I'm thinking of visiting one of the large beer festivals in Germany this year. Berlin (August) or Stuttgart (end of Sept.)
Any recommendations? The Berlin fest seems massive, with a large variety of beers on sale from all over the world. Are they all available on draft? Looking at the website -- the Czech section alone would occupy me for a day! The Stuttgart fest seems more traditional with local brews only. But it is still a large fest, although spread out over 2 weeks.
bruce
OK the brew laws discourage German brewers from using some of the weirder ingredients (fruits, raw grains, spices, etc.) but that still leaves open almost any ale variety of beer; plus malted ingredients from wheat, oat, rye, spelt, etc (& perhaps also many odd fermentation organisms such as brettanomyces / lambic style beasties - as the original didn't mention yeast?! - I think I may be pushing that though!)
I say that the beer laws 'discourage', rather than 'prevent' innovation/diversity because, if memory serves (from a posting elsewhere by knowledgeable beer chap Jaime Jurado) some German brewers do use verboten ingredients to brew unusual beers - in the case Jaime mentioned, it was hemp - it's just that they're not allowed to describe them as 'bier' in Germany!
I suspect the lack of beer style diversity in Germany is more a mix of rheinheitsgebot & a cultural thing - few UK brewers toy with non-UK beer styles in terms of *authentically* producing Belgie/German/Czech lagers & wheat beers or USPAs, Imperial Double IPAs, etc; though things are perhaps moving (Freedom, Meantime, Foxfield, Cain's, SamSmith's, Cotswold, Scots lager brewers, etc).
Our focus on UK-only styles is IMO is linked to our pride in & love of UK beers, plus a hangover from the days when lager in the UK largely meant awful UK-brewed stuff, which led there to be a general feeling amongst UK beer fans that lager was universally bad (from Carling to Budvar) & also perhaps that as real ale & some of its particular styles nearly died out & perhaps still has problems, why should we look abroad for beers (or styles?) when our own beauties may still be under threat? cheers MikeMcG. (who currently brews a beer based on a black lager grist, fermented with an English ale yeast & hopped with US-variety Cascades, grown for the first time in Kent!)
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