The regions, towns and places, and their highlights, stories, traditions, customs and festivals

Hosted by Bluehost.com

Please note, that all links worked at time of publishing.

URL changes and web site updates are beyond our control and we apologize if you can not reach the promised link.

We try our best to only link to official and secure web pages, but we can not be responsible for the contents, security and accuracy of the featured links

©2011 GGM Direct, Inc.  

586.231.7605

GGM Direct Home Things Bavarian Our Recipes A Trip 4 U German Terms Our Store

The Bavarian Bier:

Bavaria, an area 15% smaller than South Carolina, had at the beginning of the 19th century close to 30,000 commercial breweries, including those which just brewed for in- house consumption. This number diminished over the years to 627 in existence in 2008. Compare that to a total count, as per Wikipedia, of 1640 in all 50 states of the USA or an average of 33 per state.

Did you know, that the oldest, still in effect, consumer protection law comes from Bavaria? Right away, your only guess should be that it has something to do with Bier. Yes, I spell Bier the German way, as this article is strictly about this grandiose brew from Bavaria.

Reinheitsgebot or purity law:

As beer is considered the oldest alcoholic beverage (could be as far back as 9500 BC) in existence today so are also the laws governing this tremendous liquid. It was mentioned by the Sumerians and Ancient Egyptians and was already regulated by the Babylonians close to 4000 years ago. In recorded Bavarian history the quality of beer was defined when Augsburg became a city under the edict of Emperor Frederic Barbarossa in 1156. It is still in effect with the Bavarian Purity Law which was established in 1516 by Duke Wilhelm IV and states, that you are only allowed to use Hops, Barley and Water. This law does not include the use of yeast, as this was not a known ingredient at that time, but occurred naturally. It was Louis Pasteur in the 19th century who finally figured out, that without yeast there is no beer.

The use of only barley in this law seems to go back to a 1393 famine in Nuremberg, where it was declared that only barley or the malt thereof was allowed to be used in brewing beer.

The original Bavarian Purity law also included a set cost of 1 penny per liter of beer from the brewery and a slightly higher amount from a pub. It is too bad that this part of the law is not in effect anymore.

As there are millions of web sites dedicated to beer we would like to concentrate on the “Biers” of Bavaria and it’s northern part called Franken (for more about this area click here).

Beer (read a condensed explanation on wikipedia)

As the number of different types of beer is in the hundreds, we would like to list just some of the most common ones at home in this region.

• Pilsener, Export and Lager are probably the largest percentage produced and consumed in the area.
• Weissbier or Weizenbier used to be served clear/filtered with a lemon slice, now it is popular unfiltered without the lemon (called Hefe Weizen). It also comes as Weizenbock.
• Bockbier, usually brewed for special occasions, it has a higher alcohol content.
• Doppelbock, these beers usually end with the syllable “-ator” , like Salvator, Kulminator and so on, produced by the Bavarian monks to offset their fasting during lent and served nowadays at the annual “Starkbierfests” (strong beer festivals) throughout the region.
• Märzen goes back before refrigeration when this bottom-fermenting beer was brewed in März-March so that it could be stored till late summer.
• Diätpils (diet pilsner) is made for diabetics in a special way which converts almost all carbohydrates into alcohol, eliminating many calories, but increasing the alcohol content.
• Eisbock was accidentally developed in Kulmbach when they found out that water could be extracted by freezing the beer.
• Malzbier is not a beer, but a non-alcoholic, usually sweetened malt beverage.
• Rauchbier, the smokey tasting beer that made Bamberg famous.

Notable are also the Special beers brewed all over the region for all the special occasions throughout the year, the most famous is probably the Oktoberfestbier in Munich but is also exemplified by the Schlappenbier in the city of Hof which is brewed there only for one special day a year.

To keep in line with demand many breweries started brewing light beers. It is said, that this is not brewed for the people who enjoy a good beer, but for those who like to run to the bathroom more often.