Heineken primarily produces in local factories worldwide, not predominantly in The Netherlands. Their annual revenue is about four times bigger than all German beer manufacturers combined. It may be piss, but it's a nice golden stream.
I find sales numbers to be a very poor proportional indicator of quality. Very much like the books on popular bestseller lists are usually trash, and often harmful.
Germany has prided itself on its beer and the nonsensical Reinheitsgebot for a while, but we're living in the post craft-beer era now, where the hype has faded, not everything is an 8.8% IPA anymore and it's actually possible to get your hands on great beers pretty much everywhere.
Let's face it, AB-InBev has bought many larger German breweries and continues to produce its garbage there. I wouldn't look to any megabrewery if I wanted a quality beer.
If we're talking about good German beers that are not overly exotic (i. e. you can buy them almost everywhere in a regular supermarket vs. a dedicated store), look at Maisel & Friends, Insel Brauerei, Lemke, Brlo, Nittenauer, Stoertebeker. There is plenty of more obscure stuff available, but then we're back to speciality beers or limited runs.
Yes, that's exactly what I said. In ye olden times everyone would shout REINHEITSGEBOT and a decent chunk of modern beers would have been impossible to market, which is pretty funny since even Germans acknowledge their neighbors in Belgium having the odd decent beer, but then seem to completely forget that Kriek exists.
But no one has to venture out of the holy land to see how silly the modern interpretation of the Reinheitsgebot was, Gose was allegedly invented in Goslar, after all.
6 replies
Heineken primarily produces in local factories worldwide, not predominantly in The Netherlands. Their annual revenue is about four times bigger than all German beer manufacturers combined. It may be piss, but it's a nice golden stream.
Export Strength Piss
I find sales numbers to be a very poor proportional indicator of quality. Very much like the books on popular bestseller lists are usually trash, and often harmful.
Germany has prided itself on its beer and the nonsensical Reinheitsgebot for a while, but we're living in the post craft-beer era now, where the hype has faded, not everything is an 8.8% IPA anymore and it's actually possible to get your hands on great beers pretty much everywhere.
Let's face it, AB-InBev has bought many larger German breweries and continues to produce its garbage there. I wouldn't look to any megabrewery if I wanted a quality beer.
If we're talking about good German beers that are not overly exotic (i. e. you can buy them almost everywhere in a regular supermarket vs. a dedicated store), look at Maisel & Friends, Insel Brauerei, Lemke, Brlo, Nittenauer, Stoertebeker. There is plenty of more obscure stuff available, but then we're back to speciality beers or limited runs.
German beer and the Reinheitsgebot are more connected to 4.9% Pilsner than 8.8% IPA
Yes, that's exactly what I said. In ye olden times everyone would shout REINHEITSGEBOT and a decent chunk of modern beers would have been impossible to market, which is pretty funny since even Germans acknowledge their neighbors in Belgium having the odd decent beer, but then seem to completely forget that Kriek exists. But no one has to venture out of the holy land to see how silly the modern interpretation of the Reinheitsgebot was, Gose was allegedly invented in Goslar, after all.
This is a good mutation of this meme