Documentary on German Beer Scene

This is what I love about the Interwebs. I can sit on my couch and watch a German television program streaming to my TV with no subtitles and rewind it to hear certain words again. Here is a documentary that aired on German television called Hopfen und Malz Verloren which literally means hops and malt lost. The program laments the state of German bier kultur.





It's in German so, if you understand the language, perfect. If not, I still recommend watching so you can hear one of the most beautiful languages on the planet.

I had German in college and could pick up bits here and there. The general thrust is that German bier kultur is being homogenized by corporate consolidation while we Americans have a craft beer scene full of variety and innovation. Radeberger is held up as the Bud or Miller of Germany with a dozen or more labels in their portfolio. The sometimes querulous host does an informal taste test out in a park which features half a dozen of the most popular pilseners and no one could tell the difference. This less than scientific poll gives way to the beers being handed over to a chemist for analysis. The results show that they're pretty similiar in terms of the amount of malt and hops in each and these results stand in contrast to a non-macro pilsener.

There is a chat with another chemist who talks about hop extract. Later on we watch our host at home with a bottle of what appears to be roasted malt extract and he magically turns a helles into a dunkel. I'm not sure if he came out an accused the big German brewers of using it but that was my guess. It is my understanding that all of these shortcuts are Reinheitsgebot compliant so German bier drinkers who looks for that as a sign of quality may very well be getting duped. This is something to think about the next time you're at the Essen Haus and explains why those 4-packs of Bitburger silos go for the same price as Milwaukee's Beast Lite.

The show visits Sierra Nevada as an example of quality American brewing before heading to St. Louis. No punches are pulled as it is noted that Budweiser brews Beck's there. Leaving the macro behind, the next stop is Urban Chestnut Brewing, also in St. Louis, whose brewmaster, Florian Kuplent, hails from Bavaria. He pours a lemon lager for the host.

In the final minutes, we are at the 2012 World Beer Cup where German breweries lose in many, if not most, categories for German styles.

All in all an interesting little exposé. I don't believe for a minute that this program is going to change much of anything, but it's still nice to think that the Germans are on track to have a craft bier revolution of its own.