Brexit Moan

You will no doubt have read in the press that one of the seemingly unforeseen issues we have after Brexit is the need for a customs declaration when sending parcels to or from the EU.  This seems to be a very complicated matter indeed, as although there is unlikely to be duty paid, the amount of form filling and put frankly - buggering about - is attracting fees in addition to VAT which is payable either by the seller in the EU in the case of EU-GB, or by the recipient.  Ideally this would be paid to HMRC by the European exporter - and many will do that and pass it on in the price- but for others the game is no longer worth the candle, and they will simply cease to trade business to customer with the UK.

 Already I have seen on Twitter and elsewhere that beer is affected by this and for my own part, my occasional cases of mixed beers from Bavaria will cease for the time being. OK it isn't the biggest worry in the world as I can buy substitutes here to a certain extent, or simply buy British beer instead, which I already do.  The pity is that when travel is banned, and we are all in lockdown, a bit of a taste of Germany is a welcome diversion, but I fear that in the future, for many lovers of beer from Bavaria or Belgium, the only way to get those rare beers, will be either to pay top dollar here, if you are lucky enough to find what you want, or do without. It seems we will likely be back to awaiting our foreign trips in many cases. Here's what the German company said.

Momentan ist kein Versand nach England, Wales und Schottland möglich. Wir arbeiten daran. Aber es muss u.a. eine Handelsrechnung erstellt werden.

Danke für Euer Verständnis

 Euer Web-Bier-Team

Basically, for the time being until they work it out, no sales to England and Scotland.

My attitude, while annoyed by this being inflicted upon me and countless others was one of "Well I suppose I can be philosophical about that."  Less so when I discovered that the watch E had bought for me for my birthday in August had ceased to work.  It had been in its box more or less since then as it is a bit "dressy" for day to day use. I'd only taken it out to look at it out of boredom on Saturday, but when I did the bugger had stopped.  Like all of my watches, it is made in Germany and in this case was purchased direct from the manufacturer in Berlin. I ordered it one day and a day and a half later, UPS turned up with it. Easy peasy.

I wrote to the manufacturer complaining about the short battery life, but their response was to send me a prepaid label to send it back for repair or replacement.  Clearly they know something I don't and a mere battery replacement is insufficient. The prepaid label is also a customs declaration. It is a bit complex.  I need to know quite a few things I don't. Here it is - see what you make of it. Click to make it bigger.

Now of course I have asked the seller to tell me the stuff I don't know, but even then and with free postage I am reluctant to send a quite expensive watch back with missing information. I worry that I'll never see it again.

The beer I can sort out - or rather - live with, but my lovely watch, not so sure. Brexit dividend? I rather think not.

Yes - better inside the tent pissing out in this case.  And probably every case. Clearly business to business will sort itself out, albeit expensively, but business to customer and vice versa? I doubt it. 

And of course I didn't vote leave. I'm not that crazy.

Drinking on the Home Front

Most of my readers (if I've still got any) and Twitter followers - I have plenty of them -  know that I don't really drink at home. I like to drink in the pub. Any pub really, but of course I do have favourites - my locals.  Places where I go quite often.  I've always been that way inclined and in fact wrote about it here, a long time ago. In these local pubs, I know enough people to be recognised by and to speak to. People who call me by my name, shake my hand when I come in and who I know by name in return. It makes me feel part of something. On the other hand drinking at home seems rather furtive somehow. Something I somewhat unreasonably feel you do not because you want to, but for reasons of finance, domestic arrangements or whatever, though of course, I freely admit, many must do so simply because they like it. It is how they drink. But it isn't really me.

Friday saw five weeks since the pubs were told to close.  Have I missed going out to the pub? You bet. I miss the simple fact of deciding to "go for a pint".  I miss my Sunday sessions in the Tavern with my pals, the banter and just being there. And I miss cask conditioned beer of course.  But I don't believe in wearing a hair shirt.  I've been drinking beer at home. Given that on the whole weather has been fantastic, I've enjoyed a different kind of beer o'clock. Around five in the evening E and me have had a beer or two in the sunshine in our garden. Not every evening, but certainly most if the sun is still shining.  We have had to wear fleeces on the odd occasion and once, given the rather spiky wind that generally accompanies sunshine in the Grim North, we reinforced our outer apparel with blankets.  We have remarked, like everyone else, about the perfect blue skies, the absence of vapour trails and aircraft and enjoyed the birds singing. Not so much though the whirring sound of  wood pigeons, but you can't have everything, can you?

It has been good to sit in our unusually tidy garden and I have enjoyed the togetherness. It's just us, with the odd word here and there with a neighbour, but what do we drink? Well, for me, predominantly, it has been bottles of St Austell Proper Job.  Bottle conditioned, but with the tiniest of sediments, it has been ideal. At 5.5% it is a tad hefty, but it isn't over gassed and after two of them, I find that will do. E has been drinking German lager. Warsteiner for its bitterness, but sometimes Krombacher. Both well-made and easily available.

Normally if I'm in a supermarket, I pay little notice to the beer aisle. Naturally, from time to time, I do have a nose at what's around, but I don't study it in detail.  Now it is different and the first thing that strikes me, is how bloody cheap it is. My Proper Job is currently £1.49 for half a litre in Aldi, while I have discovered too, that 660ml bottles of decent German lager are now a thing. Who knew?  Not me for sure and at 3 for a fiver, it is certainly priced to go. Even with an accompanying bag of crisps-  or whatever - it is as cheap as chips to drink at home if you buy it from the supermarket and mostly, for most people, why on earth wouldn't you?

Now I know that it is good to support local breweries - and I do by buying my weekly treat of a 5 litre bag in the box of re-racked cask beer from Pictish Brewery in Rochdale. The lion's share of that gets supped every Friday afternoon and evening, with two or three pints for the next day. Served by handpump, there is a little wastage from the line, but it is worth it to support a local brewery and to get a cask conditioned pint. That, next to the people is what I miss most.

Reflecting on all this, one of the things that worries me, is that perhaps even more people than already do, will realise that there are huge savings to be made in drinking in the ease and comfort of their own homes.  I worry that drinkers will get used to it and used to the savings. The longer this goes on, the more the pub drinking habit is compromised, particularly if the return to pubs opening brings with it restrictive practices that make pub going a far different experience to that which they formerly enjoyed. Added to that is the cumulative effect on disposable income as the lockdown continues.

Habits once broken are difficult to re-establish.  Pub going as we know it will certainly be different for a time at least and maybe forever for some.

There are many other aspects of this to be explored. Hopefully I'll do that soon in future posts.

Other beers I have enjoyed at home are BrewDog Lost Lager, Thornbridge Jaipur (despite the daft little cans) and Sierra Nevada Summer Ale left over from last year. I've still got some interesting stash stuff to tackle too.

Win Some - Lose Some

I'm going to tell you a little story. It could in theory be my entry into next year's British Guild of Beer Writers Awards in the Beer and Travel Section. Somehow though I suspect it is not exactly the sort of thing they have in mind - even if it does exactly what it says on the tin - it is all about beer and travel. Anyway here we go.

The lovely thing about Munich is that unlike a lot of German cities, there is an abundance of pubs and other drinking establishments. That - and you can trust me on this one - is kind of rare for many German cities. If you don't believe me, try walking about Augsburg for a few hours, dragging your thirst behind you. You will be disappointed and footsore. But I digress.

On a recent Munich visit, after the usual Christmas market stuff two or three weeks ago the lovely E and I decided that  a quick visit to Tegernsee am Tal was in order. Now a couple of points are worth mentioning here. The first is that I have been in this pub a few times before despite the fact that it hasn't been in its current location for too many years. The second that I've been to the brewery itself and the third is that for years I have sold Tegernsee Spezial - one of my favourite beers - on the German Bar at the Great British Beer Festival.  I know the beer. This is a relevant fact.

So in a quiet spell around 4 p.m. the pub is pretty empty. In the front a couple of locals have pole position for people watching and inside there is another pair near us. In the restaurant area, three Americans eat salad, drink dark beer and chat. Not quite the Mary Celeste, but fairly close. I order a Spezial and a Helles. We sit in the semi circular booth seat overlooking the bar. I can see, despite the brass or copper frontage, the beer being poured. It is fine. Poured straight from the tap it is golden, clean tasting and clear as a child's eye. Nothing much happens as we observe languidly and chat. My beer, the first of the day, disappears without a protest. It is good. Very good. I order a second. Again I can see what is going on under the beer taps. This time there is a bit of juggling with beer glasses. My beer when presented has a more tired looking head and isn't so sparking. Not cloudy, but a tad hazy. Certainly no longer zingingly clear. Hmm. It is flatter too. Seems I've had some older beer poured into my half litre and topped up with fresh. Damn.

Now I have a customary rule of avoiding arguing with Germans. One hates to generalise, but I find the German capacity for admitting being wrong, is, shall we say, limited. (Just try asking for a top up of short measure to see what I mean). But I felt a bit pissed off, so I enquired of my waiter in the most gentle of terms, about the clarity of my beer. He looked at it and went back to the pourer, who came to talk to me.  "Ah" he said. "It's Spezial. That's always a bit like that." "Umm, no" I demurred in the softest of tones. "It never is.". He smiled knowingly. "OK" I said thinking foolishly I was playing a trump card. "Pour a little fresh beer into a glass and show me." He did and the beer was as clear as the clearest of bells. I could have took his photo through it. The beers were totally different. He smiled again. "There you are" he purred. "It's just the same."  I couldn't help grinning back. He had me. I knew in that instant he would have climbed a snowy Zugspitze dressed only in his underpants rather than admit he was wrong. He wasn't the owner. He didn't really have any skin in the game, but he was taking the view, for whatever reason of; "Look Mate, I'd rather tear my own heart out of my chest with my bare hands and dance on it, than change your beer for you. So just give up".

So smilingly, I left him and my unfinished beer to it. Somehow and somewhat oddly though I had enjoyed the encounter. Maybe it played to a feeling that I had just had an unexpected insight into the German physche. Or that a stereotype had been confirmed. I fought the urge to extrapolate that too far and simply went for a beer elsewhere.

I should mention that as soon as I called the waiter over, E buggered off and left me to it. Window shopping beats arguing in E's view.

Bonus. In the next pub, we arrived just in time for Ayinger Brau Helles vom Bayerische Anstich being freshly tapped - as happens at five every day. It was rather lovely.

Cheeky German Waiters

The gruffness of German waiters is legendary.  It is a matter of professional pride to many never to crack a smile, though maybe that is changing as more and more of them hail from East Europe.  Until you come across one of the old school that is.

In Munich last month, our little party of four decided to eat at the Loewenbrau Keller as it has a lovely big screen outdoors on the terrace where we could watch the semi final of the World Cup involving Germany and Brazil.  Alas it wasn't to be, as torrential rain forced us inside.  Still, we got a nice table just a dozen steps down from a room with loads of tables and a telly.  There was lots of room at the back to stand if need be and nobody minded us doing so.  The Germans, all flags and painted faces, were seated in neat benched rows.  Even football watching seemed organised and, well, neat.

We ordered drinks.  Now we'd been before for a nightcap and the girls really liked Loewenbrau Pils.  I do too. It is delicate, but with a firm body and a bitter, perfumey finish. It is actually rather an elegant drink. Two were ordered.  Our waiter, an elderly type, said that they'd be better with Helles as the Pils was too bitter for women.  Now Janet is a bit of a hop fiend and can take as much hops as the next person, even if that next person is a 100 IBU one.  Eileen is not the kind of person you tell what she can or can't drink.  Trust me on that one.  Pils were insisted on and provided. I spent quite a lot of time running up and down the stairs in response the the roars of the lads and lasses in the tv room.  We enjoyed our beer and the hearty food and it was a great night, despite the wet walk home and the Pils Denier.

I won't say whether or not I had a German flag painted on each arm, but will say that I didn't have one on my face. Unlike some other Brits present.

The Loewenbrau Keller is huge and only a fraction of the size it used to be.  Maybe not the best beer in the world, but that pils is good.

Note for Tegernsee Lovers

I wrote here about my liking for the beers of Tegernsee, a smallish brewery near Munich.  While it is perfectly possible and indeed a very good idea to hop on the train to the lake and drink them at source, you no longer have to do so. To my delight on my recent trip to Munich, I discovered that Tegernsee has opened a pub on Tal, right in the centre of the best drinking area.  Very easy to find it is too, being directly opposite the Weisses Brauhaus and next door but one to Paulaner.

Among other visits, we watched the Netherlands being (unfairly) beaten by Argentina.  We were there until the last kick of the match at around 12.45. Beers were served throughout.  This is a fairly pubby place, with a long bar you can sit at in the front to one side and a number of tables and booths inside.  Off course there is the usual tempting German food.  Prices are reasonable and the staff were smilingly obliging on every visit. Oh. And they sell Spezial, a sort of strongish export style beer which is kind of unique to these parts.  Like Augustiner Edelstoff or Andechs Spezial, it isn't for everyone with a slight sweetness from the full malty body and the alcohol, leading to a bitter finish.  A boys beer at 5.6%, so still (just) in the swoopable range.  Well, I certainly swooped a few.

All we needed to complete our joy was the sadly lacking sunshine, when I believe they put tables outside. Go there if in Munich whatever the weather.

Tegernsee Im Tal:  Im Tal 8, 80331 Munich. Photo: Praying at the Tegernsee Altar.

Confidence in Cologne

Tyson has mentioned a few of the beery delights of Cologne and as I often do, I agree with his assessments, so I'd like to concentrate mainly on the pubs themselves and the attitudes and idiosyncrasies that govern them.  First of all if I had to choose between Cologne and Düsseldorf, it would almost certainly be Cologne.  If you could just move Zum Uerige to Cologne, then everything would be perfect.  Sacrilege I  know, but there you are.  Cologne for me is much buzzier and alive than its Rhine neighbour and has better places to drink.  Does it have better beer to drink?  Well, yes and no.  A matter of preference really.

Near the main railway station, PJ Fruh is one of my favourite places.  Mostly I'm hugging the wall in the schwemme or public bar, where one can watch the waiters fill their trays with beer freshly poured from a wooden barrel and of course, not wait more than a second or two for a another glass. We certainly needed a drink after severe train delays and standing all the way from Düsseldorf - Deutsche Bahn is going through a bad patch. Being mob handed, the schwemme was out of the question of course, so through many rooms we went, all huge and all full to the brim, until somewhere deep beneath,  there was a room that was busy but could still take the 14 or so people we had.  The place had hundreds outside on a beautiful Autumn day and even more hundreds inside.  Here is lesson number one.  Most of the good pubs in Cologne are big and boy are they busy.  The Germans like to eat lunch out.  And dinner it seems.  Service was brusque and business like.  When things are done on this scale, there is little time for chat.

Then a quick visit to old favourites Sion and round the corner Peter's Brauhaus, where one of our female tripsters was refused a glass of wine as the waiter had counted 12 of us and brought 12 glasses of beer.  (She could have wine the next time he patronised.) That's another thing common to both Cologne and Dusseldorf.  You'll have the devil's own job to get anything other than beer and one beer at that mostly.  Confidence or cheek? You decide.

Tyson, Eddie and I then went seeking different Kölsches.  As Tyson has pointed out, most are brewed in the same place and the Dom Brauerei Ausschank (Brewery Tap) did not, alas, include the brewery.  Outside as it is on the Rhine, beer terraces overflowed with customers.  Inside was as deserted as could be. Another little quirk you find in Germany emerged. We picked a table by the window among a sea of empty tables.  A waiter rushed over.  "You can't sit there."  He gestured to another row of identically empty tables and we went over. He didn't like the one we chose then either, but asserting ourselves, we just stayed put.  He wasn't happy.  That happens a lot too, but Old Grumpy was replaced by a cheery young lad who sorted our beer out.  German waiters want you to do it their way. Another German trait.

Again in the empty beer hall at Sünner, a lovely out of town  brewery that actually still brews, we had to plead with Herr Ober before we were allowed to have a drink.  We said we would be an hour and we were.  We were gone before any of the evening guests arrived and no tables had reserved signs at that point.  Just German intransigence? Probably.  Later that evening we were in no uncertain terms told we couldn't have a drink in Haus Töller, as it was fully booked with diners.  I'd particularly wanted my friends to see the inside of this remarkable survivor of bombing.  Fair enough I suppose, but there was a smugness that bordered on arrogance in this dismissal.

Of course, where there are downs, there are ups.  In most places, waiters couldn't have been kinder or more accommodating, but certainly later in the day, if you are not eating, or inside early, you may have to forgo your chosen watering hole.  It was nearly thus in the Reissdorf Brewery Tap, an old haunt, but fortunately the unseasonably warm weather allowed us to drink outside where a lovely young waitress cheerily kept our glasses filled. No mean task I assure you. I like Reissdorf, it's a bit more pokey than most examples of the kölsch genre. Less traditional was a place I'd always wanted to go to as we've sold their beer for years now at GBBF.  Braustelle do more than standard beer in a very busy pub, filled to bursting with a mixed crowd,  but mostly twenty plus.  Regrettably we'd just missed the pale ale, but the alt, yes alt in Cologne, was more like a porter and very moreish, so we had some more.

So what's going on?  Cologne if anything seemed to be booming more than Düsseldorf.  Pubs were going like a fair but we got the impression that this had allowed a touch of complacency to emerge in some quarters at least.  How easily are the seven lean years forgotten, when plenty is all around.

Nonetheless these are minor points.  We stayed in Cologne much later than planned, drinking good beer in busy friendly pubs.   It's that kind of place.

I've missed out visits to several more pubs that are positive gems.  Some other time eh?

A Word to the Weisse

I have written before about Schneider und Sonne, the renowned German wheat beer brewer. You can read my original article here, but I don't think I've ever drank any of their beers in the UK. Not until one night last week that was.

Much is written about the Port St Beer House and their beer tasting nights, but little of their older sister Common Bar, in the trendy Northern Quarter of Manchester. It was Common, an edgier, funkier, artier, music led type of place and haunt of pretty studenty young women and skinny, hairy, leery, gawky lads, that hosted a tasting of Schneider beers. This was held in what could be described as a back room, but since it looked out onto the street, plainly wasn't. In our room, the audience was mostly young by my standards, so think late twenties, early thirties, but no doubt regarded as a load of old crinklies by the eager young crew next door. They all looked pretty damned serious. Until the beer flowed that is. What a leveller beer is and what a leveller it should be.

This was billed as a "Beer and Cheese" evening and the cheesy part was hosted by a Swiss Cheese producer, but since there was no hand-out of what the cheeses were and the descriptions and names were rattled out at top speed, we'll pass on the cheese part for now and concentrate on the beer. Now Schneider only brew wheat beer, so all the beers were of that ilk. That's fine, because Schneider, unlike many other German producers have used their imagination more than a little, so subtle and not so subtle variations of the wheat theme were the order of the day. We started off, somewhat surprisingly, with their newest beer, a supposed "one off". Nelson Sauvin uses the hop of that name and is bottle conditioned in champagne style bottles. The beer is 7.3% and while some of the promised, flowers, kiwi and gooseberry could be detected, overall, I didn't think this worked that well. Still, interesting and more variations please.  The basic premise is a good one.

The beers came thick and fast. Next up was Mein Blonde, a traditional pale wheat beer that ticks all the boxes. Spicy, citrus, subdued clove and banana.  A bit of Bavarian summer in a cold and grey Manchester.  Kristall, is a filtered version.  Clear as a bell and refreshing enough. Maybe it is just preference, but it doesn't do it for me in the same way a cloudy wheat beer does.  Then my Schneider favourite and my drink of choice when I'm in The Weisses Bräuhaus in Munich. Original is said to be the recipe of the original wheat beer brewed by the founder. If so, it has been cleaned up in recent years and is now an outstanding wheat beer of great complexity. Bottle conditioned, it has the full banana, clove thing going without excessive sweetness, through to a bitter-sweet finish. A bit darker this one, but a cracker in every way for the wheat beer fan. I'm one in case you didn't guess!

An odd interlude then.  I don't believe I've ever ordered an alcohol free beer in Germany.  Mein Alkoholfreies is said to taste like "ripe corn fields, sparkling and malty-aromatic". Well, to me it tasted like unfermented wort, which is probably what it is. I wasn't alone. It was the only dumper on our table.   Back to normality then with Aventinus, a dark, luscious doppelbock; oh an somewhere in between (by now the beer was taking effect and the noise levels were a notch below cacophony) we had Mein Grünes, another fairly new beer. Organic and 6.2% this has delicious lemony citrus overtones and traditional wheat beer spice. Very easy going to drink and refreshing too. This is another great beer and one which I will be drinking next time I'm in Munich for sure.

Then the beer that knocked John Clarke's socks off.  Hopfenweisse is heavily hopped with American "C " hops.  It has a big booming taste to go with its big booming 8.2% alcohol.  It is wonderful and dangerously and deceptively drinkable. Schneider say "This extreme wheat beer shows how far wheat beer taste can go."  Indeed it does.

Oh yes. The cheese.  I said I'd come back to that. Delicious though they were, they came in such minuscule portions that you couldn't really taste them with the beers. A touch more would have been nice and really have made it a food and beer matching.  No such complaints about the beer though. A  great night ended with a second shared bottle of the Hopfenweisse and we left having experienced what a great brewer can do with a style that most others merely produce to a single repetitive standard. Well done Schneider.  Our experience was enhanced by our two charming table companions, whose attractiveness to us was enhanced in no small way by generous donations of beer to three old soaks.

Young people today aren't all bad.

Beer of the night?  For me and my companions, it had to be Hopfenweisse.  My thanks to James Clay for their kind invitation

Reinheitsgebot - Einheitsgebot

For those of us interested in the state of German brewing - me, Boak and Bailey and Robsterowski mainly - there is, in the Brewer's Guardian, a fascinating interview with American Brewer in Bavaria, gone not quite native, Eric Toft.

Eric argues that German brewers have in effect led themselves and their customers up a blind alley of sameness, by interpreting the beer purity law in a singular and unwise way. He says in effect that there has been a gaderene rush to produce identical beers, dictated not by the Reinheitsgebot, but a lack of vision. He points out that "the Reinheitsgebot says nothing about what hop varieties and barley varieties and yeast strains you should use" and that "the Reinheitsgebot should be an inspiration to try and create within these so-called ‘confines".  Like so many things in life, it isn't what you've got, but the way that you use it that counts.

He has put this into effect in the brewery where he is Head Brewer, Privat Landbrauerei Schönram, a 55,000hl rural Bavarian brewery, by producing porters and IPAs alongside the more usual helles and pils, pointing out that particularly, these small scale experiments are well liked by women. (A separate issue, but yet another pointer that silly spritzer style beers for women are doomed to failure).

It is good to see this streak of common sense and adventure, albeit on a tiny scale, so let's hope he can convince more of his brewing colleagues and the wider drinking public in Germany.

Anything that shakes the German brewing industry out of its lethargy cannot be a bad thing. I say more power to his elbow.

The full interview with Eric Toft can be downloaded here.

Short Measure Riles

There are quite a few siren voices that complain about CAMRA's stance on full measure pints - a policy I don't particularly see the need for when there are bigger priorities - but I didn't know the Germans were concerned about this aspect too and that there is actually an organisation that you can join to combat it. Even more astonishing, to me at least, is that the group concerned is over 100 years old.

I have noticed a fair bit of short measure in Germany, even though oversize glasses are always used. Like most I have just put up with it, while noting grimly that the benefit of the doubt almost always seems to fall to the server of the beer rather than the customer. It varies a lot of course, with Cologne to my mind, being the worst culprits. Now the Oktoberfest is notorious for short measure. You just have to look at the photos to see that. It seems though the the VGBE (League Against Fraudulent Pouring) - don't the Germans just love a snappy title? - are kicking up a song and dance about it. With the price of a litre of beer at €9 each on average, it seems that many maßkrugs are only being filled to 90 percent. This is because Munich’s government allows a variance of up to 0.1 litre. I think it fair to say that this variance is rarely in the customer's favour.  Anecdotally according to one commentator, a kellner (pourer) can squeeze up to 200 litres out of a 100 litre cask,  though that seems more than a tad optimistic to me I have to say.

“The tolerance level has to go,” said the VGBE’s president, Jan-Ulrich Bittlinge, who called the results of the test “sobering.” “We ordered and paid for seven mugs in every tent. But, in fact, we received on average only six litres of beer.” Some results were particularly bad: In one tent the mug only contained 0.73 litres of beer, meaning the customer was cheated out of €2.43 worth of beer.

So, a couple of things.  Doesn't seem that the VGBE has been that successful in the last 100 years does it? And secondly, if you didn't have a good enough reason not to go to Oktoberfest (the only valid one to go is to see the lasses in dirndls) then you have now.

I like the sound of this though. The Beer Inspectors use a mobile phone app that measures the beer content by photograph. Handy. Pun intended.

Gratuitous dirndl photo and story details courtesy of the local.de

Authentic?

Manchester Food and Drink Festival is a bit of annual fun which culminates in various eating and drinking events in St Annes Square in front of the impressive Town Hall. This year Robinson's will have a pub and there will be a Bavarian Beer Keller as a tribute to Munich's Oktoberfest. Sounds like fun, with a load of German beers to swig while being oompahed along the way. Not quite. The sole beer will be Veltins Pils. I quote "This year we're creating a full-on Bier Keller on the Square - the perfect Autumn pop-up drinking destination. There'll be Bavarian beers provided by Veltins, one of Germany's oldest and most established Braueries, and steins of their refreshing pilsner will be the order of the day

So what I hear you cry? One small problem. Veltins hail from Meschede in North Rhine Westphalia, not Bavaria.  I know it won't matter to most, but surely if they want it to be Bavarian, rather than just German, they could have got beer from Bavaria?

After all, there is around 640 breweries to ask.

Still a lot of fun though and worth a look if in the area.

Tegernsee

For years now we have sold Tegernsee Spezial at the Great British Beer Festival.   As a consequence, each time I go to southern Germany, I promise myself I'll go there, to the source, to see the place for myself; each time, I overlook it and don't, but this year I did. Train from Munich to Tegernsee, five of us on a Bayern Ticket and I was sorted. Set in gorgeous countryside, Tegernsee is a large lake, 2,500 ft above sea level and about 12 miles from the Austrian border. It is more than a bit nice and it has a rather good brewery when you get fed up of all that lakey gorgeousness.

The brewery and beer hall are pretty damn big.  One thing the Germans don't do by halves is beer and beery things. (Well they do do half litres, but you get my point I'm sure).  The Tegernsee Brewery's record of beers sold in one day is 3600 litres.  They won't run out of beer either. They keep 14,000 litres chilled and ready to go. As I said, they take their beer very seriously there.  

We normally sell Spezial at the GBBF, but I started, as we all did, on the Helles. Clean, herbal and very drinkable. But that wasn't my mission. No Sir.  Spezial was required and procured. It was indeed special, with a more full bodied and bitter taste and dangerously drinkable despite being 5.6%. It made the rain, which temporarily marred a lovely day, all the more bearable, particularly as we were under cover. Well most of us were. I seem to recall Tyson got a bit wet. Collateral damage if you like.

It wasn't exactly a sentimental journey, but it was along those lines. Go there if in the area. It is very highly recommended.

Being an hour outside Munich, the beer was around a euro cheaper too.

German Beer Sales Slow Slide

A few German stats for you to start the week off. I know it is lazy blogging, but I couldn't be bothered tarting this up too much. My interest in Germany is already declared on the left, hence this piece.

Beer sales continued their slow decline in Germany last year, dropping another 1.7 percent with the average person drinking just over 100 litres the Federal Statistical Office reported last week. (That's around a hefty 10 litres per head less in the last the last three years.) Unlike the UK, the drop was even sharper when it came to domestic sales, which fell 2.9 percent. Beer sales within Germany have fallen every year since 2000 with the notable exception of 2006, when Germany co-hosted the World Cup.

Premixed beer drinks such as Radler (shandy) are becoming more popular. Beer mixed with lemonade, cola, fruit juice and other non-alcoholic drinks made up about 4 percent of the total beer consumption. That was a significant increase on the 2.7 percent these drinks accounted for in 2009. Exports however continued to boom, with a rise of 5.9 percent, with bigger increases to countries outside the EU. Another 20 million litres went home with lucky brewery workers as a free perk of the job.

The biggest-consuming states last year, as with the years before, were the populous North Rhine-Westphalia, which accounted for 24.7 percent of domestic sales, and Bavaria, which accounted for 21.9 percent.

What is noteworthy in a British context is the viciousness of price wars in the off-premise sector. Market observers believe that 60 percent of all beer was sold “on promotion”. That has delivered a big hit to brewers’ bottom lines. Declining volumes and shrinking margins hit Radeburger Group, Germany’s major brewing group, particularly badly, with reported volume declines of 2.5 percent. News is even worse for AB-InBev with Beck’s volume sales dropping a reported 9.4 percent. AB-InBev’s other major brand, Hasseröder, lost even more: -10.7 percent.

Interestingly, the meteoric rise of Germany’s cheap beer producer Oettinger appears to have been stemmed: Oettinger’s volumes fell 3.8 percent to an estimated 6.3 million hl beer.

While this may seem rather miserable from a German point of view, I reckon British brewers would give their eye teeth to be doing this well.

This article was cobbled together from Brauwelt and The Local. My thanks to them.

Bayerischen Anstich

We arrived in Bamberg to catch the last few days of the religious festival Sandkerwa which was celebrating its 60th anniversary. Bamberg is transformed from being a mere world class drinking town, into a world class drinking town with a bonus few dozen more drinking venues added, stretching along the river bank and taking up every square inch possible in the town itself. Stalls sell tacky souvenirs, bratwurst, candy floss, sweets, bratwurst, chocolates, bratwurst and beer. Lots of beer - almost as many beers stands as bratwurst ones. It is packed with people and has a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere, with families mixing easily with the more dedicated beer drinkers, of which there are quite a few.

We were met off the train by our friend Nick who lives in the area. He'd done the necessary homework and had sussed out the top drinking stands - those that dispensed " vom Bayerischen anstich" or straight from the cask. (It is a style I'm very familiar with, not just from drinking in Franconia, but that's how we serve most of our German country beers at GBBF.) We threaded our way through the crowds to the riverside and made a start. Keller bier in stone krugs from Brauerei Zehendner from Mönchsambach provided a good start. Soft and easy drinking, it was hard to tear ourselves away, so we had a few. We tried several others too though, including, Brauerei Huebner, St Georgen Brau and probably more. The softer carbonation in this style of serving is perfect for keller beer and it slides down all too easily. Do look out for it if you go there.

One word of warning for visitors to this bucolic scene. Apart from the dangers of tasty keller bier, German mosquitoes are bitey little buggers.

Nick and Eileen on their first beer.

Wuerzburg

I'll write about my Franconian beer adventures when I get back as internet access here is rather limited. Suffice to say if I was worried about the state of German brewing before, I'm even more worried about it now. That'll be the theme of a later post.

Wuerzburg is pleasant, but it has taken it 60 odd years to recover from the devastating air raid by the RAF at the end of the war, when 90% of the city was destroyed, including it seems, every pub. Well we've had trouble finding any. But there is wine and surrounded as it is by vineyards, perhaps that's what has happened. Wine has won here. Despite Wuerzburg Hofbrau, there is little to be had other than the juice of the grape.

Ah well. When in Rome.

Beer at Home

No it isn't a conversion. Quite the reverse. I was in Aldi today and spotted Berliner Kindl Pils on sale and a madness overtook me and I bought a couple.£1.19 each if you are wondering.

When I got home and put them in the freezer to speed things up, I really fancied a beer. When they were cold, I transferred them to the fridge - not making the mistake of leaving them in the freezer again. Then I went off the idea.

It was ever thus. Maybe later?

No it didn't come with the nice little pils glass. Pity.

German Beer Sales Hit 20 Year Low

It isn't just us that's got it bad. German beer consumption has continued its steady decline, dropping to just under 100 million hectolitres in 2009 (61 million UK barrels) in 2009.

Peter Hahn, from the German Brewers Federation, said "We hope this year that the weather is good, Germany does well at the World Cup and that plenty of people go to the pub or beer garden to watch the matches with a beer". The federation blamed the desperate economic situation in Germany last year for the decline. Germany, Europe's top economy, suffered a five percent contraction in 2009, the worst slump since World War II. A longer-term trend towards less manual work and more office-based employment had also reduced Germans' after-hours thirst, the federation said.

If that wasn't bad enough, there has been a sharp rise in alcohol related youth violence over the last decade, a new study released on Monday showed. Increases of up to 17% have been reported. The southern state of Bavaria had the highest increase, with the percentage of alcohol-related violence jumping by 17.4 percent from 2000 to 2008. Meanwhile the states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Brandenburg and Lower Saxony reported increases of between four and 12.4 percent.

One of the nation’s top criminologists, Christian Pfeiffer, said that Germany has a “massive alcohol problem among young people that has trended upwards” compared to other nations.Pfeiffer encouraged a blanket alcohol ban for young people under the age of 18, which he said would help reduce violence. Current German law allows children to begin buying beer and wine at age 16.

This was all reported in the Local, an English language on line newspaper. At least the local illustrated the youth violence article with a supermarket shelf full of wine, not beer, so that's something.

Brauerei Witzgall

I received this rather nice photo from my mate Nick who lives in Franconia. It is of the bier keller in Schlammersdorf on the opening day of its new outdoor drinking year. The beer says Nick, is bitter, hoppy and one of the best in Germany.

He should know. He likes an hour out.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Hopping Mad at InBev

Anheuser-Busch of Budweiser fame have always used the same hop in their ubiquitous brew. Although these days, in minimal quantities, they stuck to "Hallertauer Mittelfrüh", an aroma hop variety with a spicy aromatic lemon taste. Now with Anheuser-Busch having been taken over by InBev, the bean counters at InBev have put an end to Anheuser-Busch’s “We have always done it this way”. Hallertauer Mittelfrüh is to be replaced by other hop varieties in Anheuser-Busch’s beers. Hop farmers in the Hallertau are appalled: Hallertauer Mittelfrüh covers ten percent of their total acreage and new buyers will have to be found, though given the general shortage of hops that may not be so difficult, even with bumper crops expected this year.

So there you have another consequence of global domination by the dreaded InBev. Another interersting little outcome of the takeover is that AB-InBev are set to sell off their German breweries including Spaten, Gilde and Hassroder, though the Spaten sale is complicated by the fact that InBev own only the brand, - the brewery is leased to InBev in a complicated deal with the previous owners, which may yet bite each of the parties on the bum.

Finally in this little German round up, Heineken have failed to acquire a majority stake in their joint venture with Bayerische Brau Holding. This means Paulaner / Hacker Pschorr stays in German control, so probably two cheers for that.

Germans Supping Less and Cheaper

According to Die Welt, The German Brewers Association has released figures indicating that consumption of beer in the country is at an all-time low. In 2008 per capita consumption sank to 109.5 litres, 2.2 litres less than 2007. The heady days of the 1970's when consumption was high above the 150 litre mark are far away now says the article.

The drop is being blamed on the recession, the elimination of smoking in bars and changes in consumption patterns among younger drinkers. Brewers indicated that market conditions were increasingly difficult during the last quarter of the year. The drop in consumption will put pressure on Germany's 1,300 breweries and likely result in consolidations and some closures.

There is also some rather disturbing facts about what beer Germans drink, presumably at home. They like it cheap. The top selling beer was Oettinger, a bargain brand which is sold very cheaply. This is followed by well known brands Krombacher, Bitburger, Warsteiner and Becks. An on line survey with Die Welt shows that 50% of Germans say they buy on taste, yet the brewers figures show they buy on price. This leads to a prediction that brewers will find it difficult to increase their prices to customers this year.

In my view, homogenisation, branding, falling consumption and sheer lack of imagination is turning Germany into a beer wasteland, with just a few pockets of brightness. I have remarked on it before, but the German beer market is becoming ever more depressing.

The article is here in German only

No Longer in the Schwemme of Things

My thoughts on the German pub scene are still in the formulative stages, so you'll have to wait for that one. Instead I'll share a few observations of the German Rauchsverbot or smoking ban, as applied in North Rhine-Westphalia. Unlike the Bavarian version, this state allows smoking in separate enclosed rooms and one roomed pubs are exempt, thus making this drinker avoid a number of promising boozers. The smoke also chased us out of the Pilsner Urquell Ausschank after one hastily consumed half litre of U Fleku dark.

Of course my drinking in Dusseldorf was largely confined to the classic brew pubs and it was here the hurt was deepest. It started off promisingly though in F Schumacher's Altstadt pub. Here in the schwemme or public bar, (my favourite spot so I can watch the barrels being tapped and the beers poured,) there was no smoking - in fact it was no smoking throughout. I always think the delicately balanced, hop infused alt here is the finest to be had and many glasses were consumed over the two days we were there. This lulled us into a false sense of security, as across the road, Zum Schlussel's schwemme was a smoking zone. Damn. Fortunately this is my least favourite alt, though by no means bad, so we had a couple in a separate no smoking area and left. Later that day we were due to meet some American friends in Zum Uerige, in my opinion, one of the best pubs in the world. Here, my favourite room was given over entirely to smokers. Curses. I love that room. We fled to the comfort of the side room where at least, we could watch the beer being poured, as uniquely among the four home brew pubs, the schwemme is not the setting for beer dispense. I like Uerige's Alt, more distinctly bitter than the others and very, very drinkable.

The next day in a sleetstorm, we headed for Im Fuchsen - The Fox. Here the schwemme was firmly no smoking with the alcove at the right , previously part of the main schwemme, now with doors on it and a new sign saying "Raucherschwemme". We settled in at one of the typical high tables here, having quite a few glasses of another well balanced alt.

It seems that North Rhine-Westphalia has reached a reasonable compromise as far as big pubs go. The smokers are confined to small enclosed areas. Regrettably the apparent exemption for one roomed pubs makes quite a few places unpleasant to visit. There was no sign of diminished business in any of these pubs, in fact all were going like a fair, but the quality of the beer and the general "offering" is outstanding, so why should it?

The figures in the photo are in the schwemme in Zum Uerige.