Franconian Beer Message Board
Brauereisterben |
| Posted by Mark Andersen on 2011-03-21 06:03:18 |
| This is really no different than here in the United States. Kids in the US aren't generally drinking good quality beer, they're drinking the kind of stuff that Juergen mentions or something like Busch Light because it's cheap and they can drink lots of it before falling on their arse. It is interesting to sit on a bar stool at Stilbruch in Bamberg on a weekend night and see what the younger crowd is drinking. There is a lot of what Juergen described but I also saw a lot of Keesman Pilsner being poured. I guess to an 20 year old in Bamberg, Keesman is to them what a Busch Light is to the same kid in the US. These kids in Bamberg don't know how good they've got it. This article is nothing new. Pattinson has had articles on his website in this vein for many years. Like this one: http://www.europeanbeerguide.net/gersbeer.htm The biggest problem I've seen is that Germans are too bloody provincial about there beers. In some ways that is what makes their beer culture so unique in other ways it gets ridiculous. For example I have a friend that lives in Hamburg. She is not the slightest bit bothered that the beer culture of Hamburg is all but gone. Her beer of choice is Astra. Why? Not because it is a good beer (it's really awful) but because it is the beer that sponsors the local football club St. Pauli. Regional pride trumps quality. I actually had a local in Northern Germany argue to me that Holstein was the best German beer and those Altbiers from Dusseldorf were piss. Again regional pride trumps quality. My friends from Hamburg had absolutely no clue of Franconian beer culture nor what Bamberg was all about. I convinced them to go there with me a 3 years ago. They were reluctant and could not understand why I wanted to visit there instead of Hamburg. Now after having been there with me 3 times they are hooked. Where once I could not get them to drink a Schlenkerla, we now cannot pass the place without them wanting to stop for a Seidla. They are meeting me there again in July and now want to explore more of the outlying breweries and kellers. Now quality is starting to trump regional pride. I'm convinced that a vast number of Germans are clueless about how good their beer really can be and so their dollars spent on beer and other alcoholic drinks go to companies that have succesfully marketed a brand rather than produced high quality. The Franconian locals are fortunate. Their regional pride in beer happens to be well justified. But if the population there is aging/declining then there's not much you can do about it. |