But walk into a bar and ask for a Belgian ale or an IPA or, heaven forbid, a light beer, and you'll get a blank stare that has nothing to do with your poor German language skills.
German beer is consistently good and it's no mistake. They have a law about it, or used to. The Reinheitsgebot, or Beer Purity Law, was first enacted in Bavaria in 1516. It stipulated that the only ingredients that could go into beer were water, hops and barley. After yeast was discovered, it became the fourth legal ingredient. In the 1500s, people were putting herbs, fruits, roots and other stuff into beer to increase their profits. Sometimes the herbs and such were toxic, and sometimes they were even hallucinogenic.
The Reinheitsgebot was meant to protect the consumer and it even set a standard price for beer. The law survived the creation of the German state and was the oldest food-quality regulation in the world until it was repealed in 1987. Even though the purity law has been replaced by standard EU regulations, many brewers in Germany still abide by it.
So when you show up at the bar in Germany, you have two choices in beer: Pils or Weizen. Pils is 'normal' beer, and Weizen is wheat beer. If it's a really fancy place they might also have bottled beer, which is also a Pils or a Weizen. Your beer is not complete unless has a nice foamy head on it. While an American bartender may tilt the glass to keep the bubbles at a minimum, the Germans pour it on in. Your German word for the day is Schaum, which means foam.
It's a good time to write about beer, since Oktoberfest is happening now, both in Munich and, to a lesser extent, in Hannover. More on that later. Here is a picture of Ulla and I drinking beers in the tent at Oktoberfest. The bartender laughed at us for ordering beers that were so small. He did not skimp on the foam.
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