Beer Purity Act
Under the Beer Purity Act enacted in 1516 and still applied by German beer brewers today, beer brewed in Germany can only contain three ingredients: water, malted barley and hops. Different kinds of beer are favoured in the various regions of Germany, and each variety is always served in a particular type of glass.
South
Wheat beer (Weißbier), one of the most popular kinds of beer in Bavaria, is a slightly sweet, creamy brew made of wheat and malted barley. A variant referred to as Hefeweizen is a wheat beer containing unfiltered yeast. Wheat beer is always served in a tall glass with a thick crown of foam.
As an alternative to wheat beer Bavarians generally prefer lager, the light golden beer often seen served in litre-sized glasses called a Mass in beer tents.
Rhineland
It would be considered a faux pas to order anything but Kölsch in the city of Cologne. Unlike the lager served in Bavaria, Kölsch is served nicely chilled in small, 0.2 litre cylindrical glasses often sarcastically referred to as a "thimble" by southern Germans. Kölsch is a top-fermented ale that is less bitter than a standard lager. By law it can only be brewed in Cologne.
The type of beer served just north of Cologne in Düsseldorf and along the lower Rhine is called Altbier or simply Alt. Alt is a top-fermented beer, like Kölsch, but is brewed with darker malts, as reflected in its caramel colour. The question of which is better, Alt or Kölsch, has long been a bone of contention between the citizens of Cologne and Düsseldorf.
Eastern Germany
A smooth, malty, dark lager enjoyed in many parts of eastern Germany is Schwarzbier (literally: black beer). One of the oldest types of beer in Europe, Schwarzbier has been brewed since the Middle Ages. It was often preferred by monks due to its alleged nutritional value, and many of today's black beer breweries are - or originally were - affiliated with monasteries. |
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Selected Links
German Beer Institute
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