The Tuesday Stat Attack: 11 Germany 28th December 2021

Regional Forums United Kingdom and Ireland
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Where do you start with a country so steeped in Beer Culture? Bavaria with the city of München I suppose and the little festival it holds in late September (the O’fest always finishes on the first Sunday of October, unless the following Monday is deemed to be a Public Holiday), every village, town and city in Germany, not just Bavaria, has a similar but shorter beer drinking event over the same period, but not normally receiving 6 Million guests, or shifting so much beer.

For many years Germany was looked at by serious beer drinkers as the land of Pils and the Reinheitsgebot, it has changed these days, with young innovative brewers producing a huge variety of styles with their own special ‘twists’. Having said that, there are still hundreds of small village breweries producing just two beers and an occasional ‘seasonal brew’ for their regular customers, they have no intension of changing their ways.

For us Brits, Germany is one of every bodies top five rated countries, so I expect a lot of replies to this weeks thread with interesting stats and stories.

Beer Stat wise it has huge numbers, with each of the 16 regions (Bundeslander) having some impressive rating numbers.

Bavaria has 871 active breweries alone, the whole country a massive 2382 on the RateBeer database.
The guys with the most brewery hits are:

Koelschtrinker 1785
Beerhunter111 1743
Erzengel 1361
Kevnic2008 1353
pivnizub 1268
fonefan 1247
MoritzF 1123
kappldav123 1043
Moravius 1015

To reach the leader board for Germany you require 1638 rates, top dogs currently are:

Beerhunter111 15076
Koelschtrinker 14066
Kevnic2008 10219
fonefan 8348
pivnizub 8183
Erzengel 7438
MoritzF 7326

There are no Brits in the top 50 at this time, although we do appear on a few of the regional listings if you care to look. Raters living in Germany are still plentiful with the top three being @beerhunter111, @Koelschtrinker and a chap called @Fin, who some might know.

Germany has everything you could ask for and not just climate and geography wise, sure it has warm summers, cold winters, mountains, a coast line, scenic rivers, black forests and wine growing areas. But it also autobahns and a rail system that runs on time, buses and trams that integrate with each other, Curry Wurst mit Pommes Frites, Pretzal and Leberkäse.

Some famous bridges too, but I will talk about those when I relate my tales of the country.

<*))))))><

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I’m not rating on RB anymore but just to correct my stats on Germany, 16620 beers from 2142 breweries :wink:

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Sorry to hear you have left us @Koelschtrinker, but pleased you are at least checking in on the forums even if you’ve stopped rating on here.

<*))))))><

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101 rates from Germany for me (my 9th highest country), top rated at 4 is Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock

Have only done two visits to Germany both in pre-rate beer days, a stopover in Munich while inter-railing and a work related training trip to Freiburg.

Prior to Brexit traded for some German Ciders with Koelschtrinker and ordered ciders from Kertelreiter - a cidery run by an Irish guy now living in Germany - but since Brexit trades or buying cider online from Germany for delivery to the UK have not been possible, which is a shame.

In terms of cideries, there are 284 active Cideries in Germany, with 79 in the Hesse region and the top cidery city on ratebeer is Frankfurt am Main (with 23).

The top 5 raters for German Ciders and Cideries on ratebeer are:

GermanyCider Ratings

Koelschtrinker 617
Beerhunter111 552
Erzengel 502
McTapps 210
MichaelAwesome 177

GermanyCideries

Koelschtrinker 174
Erzengel 153
Beerhunter111 152
McTapps 78
MichaelAwesome 64

Prost!

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I lived in Germany for 12 years of my adult life, but none since rating beers, mostly around the
Mönchengladbach area in North Rhine-Westphalia, although I was living in West Berlin when the Wall came down in 1989. Crossed many bridges while in the country, met my wife there, had my first child there and loved this bridge:
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The Glienicke Bridge (Bridge of Spies) isn’t up to much, but it’s another I’ve collected along the way. We try and get back to Germany at least once a year, usually with Berlin or Cochem as the end destination. The wine town of Cochem is a favourite of ours, dating back to our first weekends away together in the mid-70’s, it holds a special place in our hearts.
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Germany is my third highest rated country with 1078 rates my top beers are:

Weihenstephaner Korbinian 4.8
Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier 4.5
Weihenstephaner Vitus 4.4
Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel 4.4
BeSte Bräu Weiss 4.4
Löwenbräu München Triumphator 4.4

I have also reviewed a place in all 16 Bundeslander, 118 reviews in all. A convoluted flights/trains trip this year saw me complete the set by visiting Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and then Bremen.

<*))))))><

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I’ve been living in Germany for 6 years and only made it to a measly #22 in raters of Germany. I’ve been ticking too much at hipster festivals in foreign countries I suppose. I’m doing significantly better in the top raters of Bavaria at #12.

In recent years, also the non-traditional crafty brews of Germany have skyrocketed in quality. German craft beer used to be mostly boring and not particularly good. Nowadays, however, you can easily get great sours, amazing Haze, and good to very good BA & Pastry Stouts. In the sour/wild range, it were Schneeeule, Kemker, and Flügge that really pushed the level, for Haze it was FrauGruber and Fuerst Wiacek that made Germany appear on the maps - though honestly I believe that Yankee&Kraut makes the best hoppy stuff in Germany, with a much better shelf life.

My top rated beers from Germany consist of the Schlenkerla Rauchbier range, Aventinus, and other Franconian gems: Lieberth, Witzgall, Spezial Rauchbier Bock, Seinsheimer, Hembacher, Roppelt, Heckel, Gänstaller (Affumicator, Kellerbier, and Gans Weiss).

The first “hipster” beer among my favourites in Germany is Flügge Fränk, an absolute killer passion fruit beer, but also the retired Schönramer Kentucky Bourbon Imperial Stout deserves its praise.

Perhaps surprisingly to some, Augustiner Lagerbier is also up there, but this rating only applies to when you drink it in top condition from the wooden barrel in that one place in Munich that knows best how to care for condition (it’s not one of the Augustiner-owned places).

Let us hope that the pandemic, and age & infrastructure structure in Upper Franconia will not dry out small and old school breweries too much, but besides that, German beer is indeed doing better than ever!

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182 ticks from 108 breweries.

All 16 regions ticked off, thanks to some trading. Bavaria leading the way at 88 ticks.

My top scoring beers are as follows - #1 being on the day I joined Ratebeer:

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My two place ratings are in Oberursel, near Frankfurt, where I’ve been numerous times visiting two mates. This includes a few months prior to joining RB, but of course not since. I really want to get out there for a long weekend, partly to rate the beers at the brew pub in Oberursel (and have the amazing Sunday Brunch).

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It’s just into double figures for Germany for me, 10 rates covering 3 of the 16 regions, so a pretty poor show quite frankly! All of those have been sourced and drunk in the UK, as I haven’t visited the country since I became active on RB - most recent visit was back in July 2017, had a few days working at our German warehouse and enjoyed some beers in the village/town of Ettlingen, recall a pleasant visit to a brewhouse there and enjoying 2 or 3 of their brews. Pior to that it was a trip to Dusseldorf the year before to see the Christmas Market and all that festive joy, sunk a fair few Alts it has to be said! Dusseldorf and Koln are the places I know the best from work trips to exhibitions, Alt and Kolsch were enjoyed in vast quantites (although they are only sold in thimbles). Never fancied the Oktoberfest thing, always seemed a bit mental really, but Munich in the summer, or Bamberg any time look like they would be well worth the effort

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Ah… Ich Liebe dich Deutschland! So much comes to mind when I think of this great country it’s hard to know where to start. Have been to seemingly every corner of the place, and have great memories going back to my first visit in 2005, but mostly it’s a blur of autobahns, graffiti, late-night falafel, gothic type font, tiny brotchen with foot-long bratwurst and 500ml bottles of regional lager.

I can thank RateBeer glitterati @erzengel, @koelschtrinker and @beerhunter111 for the bulk of my German rates, including a lot of German apfelwein, Perry and mead which I simply wouldn’t have tried otherwise.

It’s my 5th highest-rated country with 564 rakes. All regions ticked, Bavaria leading the charge with 209.

My Rating Avg Entered Updated
Ayinger Urweisse 4.7 3.66 3/7/2016
Schneider Weisse Tap X Mathilda Soleil 4.6 3.72 9/13/2015
Schauenburger Apfel-Schaumwein trocken 4.6 3.36 12/29/2016
Schneider Weisse Tap X Mein Cuvée Barrique 4.5 3.73 10/14/2015
Mustea Shirin 4.5 3.37 10/25/2017
Benediktiner Weissbier 4.4 3.24 8/15/2013
Schneider Weisse Tap 06 - Aventinus 4.4 3.99 5/20/2015
Weihenstephaner Kristallweizenbock 4.4 3.48 4/29/2018
Scheyern Kloster (Poculator) Doppelbock Dunkel 4.4 3.56 6/23/2018
Most of Apples Vintage Cider of Apples 4.4 3.45 8/14/2018

The year I joined RateBeer in 2013 I remember getting really excited about trying and rating different beers. I searched out Berlin Bier Shop and asked for a box of classic German styles, one of which was Schlenkerla Rauchbier. Sadly this closed in 2019. I also found HeidenPeter’s bar in a markthalle in Kreuzberg, and drank with the man himself. I also found Schoppe Brau’s incredibly smoky brewpub. Not much else in the city at that time, but clearly the beer scene has been transformed since.

Germany is also responsible for:

  • My first sip of draft weissbier in Leipzig and Berlin, completely changing my perception of beer
  • Drunken late night trips to Burgermeister in Berlin for their tremendously sloppy burgers
  • Drunken late-night currywurst on grimy German bahnhof corners
  • Drunken late-night falafel on graffiti strewn inner-city streets
  • Legendary hotels like the Rock n Roll Herberge and Michelberger in Berlin
  • The vast network of punk rock squats throughout the country, including entire districts in Hamburg, Berlin and Leipzig taken over by punks, with fully-graffitied-in-an-arty-way buildings turned into live-work apartments / art studios / cafes / screen-print workshops, live venues and band apartments by the punk community
  • Seeing St Pauli play Oberhausen in Hamburg and the insane party-atmosphere of the home crowd
  • Travelling around Germany for Euro 2006, and getting a tour of the Jagermeister factory (not open to the public at the time, unless you specifically asked them).
  • On the way back from the Euros in Ukraine 2012 we stopped somewhere in Germany on the way back, and found a small, quiet bar / restaurant showing the matches and taken into the arms of locals. A raucous scarf-waving, German football song-chanting night followed.
  • Staying in a brauhouse in Munster with its own skittle hall downstairs
    *the Mercedes museum in, I think, Frankfurt

Ah I could go on…

After my touring years I’ve only managed an overnight trip to Aachen, but am trying to persuade my better half to do a 7 day trip hitting up Frankfurt’s Sachsenhausen apfelwein district and Bamberg. Fingers crossed it will happen in the next year or two.

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Rate My Bier dot com Bamberg and Franconia trip … February 2014 was it ?

@Leighton @madmitch76 @AndySnow @rlgk @jfb @harrisoni @mR_fr0g

And anyone else I’ve forgotten

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Germany is my 4th highest rated country with 154. I spent two days there as part of multi country tour my wife and I did when we turned 30. Was in St Goar and Munich. Visited hofbrahaus for dinner and did a bike tour through city gardens with a stop at a beer garden. Still missing 3 regions. When I lived in NYC @Koelschtrinker traveled on holiday and delivered me a suitcase filled with kristallweizen for my weird little style ticking heart.

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I wonder that nobody gets upset about the German purity law (Reinheitsgebot). All these hipsters with their incredible creativity, that creates great undrinkable slurries, hate it… But most of them are not able to brew simple, but well made Lagers of devilish drinkability. IMHO it is more fun to sit in a Franconian Keller and sip a great village brew (Lieberth, Witzgall, Knoblach…) than to bear the next “new” hop-bomb. :grinning:

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Germany is my 6th most rated country with 678. But I’ve been drinking a lot more German lager in the past year (and will continue to do so) so I could see Germany overtaking Denmark for the 5th position.

I’ve always enjoyed lager in general but I have returned to the style more emphatically in the COVID era. Lager is just so darn drinkable and it is a nice diversion away from the ubiquitous styles of the moment (haze, sours, pastry, etc.).

Perhaps I hadn’t been looking previously, but at any rate in 2020 I realised there are a load of German beers offered by UK bottle shops (online). So that has been the main way I track down new German beers. It has also been a fun way to try new breweries at the same time (another RB stat I got back into in the past year).

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I’ve been to Germany 4 times.

April 2008: was still a student and literally just a few days from joining RB and rating some beers. So didn’t really rate any beers on this first trip, during which I spent a few days with a friend in Bremen then one night in Berlin before driving to Prague. It was in Prague that I researched some beers, which brought me to RB and BA.

December 2011/January 2012: went to Berlin for New Years with my wife. We did a small Europe trip that took us to Bulgaria (to see her family) then Vienna, Bratislava and Berlin. Scooping wasn’t the focus of the trip but my ever-patient wife did indulge me enough so that I could try many new beers in all the cities we visited.

January 2014: the famed RateBeer post-Christmas visit to Bamberg and surroundings. Had an absolute blast, so many good beers and also great fun traveling around by train and meeting up with RBians.

November 2014: short trip to Frankfurt to visit friends. Got a few scoops but, at the time, Frankfurt didn’t have a lot to offer beer-wise.

So as you can see, it has been quite a while since my last visit. Really hoping to get back to Germany before too long.

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January 2014.

We should do another trip like that.

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I have a mature palate and can enjoy both in equal measures … if well made. But yes … like good English cask beer … good German lager is very drinkable / sessionable.

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I’d be up for that … any photos of said trip?

Abiding memory for me was tasting in the brew pub in my bedroom (we stayed in Spezial IIRC) … and Jan (living the black metal lifestyle) took a shit in my room … cheers pal!

When I say room I mean en suite!

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Here’s one.

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Can’t remember the context. Think the ratebeerian in question got a bit excited at the first dopplebock of the trip.

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I’d recognise that crotch anywhere @Leighton

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That’s a great pic.