Brewery, Beer Hall and Biergarten

So far this course has been about what is in the glass. This chapter is about where the glass is: the brewery that makes the beer, the hall or pub where it is served, and the beer garden, the most famous of all German drinking places and one with a surprisingly legal history. These places matter because much of German beer culture is social. Beer is drunk at a regular table, in a garden under trees, at a long bench shared with strangers. The chapter explains how those places grew up, what rules and customs go with them, and how to behave in them. Dates and details are given from general knowledge and flagged where they should be checked.

The Brewery in the Town

Until the late nineteenth century, a typical German brewery was small and local, run by a family or a monastery or a ducal court, and tied to a particular town. Industrial lager brewing (see German Beer, Oktoberfest & the Reinheitsgebot 4) created larger firms, and the twentieth century brought mergers and takeovers, so that a few big groups now account for much of the beer sold. Yet Germany still has a very large number of independent breweries, among the highest of any country, many of them in Bavaria and especially Franconia (check the current number and the claim).

Beer Halls and Brauhäuser

The beer hall is a large public room, often vaulted, with long tables and benches, where many people drink and eat together. Munich is the home of the type.

• The Hofbräuhaus. Founded in 1589 by Duke Wilhelm V as a court brewery for the Bavarian rulers and opened to the public later (check the dates). It is now one of the best-known beer halls in the world and a tourist destination (check).
• Big halls. Large halls in Munich seat thousands, with brass bands and a lively mood, and a distinctive atmosphere called Gemütlichkeit, a word for a feeling of cosiness, warmth and belonging that is hard to translate (check).
• Cologne and Düsseldorf. The Brauhaus in these cities serves its own Kölsch or Altbier (see Chapter 5). In Cologne a waiter in a blue apron, a Köbes, carries trays of small glasses and keeps refilling until you place a beer mat over the glass to stop (check this custom).
• The Stammtisch. A regular table, often marked with a sign, reserved for a group of regulars who meet at set times. Sitting at someone's Stammtisch uninvited is considered rude (check).

The Beer Garden

The Biergarten is a garden or terrace, usually under chestnut trees, where beer is served at outdoor tables. It is a Bavarian invention with a story that links back to the cold cellars of Chapter 4.

The Rules of the Garden

Customs and Etiquette

• The toast. Say Prost, make eye contact with each person as you clink glasses, and do not cross arms with someone else's. A superstition says that avoiding eye contact brings bad luck, a belief often repeated in guides (check).
• The beer mat. A Bierdeckel is placed under the glass and, in some places, used by the waiter to keep a tally of drinks in pencil marks.
• Paying. Many places expect you to say what you have had when you pay, and tipping is customary by rounding up or adding a few per cent (check the current convention).
• The pour. A proper pour has a collar of foam. Pouring a Pils is slow and takes several minutes in a traditional pub (check), and wheat beer is poured at an angle and finished with the yeast swirled in.
• Glassware. Most styles have a matching glass, from the small Kölsch cylinder to the large Maß, the one-litre mug, of Oktoberfest (see Chapter 8).
• Age. The legal age for beer in Germany is 16, with some conditions (check the current rule), lower than in the United Kingdom.

Exercises

Next chapter: Oktoberfest: Origins, which looks at the royal wedding of 1810 and the early years of the festival.