German beer drinking


Producing too much, consuming too little: beer is a microcosm of Germany

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Readers' comments



Foreigners should drink their own beer and leave the Germans alone.
Nobody is forced to come to Germany and if foreigners stay off - I clearly do not mind.
We have enough foreigners here and do not need some more of them.
And if you drink your own beer you have no problem.
So, if foreigners as usual find Germany detestable I do not mind.


cilucas wrote

You are hilarious and partly correct. I find most German people rather detestable (including myself)
I am rater grateful for your clear answer because your answer is the same answer as I hear from each European.
We,the Germans know very well tghat we are the most hated people ad country in the world and Germans should be grateful for this clear position of the rest of Europe and the English speaking countries.
Germany will have to look around where they have their real friends being surrounded by extremely hostile and hateful enemy countries.
Perhaps this extremely high level of hatred is making an end to a German membership of the EU and our open borders.
I personally find foreigners basically extremely destestable and try to ignore them as much as I can. All foreigners only come to Germany for harming people.
All of them are extremely hateful and agggressive and a real threat for peaceful people in Germany.


cilucas wrote

I agree completely. For most foreigners Germans are nothing but detestable and Germans can hear and read this opinion everywhere.
So why should not be their beer as detestable as they are.
So for Germans it is nothing new that they are the most hated people in the world.
Every little child in Germany already knows that Germans are hated.
So you won't find anything in Germany what a foreigner ever could appreciate.
So I do not wonder that foreigners hate even German beer.:)


Xenophobia takes root in German mainstream

The acrid immigration debate sparked this summer by former Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin has apparently had an effect on the German public. A poll released on Wednesday showed that one-tenth want a “Führer,” while one-quarter admitted to strong xenophobic attitudes – up from one-fifth in 2008.


I think it's a shame. The world of beer is being slowly replaced with 'alcopops'. Long gone is the day of going out for a few quiet drink's with friends or family now it's just full of underage people drinking with the intent to get drunk. The world is slowly turning into a booze driven society as children are growing up assuming that underage drinking and getting absolutly smashed is sociably acceptable.

@Spectacularj1 I'll split the excess with you and i know some people who will join in ;)


Beer Quality
I don't think Germany claims of making the individual best beer in the world. I also don't think that exists as tastes are too different to agree on one anyway.
What is special in Germany is that the average beer, so the stuff everybody buys in the regular shop, drinks in pubs, festivals or whereever is of very good quality. It is not the stuff produced by gigantic international beverage cooperations as it s in most countries around the world, but by mid sized mainly family owned companies which take pride in the quality of their product.
So while in the USA 10% of the beer drunken is of very good quality (microbreweries) the rest is pretty bad(Bud, miller light etc.). In Germany I would say it is probably the other way around with the majority of beer (including the good stuff served at the Oktobefest in the picture) being made in medium sized local breweries according the Reinheitsgebot and of pretty good quality.

No Mist

dear Germans,

do not lose heart. export your beer to India ... you will run out of capacity ... i am waiting !

amerigo poiesi

This is not dissimilar to what happened to other markets. Part of the problem is that beer developed over the millennia as the prime blue collar beverage, while wine was the drink of choice for the "rich and beautiful." There are historical reasons for this (wine started its "luxury" career as an imported beverage in Mesopotamia).

However, fact is that beer offers a wider variety of aromas and tastes than wine if properly brewed. That is what the American microbreweries discovered about 30 years ago. That market is still growing double digit, indicating that a good product finds its buyers. Think of the fate of Grappa, or of American filter coffee.

From there a new beer culture is developing that is now spreading all over the world. Germany is for sure last in the row, if only because of the protectionistic misuse of the so called "Purity Law" (Rheinheitsgebot). What most people forget to mention is that the "Purity Law" was enacted in order to prevent certain types of grain from being brewed in a period of famine. In other words: you can brew "pure" beer even when infringing the "Purity Law". The other protectionistic measure are the regulations more or less obliging beer makers (but not wine makers) to participate the returnable bottle system.

All the above is hampering innovation (like in other protected market). However, some pioneers seem to start breaking new ground. In a store nearby Frankfurt I recently discovered a new beer range calles Might be that Germans are awakening after all.


Beer drinking is a matter of taste. Real drinkers of European beer like Germans cannot stand American beer lacking quality hops content but has more barley – a complains of headache are frequent. On the other hand I can understand for most occasional beer drinkers the German/European beer tastes bitter but do not give you headache, but big belly though.


Germanambassador -

You are hilarious and partly correct. I find most German people rather detestable (including myself). But we rule at football (not like "put me to sleep" Spain) and the beer is great.

And whoever said Beligian beer is good ... if that's the only reason to keep the country from breaking up, let it self-destruct. Who can drink a beer with 8+ percent alchol? Disgusting!


I am sitting here in Las Vegas (USA) and pray to the beer gods that all Miller Light, Bud Light etc. will disappear from this globe.
Give me an IPA, an Imperial Stout or a "Duessel Alt" and I will be in hog heaven. I had one (Imperial Stout) last night, brewed here locally in Henderson. What flavor, what taste, unbelievable.


only 18 posts so far?? an article involving german beers that only attracts 18 replies.. my God, people are losing interest in beer..


I think German beer is brewed for German taste and you have to take it as a matter of fact that the tastes of the nations are as different as they are in anything.
If most foreigners find German beer awful I can understand because it is not their taste.
Most foreigners find German food and anything that is German just awful.
This is a quite common oponion of most foreigners and you can not force anybody to find aything good or pleasant in Germany.
Germany has the worst reputation of all countries in the world and so I do not wonder that most foreigners find German beer as awful as they find the Germans.
On the other hand it is a good development if Germans consume less beer.
So what is the use of ths discussion?
Germans are used to deal with their bad reputation.


About 20 years ago, the German purity law was changed in order to allow European brewers to export their products into the German market without having to adhere to the purity law (it was ruled to be an illegal import restriction by the European court of justice). Since it nowadays doesn't cover all beers sold in Germany anymore, but only those who want to carry the label "gebraut nach dem deutschen Reinheitsgebot" (brewed in adherence to the Germany purity law) it has more or less become a voluntary quality label which brewers can freely decide to adopt or not.


Octobergloom, with few exceptions, was caused by producing too little and consuming too much. Germany is the successful economic role model - not the failure - and that includes beer drinking moderation.


People here in Canada seem to love ripping American beer, among just about all things American. To be completely truthful I have had some very good American beer. Generally not a fan of a lot of European brews in, but beer is a personal and learned taste, and some of the best beer that I've tried was in places people don't imagine as beer producing countries, such as Cambodia, Japan, and Korea.

After the 2nd or 3rd, however, they all seem to go down pretty well!

Ed High

No offense intended, Globalcitizen, but maybe you just don't like beer. You are half right, though: the best beer is brewed in Belgium. And if that isn't a good reason to keep a country together then I'm at a complete loss.

Reconcile through beer!



"While nothing beats the British ales, and the American micro breweries are embarrassingly good (...)"

Some American microbreweries are very, very good indeed.

But "nothing beats the British ales"???
Probably not, if British ales are what you prefer. A tautology?



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