American Beer vs German Beer

In some cases, quite a lot. In other cases, hardly anything at all. It all depends on which beer(s) you have in mind. So, which beers do you have in mind? Do you realize that the answer isn't quite so simple as to fit into a few sentences?

One significant difference is that, in general, German brewers are bound by restrictions on what can and can not be used in beer. An edict that was issued 490 years ago set some ground rules in Bavaria, and while the current rules that regulate German brewing aren't exactly the same as that old edict, it still survives as something that German brewers tend to cling to in an attempt to tell consumers that their product is "pure."

American brewers are not bound by the same edict.

Some German brewers can fall back on traditions going back centuries; in a couple of cases, that tradition goes back nearly a thousand years. However, the bulk of beer consumed in Germany is pale lager made with cultured lager yeast, a tradition that goes back only to the mid-19th century.

American brewers can't point to a domestic tradition going back that far, for obvious reasons. Most modern American mass-produced beers are derivations of those German pale lagers which first became popular in the 19th century.

There's more, but that would take a while. Go read a book or three if you really want to know more, or better yet, book a trip to Germany and learn first-hand.

Man the differences are huge. Germany is probably one of the best countries in the world for beer alongside the Czech Republic and Belgium. Of course the US has some great beers and breweries but is light years behind Germany in choice and style. Most US breweries offer versions of European traditional styles and have made strides in quality. However if you're looking for the best try Schneiderweisse or Fransiskaner for the wheat beers. Still for my money the Czech beers Budvar, Staropramen, Krusovice Pilsner Urquell are the best .

You're a troll, right?

Actually, I'd disagree. As much as I love a great number of German beers, I do not consider it a utopia of choice or style. Germany is quite parochial when it comes to beer, and there's a lot that's quite difficult to find outside a very narrow geographic region. And with some notable exceptions - to oversimplify, Dusseldorf, Colgone and Bavaria - it's pretty much variations of pils.

Whereas the US has abundant ales of many variieties, lagers of not quite as many varieties, etc. There's hardly a style of beer in the world that doesn't have an interpretation in the U.S.; in contrast, I challenge you to find a German-brewed interpretation of a pale ale or a Belgian dubbel.

-Steve

Not so much as you might like to think.

Really? Just which German brewer produces something like Dogfish Head's 90 Minute IPA, Allagash Interlude, Russian River's Pliny the Elder, Full Sail Black Gold bourbon-barrel stout, or Elysian's Bete Blanche?

OTOH, I spent Saturday afternoon of the recent Labor Day weekend drinking delicious locally-brewed Pilsner and Oktoberfest in ... Oroville, Washington, up by the Canadian border in the Okanagan country. Damn good they were, too. And the last bottle of Victory's Prima Pils that I opened was in great shape, and that beer stands up to any Old World Pilsner lager quite nicely.

And then some. And some of those US breweries are pushing the boundaries too. Not all of the attempts are successful, but those that are have made others all over the world sit up and take notice, even in Germany (and Belgium).

They're good for starters, yep.

So you like nice Czech and German lagers and Bavarian wheat beers.

What else, though? The grand thing about the revival of quality brewing in the USA that's been going on for the better part of three decades (if you count New Albion, longer if you count Anchor Brewing) has resulted in an explosion of styles. Meanwhile, German brewing has become hidebound and mired in its own restrictions, while consumption there continues to drop. Clearly, they aren't doing everything quite as well in Good Ol' Germany as one would like to think. The unrelenting wave of German brewery shutdowns and consolidations is proof of that.

To be sure, I delight in German beer and beer culture, especially those parts of preserved or revived tradition that include Alt, Franconian low-carbonation and smoked lagers, wheat beers, and a few other old-fashioned specialties. But even German brewers acknowledge that their trade needs something of a kick in the backside to get it going again.