Now, I am Franconian, I have worked at Landbierparadies for several years and I appreciate a fresh pint of crisp beer on a hot summer’s day. When I am given the choice between regular beer and IPA, I will always opt for the regular beer. And I have always raised an eyebrow at the likes of „Mango Wheat Beer“ or „Smoked Raspberry Jalapeno Sour Ale“. Way too hipster for me. Or maybe not?
Beer Culture in America
When you enter a standard normal pub in Germany, you usually have the choice between some kind of local beer, Guinness, Kilkenny and some Cider. Over here in the US, it is a whole other story. You enter a pub and you will be faced with a selection of about 10 to 20 different draught beers as well as numerous bottled and canned options. I was hestitant at first. I have grown up in a restaurant and I know that it is a tough job to clean those beer pipes. If there’s 15 different draughts on offer, you can easily do the maths. There will be low risk orders such as standard lager and then there’s your high risk orders like fruit-forward concoctions such as Blackened Pear Hazy IPA. I didn‘t really want to know when the last pint of this was ordered and how much gunk and grime would have built up in those pipes in the meantime.
Unfortunately, the standard lager didn’t really do it for me either. I don’t know what’s more insulting to a German: When you instantly ask them about WWII or when you serve them a pint of beer that tastes like lightly hops-flavoured water. The menu would always say that the American lager is 4.8% ABV or something like that, but Nuremberg brewery Schanzenbräu’s low alcohol summer beer at 3.5% ABV (or something like that) tastes more full-bodied. And the cheapskate in me was certainly not willing to pay $9 for a pint of flavoured water. So I had to bite the bullet and check out the other options.
In Guinness I trust
Back in Washington, I found a pub that had a seasonal extra on for a draught beer option. It was the Guinness Salt and Lime Sour Beer. Back home in Germany, I had only recently discovered that I do not mind sour beer and I was fairly confident that the household name „Guinness“ would sell enough pints for the pipes to not get super grimey. So I ordered one – and it was delicious. It was a nice not-so-beery-but-still-beery option that was not a Radler/Cider/Lemonade. Thanks to their $5 happy hour, quite a few pints were ordered and consumed that night.
A Hoppy Epiphany
A few days later in Philadelphia, I went to Mac’s Tavern – a pub owned by Rob and Kaitlin McElhenney of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The beer menu was extensive and featured about 20 to 30 different draught, bottled and canned beer varieties. I felt like something fruity, so I started with the Evil Genius #loveislove Strawberry Blonde. From there I moved on to the Southern Tier Watermelon Slice Ale and I finished with a nice, fall themed glass of Two Roads Roadsmary’s Baby Pumpkin Ale.
And when that comforting, frothy, bitter sweet liquid trickled down my throat, it suddenly dawned on me: Crap, I like Hipster Beer!
I still have some hope that America and the copious amounts of street food and Buffalo hot sauce have just blunted my taste buds, but I think I will miss a more diverse beer menu in Germany. Hey Tucher, how about a Cranberry and Cardamom Oak Cask Matured Sesame Caramel Spiked Sour Beer for Christmas? I’d buy it… maybe.
Couch Potato Chronicles 