Want to Drink a Great Beer? Go German!

One of the various things the German people are known for is beer. Beer is an essential piece of their tradition and heritage, with over thirteen-hundred varied breweries spanning the country. As far as per capita beer consumption, the Germans are only behind the Czechs and the Irish. The history of Germanic brew spans back to the beginnings of the nation when monks started to experiment with brewing around 1000 A.D. The country's leaders eventually started to legislate the manufacturing of beer as brewing started to be more and more profitable. The most well-known and significant component to effect Germanic brewing came in 1516 with the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot, or the purity standard.

To make sure that Bavarian beers were only the highest quality the Duke Wilhelm IV authorized the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot. Hops, barley, and water are the only ingredients that should go in in beer according to the law. The Reinheitsgebot is the oldest regulation placed on food in the world and has remain unchanged in nearly five-hundred years. Yeast is the only inclusion to the list of crucial ingredients in the act. Yeast found naturally in the air was what manufacturers before used. Bavarian breweries were soon considered the superior makers of beer because of the strict standard of quality following by the purity requirement. As the prominence of the Bavarian breweries spread around the nation other manufacturers started to follow the proclamation as well.

German beers have a long-standing reputation of making quality brews made only from the purest ingredients as a result of the Reinheitsgebot. As time passed and Germany began to ship out beer, some cities became famed brewing locations. By fifteen-hundred, Scandinavia, Holland, England, and as far as India principally recieved their beer from one of the more than 600 breweries in the city of Bremen. Two more famed brewing cities were Einbeck and Braunschweig. In modern-day Germany, the majority of the country's drinking people still choose fabbier, or draught beer, over bottled beer because of it's robust flavor and perfect amount of foam. In an effort to curtail more outbreaks of the bubonic plague German beer steins became popular about the time the purity standard came about and are still used today.

During the time of the bubonic plague, Germany originated a lot of laws to prevent its citizens from getting ill. Massive amounts of infected flies would land in people's food and spread the infection. This led to the German beer stein, a beverage container with a hinged lid that could be used with the thumb so a person could stop infection and still be able to drink with one hand. Beer drinking rose exponentially as citizens started to realize the disease spread in unsanitary conditions with brackish pools of water. Originally made of stoneware with pewter lids, steins grew in popularity. Steins began to be manufactured entirely of pewter for nearly 300 years as the pewter guild grew. Eventually, porcelain and silver German beer steins were introduced and are still produced today.

Nowadays there are over 1350 breweries within Germany's lands that produce over five-thousand brands of beer. The Benedictine abbey Weihenstephan, which has been producing beer since one-thousand and forty, is reported as the oldest brewery in the world. The most concentrated area in Germany for beer makers is the Franconia region of Bavaria by the city Bamberg. German breweries produce a wide variety of tastes and brands of beer with the majority of them able to be placed under ales or lagers. Some brands of beer may have an alcoholic content as high as 12%, making them more potent than a lot of wines even though most beers have an alcoholic content ranging from 4.7% to 5.4%.

Just Right: Storing and Serving Draft Beer

If you’ve been drinking beer for any amount of time you are probably aware of draft beer. People around the globe enjoy the cold sudsy beverage that comes from a keg and out of the beer taps. When stored and served right, it is a tasty and refreshing way to enjoy a cold beer. However, some problems can arise that can definitely take away from the quality and taste of your favorite beverage.

The most important factor in proper draft care is the temperature of the beer. The proper temperature for storage and serving draft beer is 38 degrees Fahrenheit. If the keg falls above or below 38 F, the appearance, freshness, and most importantly, taste can be affected. Draft beer is kept at this temperature so that it can maintain the carbonation level that it has while it is being made at the brewery. It does not matter whether it is a domestic or imported beer or if it is pasteurized or not; the temperature must remain between 38-40 degrees.

If a keg gets too warm, the beer will foam up while it is still in the container. This happens because the pressure applied by the beer tap handles is not enough to keep the carbonation in the beer. This can lead to wasted beer and wasted profit. Once a keg has lost pressure and the carbonation in the beer is gone, it affects the taste, making it more bitter, and the appearance of the beer, making it appear clouded.

If the keg gets too cold it causes the carbonation found in the beer to remain there until the customer consumes it. The result is overfilled beer glasses and a lower yield of beers per keg. Also, if temperature drops too much without the pressure from the beer tap handles being changed, the beer may become over carbonated. This will result in foamy pours.

Temperature can be maintained with a little care. To properly measure a keg’s temperature you must place a thermometer in liquid with the keg. This is important to do to maintain proper temperature. A keg can go from 38 degrees to 48 degrees in as little as four hours. On the other hand, it can take up to ten hours for a keg that measures 48 degrees to be cooled down to 38 degrees. This is a serious matter in a business or party situation!

One way to prevent improper temperature is make sure that your keg refrigerator is well maintained and sealed properly. A poorly sealed cooler can warm the keg by several degrees over a relatively short period of time. When storing kegs, avoid keeping other items in the same cooler as the beer. Having other items in the same refrigerator can lead to people opening the door and affecting the temperature of the keg.

One must consider temperature when receiving a keg from delivery as well. A keg that has ridden around in a delivery truck for several hours is more than likely going to be several degrees warmer than when it came from the warehouse. The bottom line is that with a little care and attention draft beer can always be good all the way from the bottom of the barrel until it comes bursting forth in a golden frothy spray out of the beer tap handles.