Berlin, Aug 20 (EFE).- The German Brewers Union highlighted this week the importance of beer in the country’s culture and identity and analyzed its relationship with football and new trends such as craft beer.
Beer and Germany are two terms that go hand in hand, and not in vain, since each German consumed an average of 106.6 liters of beer last year, according to the German Brewers Union at a meeting with the press held this week in Berlin
An average that rises notably if it is combined with another of the hallmarks of the German country: football.
“Wherever you go, we are known for two things: Bayern Munich and beer,” said the executive director of the Brewers’ Union, Holger Eichele, noting that last June, when Germany won the title of champion of the World Cup, consumption rose by 14%.
And it is that despite the fact that last year the sale of beer registered its lowest level since German reunification, in 1990, this drink is already part of its history and culture, and last December the brewers requested that their “liquid bread” is considered a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
With its nearly forty varieties and 5,000 brands across the country, German beer also has a strong local feel, and each region proudly displays its own recipe for water, malt, hops and yeast.
While the south is characterized by “Weizen” beers brewed with barley yeast, the north favors “Pilsner”, a blonde with low hop content.
On the German beer map, the Rhineland is a separate chapter. In Cologne, the “Kölsch” type beer is produced, with less alcohol content than “Pils” and is usually drunk in two-deciliter glasses.
Düsseldorf, on the other hand, prefers the “Alt”, dark, and between the two cities the preference for one or the other is a matter of faith.
At the Berliner-Kindl brewery, where some of the best-known “Pilsners” in the German capital are produced, they are clear that to make a good beer you need “time” and “good water”, as explained by the brewmaster Heiko Rohde .
To achieve this, in this factory that produces 1.5 million hectoliters a year and employs 150 people, it takes three weeks from the time the grain is ground until the product is ready for the customer to enjoy.
But first, while the future beer goes through the different phases of maceration, cooking and fermentation, in another plant the bottles arrive in boxes to undergo a complex and noisy process of washing, filling, labeling and sealing, with little human supervision.
A very different process from the work of small breweries that make their own craft beer, a growing trend from the United States that dates back to Prohibition and that increasingly attracts more fans of this drink around the world.
To quench this thirst in Berlin, there are numerous establishments that offer their own “house” beer, such as the Lemke restaurant, under the arches of the Hackesche Markt station, which for fifteen years has been offering beer produced in its small factory, accompanied by typical German dishes.
Oliver Lemke, master craftsman at the head of this establishment, assured that “experimentation and innovation” is a very important point in the elaboration of craft beer, until finding the unique flavor that makes the customer come back.
“A brewery is good when a lot of people come,” said Lemke, and motivated by that trust, they are now working to bottle some of their specialties for sale to the public.
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