have to be pasteurized, as many homebrewers culture the yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottles, especially those from Belgium. Most exporters probably do pasteurize though for a more stable product.
Heineken is Dutch, not German…
They actually have a few dozen breweries worldwide, but according to them “every effort is taken to ensure that the ingredients used in the brewing process are identical at all Heineken sites”.
He’s actually referring to the Triple Bock, which is a bit hard to come by. At least I’ve never seen it in bars.
Mr Moonlight – lucky you on that Millennium Ale. That’s $200 a bottle, and only 3000 bottles exist(ed).
pulykamell wrote:
Yes, very lucky. A friend of a friend worked at the brewery where it was contract brewed, and he pulled a big sample directly off of the tank for his brewer friends. I drank it out of a mason jar.