Stop taking the Pils
What is a German beer? To most beer drinkers in Britain, it's probably a pale-coloured lager in a bottle. But what many fail to realise is that their "German" tipple is likely to have been brewed in the UK and bears little resemblance to the real thing.
In Germany too, the clear, golden Pilsner remains by far the most popular beer, although here there are many fine, dry, hoppy examples of the style, such as those from Bitburger or Jever. But Pilsner is not the be-all and end-all of German beer styles - far from it.
Before Pilsner was introduced from Bohemia, in the Czech Republic, in the middle of the last century, Germany's beer scene was much more diverse. It included cloudy beers, dark lagers, wheat beers, strong seasonal beers and dark "Alt" beers more akin to British real ales. Although their profile decreased dramatically under the Pilsner onslaught, most of the country's varied styles have survived through to the present day and, over the past 10 years or so, have been enjoying a revival.
German-trained brewer Alastair Hook, who runs the Meantime Brewery in south London, puts the revival down to many German breweries realising they could no longer take beer sales for granted. For years the brewers were convinced they didn't need to market their product to the Germans - only to find they were losing market share to wines and spirits.
"As soon as the brewing companies realised they had to promote the product in an upbeat way, they started to look back at their history and realised that Germany had not always been a nation of light-coloured beers," says Hook.
The re-emergence of beers other than Pilsner was led by wheat beers, known in Germany as Weizen (wheat) or Weisse (white) beers. These enjoyed a huge resurgence in the 1990s, capturing 30% of the market in Bavaria, where the style originates. They are also just about the only other style of German beer to have entered the British consciousness. Like traditional British ales, wheat beer is brewed using strains of yeast that congregate at the top of the brew during fermentation. The yeasts lend wheat beers a complex and spicy taste, typically with a hint of clove, apple or banana.
There are two main types of Weizenbier: Hefeweizen, which is served unfiltered with the yeast still in the bottle; and Kristall (clear), where the yeast is removed. These days, both are often similar in colour to Pilsner, but if you fancy offering your customers something more authentic, try one of the wheat beers from the Schneider brewery in Kelheim, near Munich. Its Schneider Weisse (5.5% abv) is a bronze-coloured, unfiltered wheat beer with a classic spicy, fruity character. If you want to be more adventurous, try Schneider's fabulous Aventinus (7.7% abv), a stronger, darker version known as a Weizenbock that is intended for drinking in winter. Aventinus is a complex, fruity, raisin-like brew, with a banana aroma and strong malty body.
Black beer's return
Another brew enjoying a revival is Schwarzbier (black beer). Although it has been around for centuries, some of the classic examples of this style disappeared from view after the Second World War as their breweries found themselves on the "wrong" side of the division of Germany. But since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, black beers have been rediscovered. The classic example is Köstritzer Schwarzbier (4.8% abv), from the town of Bad Köstritz in Thuringia, enjoyed in the past by such figures as Bismarck and the poet Goethe. The brewery was snapped up in 1991 by Axel Simon, owner of the Bitburger brewery in western Germany, who was determined to uphold its traditions.
Today Köstritzer is the country's most popular black beer. Made using top-fermenting, lager yeasts, it has a distinctive, dry, bitter-chocolate taste and a spicy aroma. Like stout, its black appearance comes from the use of very dark malt, a similarity that can cause confusion among British beer drinkers. "Lager drinkers think it's a stout and stout drinkers drink it once and say it's not a stout," says Stephen Benton of importer Bitburger UK.
If you want to challenge your customers' taste buds further, you could stock an even more exotic German speciality - smoked beer. Rauchbier, as it is known, originates in Franconia, northern Bavaria, and particularly the town of Bamberg. It is made using malts dried over fires of beechwood, which gives it its smoky taste. The classic example is Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (4.8% abv).
Drinking it comes as a shock: you expect to taste beer, but what you get is smoky bacon. It's certainly a talking point, though, and perfect with smoked foods.
