Germany's Boring, Chemically-Processed Beers Fail Worldwide

The ZDF sent a reporter to take a chainsaw to the rapidly-crumbling mythology of Germany's excellent, pure beers (h/t HM). The resulting 30-minute special is here (g). Sorry, I couldn't find an embed link. The executive summary:

• German beers regularly fail on the international tasting circuit because they're bland and uniform, reflecting a lack of innovation in the German beer market. American beers routinely win highest honors because they're more diverse and high-quality.
• The German beer industry has become hugely concentrated owing to massive mergers which have shut down many smaller breweries.
• The biggest German beer brands all taste alike and have no character.
• The much-hyped German beer purity law (Reinheitsgebot) is actually full of loopholes that permit all sorts of shortcuts and chemical additives like the BASF-produced PVPP (which, to be fair, is only used in processing and doesn't stay in the beer).
• Germans' primitive beer palates are, in part, caused by the woefully limited range of beers available at mainstream commercial outlets. Most of the really interesting micro-brewed German beers are destined for export to more adventurous consumer markets -- primarily in the US.

A sobering picture, so to speak, but not one that will be unfamiliar to readers of this blog. The report saves the best for last, in which during the 2012 Beer awards, the blind taste testers award top honors in traditionally German beer categories such as Alt, Kölsch, Hefe-Weizen and Pilsner to breweries from Arizona, Texas, Australia, and Iceland, respectively.

Yet there's a happy postscript: Germans are beginning to emerge from their dogmatic Reinheits-slumber and awaken to the glorious worldwide diversity of beer, thanks to stores like Bier-Beer (g) which stocks over 300 foreign beer brands...

Comments

[Lutz]

@Andrew - No Düsseldorf Altbier in San Diego

I see three reasons. First the Düsseldorf arrogance “We make Altbier since 1838”, we do no compete with newcomers from Texas. Second, it’s a blind tasting, somebody might be afraid to finish second. Third, nobody in Düsseldorf (and all over Europe) cares about the results. It costs time and money to participate (you even have to register at the FDA); it does not pay-off.

I suppose the first reason is most important. It’s marketing, stupid. If you make Scotch Whiskey in Glenlivet, Bordeaux Wine at the Chateau Latour, or Altbier in the Altstadt you simply do not mess around with these guys, these product pirates. Best you can do is to ignore them. O.k., they make good Whiskey in Japan, excellent Wine in South Africa and Altbier in Alaska, but we have the name, the history and the tradition that nobody can copy.

If you are not sure about your name, your reputation and tradition you end up with headlines like this: Streit zwischen Apple und Samsung spitzt sich zu. http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/webwelt/article13777626/Streit-zwischen-Apple-und-Samsung-spitzt-sich-zu.html

A fact that might be interesting: Uerige makes beer for the U.S market. It is highly appreciated among U.S. beer geeks and sells very well. The most famous U.S.Altbier, by the way, really comes from Alaska, it’s called “Alaskan Amber”.

[Stefan Tilkov]

Anytime I go to the U.S., I find that all the beers - including the ones my hosts rave about, using phrases like "wail until you drink this!" - I'm thoroughly disappointed and find the stuff barely drinkable. Does that prove anything? Of course it doesn't, as this is simply a matter of taste. I'm pretty sure that it will be very hard to find any objective criteria. (I also can't stand English ale, and it may well be that people from the U.K. feel the same way about a beer that's served with actual foam on top.)

Still, I watched the documentary, and I found it hardly surprising that the mass-produced beer fared so badly. What it seems to miss is that there's fortunately still a large number of brands that are made in smaller breweries, are not exported anywhere (and therefore probably don't even enter a contest like the one mentioned in the end) and - personal opinion again - taste excellent. (One of my favorites is Veltins, made in a brewery owned by Ms Susanne Veltins.)

[Andrew]

@Lutz: Wait, if Düsseldorf Altbier brewers didn't enter the competition in the USA because it was so obviously biased in favor of American beers, why did the WBC award medals to beers from Iceland, Australia, Japan, Germany, Austria, Brazil, etc. etc.?

@jabgoe: Ach, ja! I forgot that Kölsch can only be brewed by Germans. It's a Blut und Boden thing. I still have enough New World in me to believe that a superior product is a superior product, not matter who makes it. The dirty secret about appellations is that, although they guarantee a product is made in a certain place, they most don't guarantee that it's the best version of its kind out there. After all, if all Feta that didn't come from Greece tasted horrible, then the Greeks would hardly have to worry about competition. Ditto with Champagne; does anyone really still believe that you can't make outstanding Champagne-in-all-but-name lots of places all over the earth? And that you won't have to pay the insane markup for 'real' Champagne?

[Lutz]

It’s all about data interpretation.

Some part of the summary refers to the last World Beer Cup (WBC), held in San Diego. It was the 9th WBC, all were held in U.S. There were 3921 beers in competition, 2/3 came from U.S., Germany was second (292 beers). About 8% of American beers and about 8% of German beers won a price. If you consider that they have incredible 95 categories for medals, and German breweries do not cover more than 20 of these categories, the result for German beer is quite good (They have fact sheet on their homepage for more details). Even the price for the best small breweries of the world was give to a German brewery.

The best Altbier at the WBC 2012 was from Austin TX. Beers from Düsseldorf were not present. Why should they, as long as the WBC is hosted by the BA in U.S.? It is little bit like Hollywood’s academy award, where the best films come from U.S. most of the time. Add: The English WBA (http://www.worldbeerawards.com) gave the first price (over-all) to a German beer in 2011.

So we have the WBC in U.S., the English WBA, a World Beer Challenge held in Portugal (last winners were from Austria and Spain) and several regional competitions. Reminds me of boxing where you have four heavy-weight world champions at the same time.

Regarding the other points of the summary:

Concentration in the beer industry is higher in U.S. and most other countries. Concentration is about mergers of big companies and acquisition of mid-size breweries. Small breweries close due to the fact that the owner cannot make a major investment or he has no successor. They are not purchased by bigger ones.

PVPP is heavily used in beverage industry, including the wine industry and for all type of juice. It would be nice if the use of PVPP must be declared on the label, or, the other way round, if a brewer or a winemaker says “without use of PVPP” on his labels.

Most of the really interesting micro-brewed German beers are not destined for export at all; they are not even available all over Germany (a failing of wholesaler model). The best micro-brewed beer is available in some small village pubs in Bamberg County. That is the reason why there is a beer pilgrimage to a place called Windischeschenbach. http://www.ratebeer.com/forums/zoigl-hunting-advice-required_185511.htm

[jabgoe]

oh my, there is real Kölsch from Arizona, Texas, Australia and Iceland? Sounds like there could be real Scotch Whisky from the USA or real Champagne from GB or real Cognac from Spain.

Prost!

---
von den usa lernen heißt siegen lernen

[Harvey Morrell]

Speaking Bier&Beer, I remember being able to get Sam Adams at Feinkost Käfer in Munich back in '87. I found the ZDF special fascinating and horrifying.

[noribori]

That label "Bier&Beer" is pretty clever, not playing them off against each other.