Drinking in the Culture: A checklist for Beer Gardens in Europe. (Beer Blogging Friday)

The Session: Beer Blogging Friday is a monthly event for the beer blogging community, begun in March of 2007 by Stan Hieronymus of Appellation Beer and Jay Brooks of the Brookston Beer Bulletin. On the first Friday of every month, a pre-determined beer blogger hosts The Session, choosing a specific, beer-related topic, inviting all bloggers to write on it, and posting a roundup of all the responses received.

For The Session #134, Friday, 6 April 2018, I was that pre-determined host and my topic was ... Beer Gardens.

Beer writers/raconteurs/travellers/tickers Bob and Ellie Tupper sent in a checklist for European beer gardens — a checklist that could be referenced universally (or, for now, globally). I've posted it here, today —Monday, 9 April— because, in the beer world and especially in a beer garden, it's always Friday in spirit. Allons-y, Alonzo!

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Drinking in the Culture

The calendar, if not the thermometer, says it’s springtime, so it’s time to leave the romantic tasting rooms with crackling fires and start searching for places to drink beer in the great outdoors. The explosion of farm breweries may soon make beer gardens more numerous and exciting in the U.S. than in the Old Country, but, for now, we still look forward to returning to our favorites in Germany and Austria.

When we wrote Drinking In the Culture: Tuppers’ Guide to Exploring Great Beers in Europe [in 2015], we tried to identify the six best places in each of the twenty-four featured cities to experience the local beer culture. We succeeded in over twenty cities, but failed miserably in Munich: there were just too many. We finally compromised on the six best establishments in each of four different categories, only one of which was "beer garden." It came down to six criteria that lifted those six winners to the top of a crowded Munich field.

Here are those criteria, with a favorite or two in Germany and Austria for each of them.

• Accessibility
  We only included places accessible by public transportation. German DUI laws are even stricter than in the U.S. We found a lovely, historic beer garden near Freising last year, but the round-trip cab ride came to over $70. The Augustiner Keller in Munich is two blocks from a tram stop and the S Bahn subway.





• Prices
  The price of a German Mass (short-filled liter) can vary from 6 to 9 Euros. In general, the closer to the center of the city, the more you’ll pay. The price of a liter at the Kloster Mülln garden in Salzburg is still just above the 6 Euro level.


• Size
  Intimate gardens can be attractive, but we love a really enormous one. The clanking of steins and rumble of 200-liter barrels, overlaid with hundreds of conversations, could be cacophonic, but to us, it’s a symphony. On a beautiful weekend night, the Munich Hirschgarten comes close to filling their 8,000 seats, and the hum is like a contented beehive you can hear for blocks.


• Setting
  Traditional German beer gardens evolved in the 19th century as brewers discovered that if you spread white gravel on the hilltop above the underground cellars where you kept the beer, then further shaded the white stone with leafy chestnut trees, it kept the cellars cooler. An unintended benefit was that this shady hilltop was a perfect place to drink that lovely beer. Some gardens have particularly good vistas: you can spot an Alp from Kloster Mülln, gaze at the massive Dom across the Danube from the Spital Brauerei garden in Regensburg, or feed the deer that mooch along the fence next to your table at the Hirschgarten.


• Food
  Almost every garden will have roast chicken and bratwurst, but the biggest and best of them go much farther. Fresh fish roasted over live coals, spare ribs, enormous spiral-sliced white radishes, massive roasted pork knuckles, and a wide array of salads and sweets almost always taste as good as they look. Food vendors indoors and out in the garden at Kloster Mülln offer a variety that gives this one an edge over the others. Or copy the locals and bring in your own picnic; almost all gardens allow it as long as you’re drinking their beer.


• Beer
  As important as this criterion would seem, it probably influences us the least. Almost every brewery with a good garden brews a fine helles lager. But, as Orwell noted, some are more equal than others. Munich’s Augustiner is sweet, but achingly clean, and somehow leaves you with no ache at all the next morning. Salzburg’s Augustiner brewery looms above the Kloster Mülln garden; being able to sit within meters of where the beer is born seems to make it taste even better.


• Gemütlichkeit
  Gemütlichkeit, or friendliness, is hard to judge on a limited number of visits. You’ll almost always sit at communal tables, so conversation is optional but usually available. On almost every one of our dozen visits to Kloster Mülln, spanning decades, we’ve made new best friends, only some of whom could speak more than a few words of English.

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— "We're Bob and Ellie Tupper, “DC’s original beer geeks” (Washington City Paper). We spent 35 years seeking beers all over Europe, amassing a database with over 32,000 entries, before writing Drinking In the Culture. In it, we describe the best places in Europe to visit in order to “drink in” the rich connections between beers and the societies that brew them.

We're currently working on Brews & Snooze, a guide to breweries and B&Bs of the Mid-Atlantic region, featuring places where you can visit a brewery and walk, not drive, back to where you're spending the night. In some cases, the journey back to your room involves only walking up a couple of flights of stairs. We hope to have the book in print by the end of the year."

The Tuppers maintain their own website and blog, called, punningly enough, CultureAle. The essay above —but illustrated with photographs— they'll be posting there soon. Until then, of course, you could read their book.

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Austria, the 2010 wine harvest, & Thanksgiving

Austrian wine for American Thanksgiving? Who knew?

But first: a (very) brief look at the 2010 European wine harvest, and, in particular, that of Austria. (Not Australian: there are no kangaroos here.)

Let me just say it in a few words - it was a very challenging year for Austria (and probably all of the European wineries). The 2010 harvest was the smallest in 25 years, coming on the heels of a small harvest in 2009. Top producers, however, will produce outstanding wines, just much less.

Klaus Wittauer
KWSelection

Grüner Veltliner —the name for both the grape varietal and the finished white wine— combines a subtle tropical fruitiness with a hint of white pepper, and a finishing acidity. That last quality —and the lack of overripe fruitness, and lack of oak or butter— makes Grüner Veltliner, what wine folk refer to as, a 'food wine.' That's a tasty quality needed if one wine is asked to play well with many different foods, such as at an American Thanksgiving dinner.

If the name 'Grüner Veltliner' gives you consternation ... just say, "Gee Vee."

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Caveat lector: As a representative for wine and beer wholesaler Select Wines, Inc., I sell the wines of KW Selection in northern Virginia.

Max's 3rd Annual German Beer Fest (& those gravity kegs)

It may be the little sister to the Belgian Beer Fest, but the September 10-12 German Beer Festival at Maxs Taphouse in Baltimore, Maryland, is still full of good beer. Maybe it's the lagers, or maybe it's the less than astronomical rates of IBUs and ABVs (with exceptions!), but this informal festival seems to bring out less geeky rambunctiousness and more Gemütlichkeit.

From the website and email:

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Sept 10-12, 2010
11am to close each day
NO ENTRANCE FEE
Over 50 German beers on draft:

1809 Berliner Weisse
Ahornberger Dark Märzen
Aecht Schlenkerla Urbock
Aecht Schlenkerla Märzen
Aecht Schlenkerla Helles
Bitburger Pils
Erdinger Hefeweizen
Erdinger Dunkel Weiss
Erdinger Oktoberfest
Franziskaner Hefeweizen
Franziskaner Dunkel Weiss
Gunter Brau Amber Märzen
Hartman Amaber Märzen
Hofstetten Aurora
Hofstetten Bio Honigsbock
Hofstetten Granit Bock
Hofstetten Kueblebier
Koning Ludwig Hefeweizen
Langbrau Amber Märzen
Mahrs Weisse
Mahrs Unfiltered Pils
Mahrs Ungespundet Lager
Rothenbach Dark Märzen
Schneider Aventinus
Schneider Aventinus Eisbock
Schneider Edel Weisse
Schneider Hopfen Weisse
Schneider Weisse
Spaten Dunkel
Spaten Lager
Spaten Oktoberfest
Spaten Optimator
Steigel Lager
Uerige Classic
Uerige Dopplesticke
Uerige Sticke
Warsteiner Dunkel
Warsteiner Oktoberfest
Warsteiner Pils
Wurzburger Oktoberfest
Wurzburger Pils

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General Manager/Beer Manager Casey Hard says that his list is 80% completed. In addition, at current count, he has 20 bottled German beers, and more than 10 German gravity kegs. He continues to work on securing more draughts. Beers will be served in mugs, Maßkrugs (one-liter steins, pronounced "mahss"), one liter boots, and some 2-liter boots (modeled below by long-time bartender Jamie).



A riff on those 'gravity' kegs ...

I noticed a Washington, D.C., area beer bar recently mentioning that they would be serving German firkins at an event they would hold.

Well, not really.

The term 'firkin' explicitly refers to a 9 UK gallon cask, or, as measured in US terms, 10.8 gallons. The Germans don't measure in gallons; they use the metric system. A common size for a German keg is 50 liters, which roughly corresponds to 13.2 US gallons. More to the point, a firkin is a cask, a vessel in which a secondary or tertiary re-fermentation occurs. Though one might encounter kellerbier —lager re-fermented in a keg, or served unfiltered from a tank, such as zwickelbier— a German brewer would bemused to hear her kegs referred to with a British term.

Here's a picture of a Reisssdorf Kölsch keg, which has a spring-loaded bung, on its side near the bottom, through which a bartender can insert a tap.


Since extraneous CO2 is not used to push the beer through the lines, serving it by gravity tap will result in a less gassy mouthfeel —similar to beer from a cask. And, yes, the beer is unpasteurized —as are many kegged beers, by the way— but it is not a cask! It is filtered, kegged beer, that can also be dispensed via a 'standard' draught system through a top spear and coupler.

Take none of this as disparagement. Fresh, well-made, full-flavored lagers (and ales, such as Kölsch) can be sublime.

Pic(k) of the Week: Fine Wine from Austria

I got lucky with the lighting and composition of this photograph.

Good early evening sunlight was streaming through the windows, providing high contrast. Holding the bottle of Hillinger Welschriesling was Michael Hoeffken —assistant winemaker and sommelier for Hillinger Winery in Austria. The occasion was a tutored tasting at Northdown Social, a coffee and wine café in the Clarendon district of Arlington, Virginia.

The Welschriesling grape produces light, bright white wines, with aromatic hints of apple and citrus. It is not related to the Riesling varietal.

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• Caveat lector: As an employee of Select Wines, Inc. —a wine (and beer) wholesaler in northern Virginia— I sell Hillinger wines, imported by KWSelection.
• View the map of Austrian wine regions online at austrianwine.com.
• The rest of the shoot from 28 April 2010: here.
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays.

Disgorged and severed: sparkling wines

This is a graphic video ... but in a good way.

Taken at Austrian family-owned winery Steininger, the video depicts the winemakers disgorging their Sekt.

Disgorging is the method of removing yeast from a bottle of sparkling wine bottle. sekt is the German/Austrian name for a Champagne-style wine. The video was taken by Seth Gross, the co-writer of Wine Authorities - Estate Grown Blog, during his trip to Austria in January of this year.

Did you catch the snippet of the theme music from the 19070s Laverne and Shirley television program near the end of the video? The pair worked at a ... brewery!

... And here, from August of 2007, is a (very) brief video showing the representative from Virginia winery Barboursville literally severing the bottle neck of his Sparkling with the blunt edge of his sword.

The Washington Post recently ran a story that showed the difficulty that Virginia wineries —and by extension, most lesser-known wines— have in the bigger world of wine-acceptance. Reported from the London International Wine Fair:

Lisa Abbott, a cork master at her English wine club (it's called the Wasters), took a sip of a Viognier from Virginia and declared with obvious surprise, "It's an absolute classic!

"I didn't know Virginia produced wine," she said, echoing a comment heard over and over

'Virginia Makes Wines?' Yes, and London Likes Them
By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 27, 2009

As frustrating as that may be for purveyors of Virginia wines, the flip side is that there is a huge market yet to be filled.

That's a lesson also for the new breed of local and smaller US breweries. With their sales at only 5-6% of the beers sold, they have before them the remaining 95%, a large untapped market.

Budweiser loses partial rights to its name

BRUSSELS – 29 March 2009
Anheuser-Busch InBev lost a battle for the “Budweiser” name after an EU court rejected its claim to register the word as an exclusive Europe-wide trademark

Read that sentence carefully. I didn't do so upon first glance.

It does not say that Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABIB) has lost the rights to the Budweiser name and logo in Europe.In fact, where ABIB has established trademark protection already, country-by-European country, it retains those rights. Where it hasn't, however, it cannot claim the right.

What ABIB was attempting to do was to establish an exclusive right throughout the European union regardless of individual national judicial decisions. That effort was rejected by the European Court of First Instance, when it upheld a 2007 decision by the EU’s trademark agency.

U.S.-based Anheuser-Busch – now renamed Anheuser-Busch-InBev after a $52 billion takeover by Belgium’s InBev – and smaller Czech rival Budejovicky Budvar NP haggled for years over the name, once also the name of a Czech town famous for its fine beers. <...>

Budvar registered the name as a trademark in 1991 with the EU trademark agency, five years before Anheuser-Busch.

A spokesperson for ABIB stated:

the ruling did not pose problems to the company’s operations in Europe. <...> the company “owns the right” to the Budweiser and Bud trademarks in 23 of 27 EU countries and added the court ruling would not cancel the trademarks in Germany or Austria.

Much smaller Budvar retains the exclusive right to use the brand name Budweiser in France, Austria, and the Czech Republic (and a co-right with ABIB in the UK).

The patina of invincibility has been rubbed off in spots from the former mighty Anheuser-Busch.

Full story:

This Bud’s for Czech brewer

Europe denies Anheuser claim to beer name
Associated Press
March 29, 2009

A vernal cause for celebration

Like a panoramic vadic painting, this early evening cloud formation of 19 March seemed to promise change.

Reveling in the anticipation last evening, I drank a pint of draft Aecht Schenkerla Rauchbier Fastenbier.

Brewed by Brauerei Heller-Trum of Bavaria —and only for the Lenten season— Fastenbier is deep reddish brown, sweetly malty, and redolent of smoked bacon. The term Rauchbier is German for smoked beer: beers brewed with malted barley that has been cured with indirect smoke.

Truth in blogging: I had 2 pints.

At 7:44 this morning (US Eastern Daylight Savings Time), the sun lay directly above the equator, marking the Vernal Equinox, and the beginning of calendar (if not meteorological) Spring. The duration of daylight today will be approximately equal to that of darkness.

Spring has jumped up, and that is indeed cause for celebration ... and a beer.

2009 Vernal Equinox sunrise at Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, Md.
Caveat lector: I sell Flying Dog beers as an employee of northern Virginia wholesaler Select Wines.

Einstein's Oktoberfest

Today at noon ―Munich, Germany, time― the lord mayor of München tapped the first keg of the Oktoberfest. Standing in the Spaten (Schottenhamel) tent, he proclaimed "O'zapft is!" ("the barrel has been tapped").

Oktoberfest continues through 5 October.

A brief history of lager and Oktoberfest beer

The genetic identity of lager yeast has only just recently been mapped. Two distinct strains have been identified, each containing genetic material and consequent traits ―including tolerance for cold― from other yeast strains. [Read more about Saccharomyces pastorianus at The Zythophile.]

In 1841, brewers Anton Dreher in Vienna and ―friend and rival― Gabriel Sedlmayer in Munich began brewing with at least one of these lager yeast strains.

A year later, lager yeast was introduced into breweries in Pilsen. The low pH and low mineral content of that city's water allowed the brewing of hoppy, crisp, and lighter-hued lagers ―known as Pilsners, literally, "from Pilsen."

[Historian and brewer Rich Wagner believes that the first lager brewery in the US opened in 1840 in Philadelphia, thus trumping Vienna, Munich, and Pilsen.]

Attempts in Munich and Vienna to brew similar Pilsen-style lagers were unsuccessful.

In Munich, Sedlmayer soon empirically grasped that it was his city's highly alkaline water that was producing harshness when mashed with lighter malts. He switched to darker malts ―of higher acidity― and had much more palatable results.

Vienna's water was also alkaline, but less so than that of Munich. Thus, Dreher was able to successfully brew his lagers with less-kilned amber malts. His Vienna lagers were darker than Pilsen's but lighter than Munich's.

Both brewers continued to upgrade their breweries and processes, especially in areas of barley agriculture and malting technology. In lieu of refrigeration, they collaborated in pioneering the commercial application of beer storage in cold caves and cold cellars. This became known as the märzen process ―literally "from March"― because the beers would be made in the cooler months, and then cold stored during the summer.

In 1860, both Dreher and Sedlmayer installed a new technology called ... refrigeration.

The beer poured during the first years of Oktoberfest was the dark Munich style. It wasn't until 1872, with better understanding of water chemistry, that the brewmaster of the Spaten brewery ―Josef Sedylmayr (younger brother of Gabriel)― was able to introduce the brewery's amber-hued Märzen as the Oktoberfest bier. Based on brewing records, it would have have been medium-bodied, tasting of softly toasted malt, and with possibly just a nuance of yeasty tooty-fruity. The other Munich breweries would soon follow suit.

These amber lagers produced in both Vienna and Munich and associated breweries rivaled the popularity of the lighter-shaded Pilsner lagers.

Oktoberfest style: then and now.

The beer served at modern Oktoberfests is not this rich amber lager. It is a much less robust beer: lighter in color, body, and flavor. Fortunately, there are indeed many other breweries that still produce '1872-style' Oktoberfests ―but just not in Munich. Here's how the U.S. Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) describes the Oktoberfest-style:

• Aroma
  Rich German malt aroma (of Vienna and/or Munich malt). A light to moderate toasted malt aroma is often present. Clean lager aroma with no fruity esters or diacetyl. No hop aroma. Caramel aroma is inappropriate.
• Appearance
  Dark gold to deep orange-red color. Bright clarity, with solid, off-white, foam stand.
• Flavor
  Initial malty sweetness, but finish is moderately dry. Distinctive and complex maltiness often includes a toasted aspect. Hop bitterness is moderate, and noble hop flavor is low to none. Balance is toward malt, though the finish is not sweet. Noticeable caramel or roasted flavors are inappropriate. Clean lager character with no diacetyl or fruity esters.
• Mouthfeel
  Medium body, with a creamy texture and medium carbonation. Smooth. Fully fermented, without a cloying finish.
• Overall Impression
  Smooth, clean, and rather rich, with a depth of malt character. This is one of the classic malty styles, with a maltiness that is often described as soft, complex, and elegant but never cloying.
• Comments
  Domestic German versions tend to be golden, like a strong Pils-dominated Helles. Export German versions are typically orange-amber in color, and have a distinctive toasty malt character. German beer tax law limits the OG of the style at 14 °P since it is a vollbier, although American versions can be stronger. “Fest” type beers are special occasion beers that are usually stronger than their everyday counterparts.
• History
  Origin is credited to Gabriel Sedlmayr, based on an adaptation of the Vienna style developed by Anton Dreher around 1840, shortly after lager yeast was first isolated. Typically brewed in the spring, signaling the end of the traditional brewing season and stored in cold caves or cellars during the warm summer months. Served in autumn amidst traditional celebrations.
• Ingredients
  Grist varies, although German Vienna malt is often the backbone of the grain bill, with some Munich malt, Pils malt, and possibly some crystal malt. All malt should derive from the finest quality two-row barley. Continental hops, especially noble varieties, are most authentic. Somewhat alkaline water (up to 300 PPM), with significant carbonate content is welcome. A decoction mash can help develop the rich malt profile.

[Read here and here about two of my personal favorites.]

How the Einsteins brought refrigeration to Oktoberfest

For the first 74 years of Oktoberfest, it was ice or simple cellar storage that would keep the beer cool. And it was gas or candle power that would illuminate the festival wiesen (meadow).

Then, in 1885, electrical power finally came to Munich's Oktoberfest, wired and generated by ... the Einstein Bros. Company.

Yes, that Einstein!

Albert Einstein was only 6 at the time, but in the following 9 years, he would work at his uncle and father's electrical engineering firm. In his teens, he helped to design several mechanical innovations.

In 1894, Munich removed the contract from the company and awarded it to Siemens. Yes, that Siemens. Einstein Bros. was bankrupted.

Albert Einstein would move on to more theoretical pursuits. But it was Einstein's father Hermann, and his uncle Jakob, who first gave the world a cold beer at Oktoberfest. And that's a noble achievement.

Toast them over the next 3 weeks with a Vienna-style lager, or a Märzen, or an Oktoberfest ―all variations on the same delicious theme.

Prosit!

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Germany via Baltimore

From Sunday, 14 September:

Here are my Twitter posts [What's Twitter, you ask? Go here.] while in Baltimore at Max's TapHouse for the pub's 1st annual German Beer Fest. Over 50 German drafts —at least when the festival began on Friday— and over 100 different German bottled beers. (Full list here.)

1:30pm
Redskins, Nationals, or 1st annual German Beerfest at Maxs in Baltimore. I choose the last one. Walking in.

Started with 'traditional' international Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest. Had to pay tribute to the conglomerates.

2:15pm
For its German sausage platter, Max's arranged to freight in sausages from Stiegelmeier in Illinois. A local source, Baltimore's famous sausage-maker —Binkert's— has been temporarily closed since suffering a fire.

I didn't order the sausages, but did see many platters being served. Instead, much to the bemusement of bar manager Bob Simko, I ordered a bowl of sauerkraut. And with it, I drank ...

... Reissdorf Koelsch. From a side-tapped keg. Just a hint of fruitiness. A delicious lagered ale. Served like this, the beer shows more of its character than from the bottle.


3:00pm
Aecht Schenkerla Rauch Helles. Draft. Gentle sweet malt with a small amount of smoke aroma and banana ester.

4:00pm
Klosterbrauerei Ettal Dunkel. Draft. Brownish-red. Firm body and aroma of toasted bread.

About this time I met up with Dominic Catalupo and Lisa Lawson, both of the Society for the Preservation of Beer from the Wood.

The Redskins won; the Nationals lost; the beerlist was stellar.

More photos here.

Kellerbier kraziness - Session #19

Today, being the first Friday of the month, is the day for 'The Session'.

The Session is a monthly event for the beer blogging community which was started by Stan Hieronymus at Appellation Beer. On the first Friday of each month, all participating bloggers write about a predetermined topic. Each month a different blog is chosen to host The Session, choose the topic, and post a roundup of all the responses received. For more info on The Session, check out the Brookston Beer Bulletin’s nice archive page.

September's theme —as selected by blogger Lootcorp 3.0— is German beer.

I'm going to blog about kellerbier. But first, read this 2006 thread at BeerAdvocate.com about a tapping of a cask of Clipper City Brewing's Small Craft Warning Über Pils at the Brick Store in Decatur, GA:

• Pils on cask???? A bit odd isn't it?
• Mmm, I don't think that a Pils on cask is anything that I would be remotely interested in. It's just ALL wrong!
• How did they serve Pilsener in Bohemia before modern kegs became all the rage?
• Dunno, but what's your point? A cask and a pils ain't a good combo in 2006, even if it was served that way in the past. Those light pils lagers are the BEST beers for the modern keg.

Let's ignore for a moment that the brewery gave the beer its double-adjective appellation —Über Pils— because in 2004 the Great American Beer Festival had no category for a strongly hopped pale bock. By the way, the beer won a bronze medal. [Caveat: At the time, I was Territory Manager for Clipper City.]

Let's ignore for a moment that the Über Pils is 7% alcohol by volume (abv) and 55 bittering units (IBUs), whereas pilsners fall much lower in both measurements.

And, let's ignore for a moment that true pilsners, even at 4.8% abv, are wonderfully hopped, firm malt beers.

Let's examine, rather, the writer's claim that cask lager, as a rule, is "ALL wrong."

From Wikipedia:

Kellerbier or Zwickelbier is an unfiltered beer, often a lager which is not clarified or pasteurised, probably originated from Germany. In comparison with most of the today's beer sorts, this kind of beer contains more of its original yeast and more of the valuable nutritional substances. It is often served directly from the barrel (for example, in a beer garden) or bottled. In Germany this beer is described by manufacturers as naturtrüb (naturally cloudy). <...> The name Kellerbier is German and literally means Cellar beer.

And here from Bob Tupper, the creator of Tuppers Hop Pocket Pils:

Tuppers' Hop Pocket Pils is brewed in the keller style of beer which emerged years ago when German breweries aged their beers in kellers or cellars that were usually caves dug into the side of a hill. On special days, the brewery would set up a few tables outside the cave and roll out a barrel from the keller to accommodate the thirst of local customers.

[Available in the mid-Atlantic region beginning in the mid 1990s, the Tuppers beers have temporarily lost their brewery home. Fans await their return. Read more here. ]

Sometimes beer fans can cross the line from advocacy to foolishness. This writer had not tasted the cask lager, but that omission was no hindrance to him passing judgment.

Fast forward to 2008.

A columnist at a Washington D.C. area blog —DC Foodies — reviewed a new restaurant called the CommonWealth Gastro Pub. Among other things, he said:

I had a Victory Prima Pilsner on [cask]. The beer lacks the bubbly texture of a typical keg beer, but was all flavor. The cask beer is served a little warmer too which allowed the flavor of the beer to come to the surface.

Prima Pils, from Victory Brewing in Pennsylvania, is a masterful beer, and, on cask, sublime. [Non-caveat: I do not sell this beer.]

But that didn't prevent a reader, who had not tasted the beer, from posting this comment:

CW [CommonWealth] recently had a Pilsner "on cask"---what a joke.

Nein, mein herr. Even if it is a lager, kellerbier is indeed a cask-conditioned beer, and noble in heritage. [It is produced either by bunging the vessel during final fermentation, thus trapping carbonation, or as with most cask ales, by inducing a tertiary fermentation within the cask.]

And ... kellerbier is delicious.

Taste first; offer (gentle) criticism later. Danke Shoen!

Stella and mental deficiency

From blogger Ron Pattinson comes this delicious observation upon discovering an I.L.L. (International Light Lager) Stella Artois being served in a pub in České Budějovice, home city to hoppy Czech lager Budvar Budweis (the Germanic spelling):

What sort of mental deficient would drink the Stella? No, don't answer that question, I already know the answer. A young trendy with neither a sense of history nor tastebuds.

Budvar is sold in the US as Czechvar.

Are our bad beers, not bad?

Ever since the late great Michael Jackson (whose birthday we celebrate tomorrow) commended craft brewers in the US for brewing the best beers in the world, some of us, in a self-congratulatory manner, have occasionally overlooked the bigger picture. A good beer culture is not only the liquid but also local pride and national zeitgeist.

Evan Rail is author of Good Beer Guide: Prague and the Czech Republic. In a recent blog, Rail mused about what he considers the true measure of a beer culture ... from his vantage point in the Czech Republic.

a country’s beer culture shouldn’t be measured by the achievements of its best beers. Instead, I’d argue that a better way to take the pulse of any beer culture would be to look at its worst beers. Just how good are your supermarket generics? How good is the beer served at sports events? What do the masses drink?

Sure, America may have Surly Darkness and an army of outstanding craft brewers producing more variety than any other nation on earth, but the fact is that most people there drink Bud Light. In its history and achievements, Germany’s beer culture is outstanding, but if I had to drink mass-produced German pils for the rest of my days, it wouldn’t be a particularly long ride before I died of thirst, if not boredom.

And yet of all the beers in the Czech Republic that didn’t impress me — and yes, there are a few — I can’t think of any that are really and truly terrible, as in evil. (Okay, someone might say ahem! and nod in a direction west-northwest from Prague. With the qualification that I mean it in a global context, I stand by my statement.) <...>

It’s true, there’s not a huge amount of variety in Czech beer culture, at least not by American standards, though there certainly is much more now than just a few years ago. Regardless, our good beers are generally excellent, just as the good beers are in any beer culture.

The difference? Our bad beers are often quite good, too.

Düsseldorf beer culture: could it happen here?

In Düsseldorf, the local breweries make altbier, a dry, slightly roasty dark amber ale. Cologne has its own city beer, kölsch, a light-bodied straw-gold ale that’s crisp and refreshing. <...>

These aren’t quaint local choices, surviving only on the patronage of German beer geeks; they dominate the local markets.I’m happy to say that prospects for the future of these two beers are good. Despite the consolidation that has shaken the German brewing industry, the local markets remain devoted to their city beers. [emphasis mine]

A Tale of Two Cities

I've used beer-writer Lew Bryson's northern German travelogue, which he posted yesterday at Condé Nast Portfolio.com, as an example of beer culture, admittedly monoculture.

Could such beer culture happen here in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore? I wrote a few years ago about Baltimore as a beer-drinking town.

Pride in local beer was fierce in that town. But it's a rarer commodity here in the greater Washington, D.C. area. We readily embrace the world, yet only infrequently celebrate the local.

Comparison of D.C.'s beer culture to Philadelphia's here.

Beer and Nosovicky zeli: it's the law

Super-kraut!

One might think that one jar of pickled cabbage tastes much like another. Not in the Czech Republic, where it was often the only vegetable available during four decades of Communist rule, creating a nation of connoisseurs. This distinction has now been rightly recognised by the European Commission.

Nosovicky zeli, or sauerkraut, from the region that first produced it in the country, has been granted a wine-style appellation d’origine. The system, created to protect the likes of Parma ham and Parmesan cheese, now covers hundreds of lesser-known products.

The sauerkraut must be prepared in the Moravian town of Nosovice “using recognised know-how”. Observer’s man with the dumplings conducted a poll of a Prague office and found no one who had heard of it. Now, we are sure, they will accept nothing less.

-- Financial Times, 6 February 2008

From reading the post, I would assume that the EU is applying Champagne-like appellation protection to the designation Nosovicky zeli, not to the word sauerkraut itself.

In the meantime: "Would you like Nosovicky zeli with your frankfurter?" (hmm, appellation protection for that?)

Budvar to stay home ... for now

According to Forbes.com, Budvar —the Czech brewery in the city of Budweis and owned by the people of Czech Republic— will not be privatized, if at all, until 2011 at the earliest. That's after the next Czech national election, when such annoying things as politicking would not be at the fore.

The current Czech government is not likely to sell state-owned brewery Budvar during its term in office, ending in 2010, due to a lack of time. However in the future all or part of the brewery should be sold to a strategic partner, the Czech agriculture minister was cited as saying.

'If (the state) really wanted to hold onto a controlling stake (in Budvar), it would be a matter of political discussion and a future government,' weekly Ekonom cited Petr Gandalovic as saying.

I learned of this at Stonch's Beer Blog, who noted:

The fear, of course, is that American giant Anheuser-Busch, who already distribute Budvar beers in the USA, will be at the front of the queue if a privatization goes ahead.

Due to a long and sometimes acrimonious battle over trademark, Budvar Budweis has been re-branded here in the US as Czechvar. It's an irony that Anheuser-Busch (maker, of course, of Budweiser) is distributing the beer here at all, since it is still engaged with Budvar in a global naming-rights agon.

Would it be a bad thing if Anheuser-Busch were to purchase Budvar?

Consider this. The giant US brewery's sales have been sluggish recently, with any potential for real growth coming from import distribution and global expansion. Owning a super-premium property (after all, that's what we're really talking about here) would end all those trademark litigations, would gain Anheuser-Busch (A-B) further market growth, and would bring it a measure of good-beer credentials.

But would A-B dumb-down the beer?

First of all, is Budvar the 'best' beer in the Czech Republic, or the most popular? I don't know.

Now, consider Miller Brewing Company's purchase several years back of the the US licensing rights to the name Lowenbräu. It did indeed use the name for a corn-fed ersatz brew.

But it was the purchase of a name only, not a brewery; it was limited to the US; it occurred prior to the current widespread good-beer culture. In 2002, by the way, the name were 'un-sold'.

It would be silly, I believe, for A-B to merely refashion Budvar merely as a super-Michelob. With a purchase, they would have—already in-place—the tradition, the bona fides, the brewery, and the worldwide infrastructure for a superior beer. And, at least in the short run, there would be eagle-eyed attention for any perceived diminution in quality.

A-B & InBev?

I think it more likely and significant that we'll be seeing A-B purchasing much of brewery conglomerate quisling InBev. A-B wants to re-brand itself as the world's largest beverage maker.

More here on that.
Original rumor about sale here.

Budvar correction

In mid-September, I joined the chorus of beer-bloggers breathlessly re-posting the news that Anheuser-Busch was to purchase Budvar.

Let me correct that record: at the very least, any sale has been postponed for about a year, putatively to allow the brewery to go from state control to publicly owned corporation. Czech officials have denied that negotiations with A-B have occurred.

However, there's nothing to infer that such might not occur.

Budvar Not for Sale

[UPDATE: 2008.01.12 — maybe not until 2011.]

Scottish Oktoberfest

An Oktoberfest celebration at a Scottish-American restaurant! Ian Morrison, chef/owner of the Royal Mile Pub in Wheaton, Maryland, last evening hosted what he called an Oktoberfest Tournament.

About 30 participants tasted 12 Oktoberfest/Marzen beers (and a couple of ringers) in two flights, and voted on their favorites. Notice in the photo how Amanda (General Manager) is pouring a beer oh-so-carefully from a paper-wrapped bottle. She knew which was which; we didn't!

I correctly identified Clipper City's Balto MarzHon (embarrassing if I hadn't!). It tasted spot-on to me, what the GABF selected nation's best Vienna-style lager should be like: light amber hue, slightly sweet toasted malt character - like a toasted marshmallow - with a slight drying snap at the finish.

But Balto MarzHon wasn't the evening's consensus winner - that being one of the non-Fest biers: Flying Dog's Pumpkin beer! Samuel Adams Oktoberfest (last year's GABF Oktoberfest-style winner) also finished in the top tier. [UPDATE: Balto MarzHon wins gold at the GABF.]

To me, European beers shipped here, including Munich Oktoberfests, often manifest a stale character (aromas of cardboard). I don't mean to be harsh. Over there, the beers are the same beers, but fresher, delicious, not shipped and warehoused for seven weeks.

I correctly pegged the European imports except for one, and was pleasantly surprised. Spaten was soft, lightly toasted, quite delicious, and without that stale weeks-old flavor. Read Rob Kasper's Baltimore Sun review of the beer.

More photos from the evening.

The barrel has been tapped!

Oktoberfest began yesterday in Munich. It runs 16 days through 7 October. When the mayor of Munich taps the first keg, he announces: "O'zapft is!" - It's tapped!

The big party's official website, however, lists both the 7th and the 10th as the end date. Too many Maßkrüge, perhaps?

The Maryland Brewer's Oktoberfest occurs nearly 2 weeks later and 4200 miles or so from Munich: Saturday 20 October at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

Despite the misspelling, the festival features not just one but most of Maryland's breweries and brewpubs!

A-B to buy Budvar

The PacMan-esque brewery gobble continues.

InBev buys 'em up and dumbs 'em down (or simply closes them). A-B purchases a virtually controlling 49% stake in northern Virgina's Dominion (just one example of similar acquisitions). South African Breweries purchases the venerable Pilsner Urquel (the original Pilsner, from the 1800s), changes brewing procedures, and moves a lot of its production from Pilsen to Poland.

Now, as reported by Brew Blog, it appears that Anheuser-Busch will purchase Budvar Budweis, known as Czechvar in the U.S. This was probably a foregone conclusion, when, in January of this year, A-B acquired the US distribution rights.

[UPDATE: Correction - there's no purchase ... yet.]

A-B has a had a long trademark fight with the brewery. From Budvar's website:

The dispute between the Budějovice brewery and Anheuser-Busch concerning the trademark ‘Budweiser’ has been going on for almost 100 years.
<....>

In 1938, Anheuser-Busch began anew to exert pressure and place demands under which the Budějovice brewery was expected to give up globally the right to describe its product with any terms containing the words “Bud”, “Budweiser”, and “Budweis”, save for Europe. The brewery described the demands as outright insulting and refused to consider them at all.

It was not before 1939 that the above mentioned agreement, unreservedly disadvantageous for the Budějovice brewery, was executed. It was signed a mere one week before Germany annexed the Czechoslovak borderlands, and Europe found itself on the brink of the Second World War.

I might expect that some of this passage would be expunged if the sale were to be completed!

Brookston Beer Bulletin has more:

Buying the Czech brewery would make good sense from a business point of view, because the still numerous pending trademark disputes would simply vanish, saving untold millions in legal fees.
<...>

Of course, the Czech government is apparently not one to let an opportunity pass it by and is exploiting the situation. They’re asking $1.5 billion, even though that’s twelve times its annual sales of just over $125 million. Most valuations use a formula of around 2.5 times annual sales, making a pricetag of $300 million or so a bit more reasonable

The brewery was awarded appellation protection of a sort in 2005 by the EU: Protected Geographical Indication. I'm not certain what commercial rights this designation provides. Could it be used to successfully protect the Budweis name, as Champagne can to some extent for its sparkling wine? And where? In Europe alone? Globally?

And then, what does that mean to a beer name, Budweiser, which translated means 'from Budweis'? Wait and watch.

[UPDATE: sale not happening ... yet]