caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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 Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 1:04 pm Post subject: Brauereisterben (Brewery Death in Germany) |
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A sign of the apocalypse?
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Brauereisterben
Germany's beer culture is in decline.
By Christian DeBenedetti
Posted Wednesday, March 2, 2011, at 10:07 AM ET |
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The facts are stark: According to German federal statistics released in late January, German brewing has dropped to less than 100 million hectoliters of production for the first time since reunification in 1990. (That's less than half of the United States' annual output.) The same study revealed that consumption dropped almost 3 percent last year alone, to 101.8 liters per person per year, and that it's down about one-third overall since the previous generation. The number of breweries in the country has also dropped�by about half over the last few decades to around 1,300. (There are nearly 1,700 up and running in the U.S.) The vaunted Weihenstephan brew master degree program in Munich adopts a dour tone on its student prospectus, saying the majority of graduates don't actually become brew masters but instead head for jobs in mechanical engineering and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Further evidence of brauereisterben is depressingly easy to pile on. Berlin, which sustained some 700 breweries in the early 19th century, now counts only about a dozen firms. Amid the ruins, highly trained German brew masters are giving up and heading to the United States�even to sleepy Covington, La., where Henryk Orlik, a graduate of Munich's prestigious Doemens Academy, settled down in 1994. "I came here for the great American craft beer industry," the Heiner Brau founder told me recently over samples of freshly brewed pilsner in his charming little brew house just off the town square. Adding insult to injury, craft brewers in the United States have largely taken over the prestigious international-brewing awards circuit. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., founded 30 years ago by home brewer Ken Grossman in Chico, Calif., took top honors in a hotly contested 2010 World Beer Cup category, besting |
Sierra Nevada Co. makes a nice beer, but it's a little pricey - about 10 beans US for a six-pack in Mass. including deposit (compared to 5.50 or 6 bucks for a six of bud). They repealed the state gov't's alcohol tax starting this year to much celebration by the townsfolks outside the packies.
I can drink 10 buds at a party and feel/be perfectly sober, but I'd probably be passed out in the backyard after 10 Sierras.
Basically Bud is a nicer-tasting (but still kinda crappy) (C)ass or (S)hite. I say "kinda" crappy (it generally is) but every now and then you drink a Bud and say "OMG this beer tastes AWESOME!! (or something along those lines)". Then the next one tastes like shit again (but you keep drinking it because they go down like water).
http://www.slate.com/id/2286897/
Anyway, enough about my Charlie Sheen-esque life. Lets talk about the article. |
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