500th Anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot

 Zum Schneider celebrates the 500th Anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot 

 Non-Flash version of the podcast

On April 23, 1516 in Ingolstadt, Germany, at a meeting of the Assembly of Estates, Bavarian Duke Wilhelm IV proposed a law which dictated, among other things, that beer should only be made from water, barley, and hops. It was referred to as the "Surrogatverbot", or prohibition of surrogate ingredients, and later, in 1918, was nicknamed the Reinheitsgebot, or purity agreement.

Sylvester says "prosit!"

500 years later the law endures, and its anniversary causes us to celebrate the bright, clean, healthy lager that has defined German beer, considered by many to be the best beer in the world. Of course, some folks in Belgium and England, and other beer centric lands, might disagree. But on the corner of E. 7th St. and Ave. C in what was Kleine Deutschland in the late 1800s, German beer reigns! Zum Schneider celebrates all week long with special kegs, and a beer-centric menu featuring dishes made with beer!

Freigeist Abraxxxas makes its debut on tap at ZS!

Rather than giving you a 10 page dissertation on the history of the Reinheitsgebot, we'll just give you the short story, and link some other more in depth resources below. Basically, the law sought to preserve the quality and consistency of Bavarian beer at a time when beer was made from a long list of ingredients that varied from hamlet to hamlet. Some used different sources for the sugars, which are converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation -- not everyone use malted grain exclusively. And the beer was flavored and colored with all kinds of things: spices, ash, herbs, roots, bark -- pretty much anything was possible. So, by limiting what could go into beer, the beer became more consistent, and the quality was more reliable.

Zum Schneider shakes up the menu with some very special offerings!

It wasn't just beer quality at the core of the Reinheitsgebot, though. The rule sought to act as a price and supply control on grain, stipulating that only malted barley be used for beer, leaving wheat for the bakers, so there wouldn't be bread shortages due to a thirst for more beer! Wheat malt was allowed in beer brewing, but on a very limited basis through special dispensation from the monarchy, and following the end of one such charter, the reigning House of Wittlesbach gave themselves the exclusive monopoly to brew wheat beer in Bavaria from 1602 to 1798.

Fraulein B.R. und Herr Bockenstein.

Here are some good sources of information on the Reinheitsgebot:

The Guardian article about a German brewery's struggle with the beer law
All About Beer article on some history
Beer Sessions Radio featuring Sylvester Schneider and Sebastian of Freigeist
Oxford Companion to Beer with its definition and history
Wikipedia always a good source
Beer and Brewing more on the Reinheitsgebot

The Ja Ja Jas.

A clean, spray-free tapping of the Weissenohe!

Jorge pours the Weissenohe.

The photographer sports a Mahr's hat as he glances at the menu specials. 

Sylvester and the ladies sing.

The Festival -- A Volunteer's Perspective

The Festival, a collaborative effort of Shelton Brothers Importers and 12 Percent Imports, took place on June 23 and 24, 2012, and featured over 70 artisan makers of beer, cider and mead. It's doubtful that there has been a better collection of beer offered in any other beer bash in history.

Armsby Abbey's tap list.

Armsby Abbey's tap list.

 We drove to Worcester, Mass. on Friday along with Joel Shelton and Stephan Michel, the brewer of Mahr's. We arrived in the early evening and met up with scores of brewers and Festival staffers at the Armsby Abbey, which is a few blocks from the Festival hall. The beer bistro was hosting a pre-Festival party in their side room, with a few kegs of Hill Farmstead's Edward Pale Ale free of charge. Though it was hard not to order from the bar, given the astonishing tap list -- 16 mind-blowing selections! Zero boring beers! On top of that, we had some incredibly delicious pizza and a savory mac & cheese dish.

Pre-party at Armsby Abbey's side room.

Also on Friday night, we stopped by a cider event a few doors down from Mechanics Hall at the Citizen Wine Bar, and a Danish beer event at Cigar Masters, next to the wine bar.

Pre-party at Armsby Abbey's side room.

Pre-party at Armsby Abbey's side room.

On Saturday morning at about 8am we made our way to Mechanics Hall, a 5 minute walk from the hotel. We had no idea about how beautiful, ornate and elegant the hall was to be! Built in 1857, it ranks as one of the top 12 concert halls between North America and Europe, thanks to its excellent acoustics. Soon, its a-brew-stics would be tested!

The main hall.

So... we're gunna fill this join with beer? O.K.

I can see Cantillon being served here.

Ticketmaster of the 1800s.

Sadly, nobody played Inna Gadda Da Vida.

Our early set up crew started out small, but eventually grew. Andrew and Big Jim ran the set-up show. And, man, what a project. We had to bring hundreds of cases, thousands of bottles, scores of kegs and a ton of ice to the roughly 75 stands!

A tangle of taps.

The feat of getting the tap lines set up was mind boggling! Our meager crew was eventually augmented with a massive corps of "citizen volunteers" in blue Festival shirts.

Volunteers - we love you.

We can't tell you how many blue-shirted volunteers there were (there were A LOT), but we can tell you this: they were a rock solid corps of dedicated, hard-working, "never say 'no'" people dedicated to getting the job done. We heard rumor of a few issues with a bad egg or two, but everyone who we worked with were pure of heart and dedicated to the mission of creating the best experience for both the patrons and the brewers. No event like this can be a success without people like that. That's a fact.
Empty tubs were distributed behind the tables of each brewery. Volunteers and staff brought pallets of cases and kegs from the refrigerated tractor-trailer at the loading dock up the freight elevator to Washburn Hall (3871 sq. ft.) on the 2nd floor, and to the Great Hall (8480 sq. ft.) on the 3rd.

The pallets were set down on each floor's kitchen, where workers took the boxes and kegs off and into their respective hall, to their appointed table. Other workers distributed the signage indicating the brewery, brewer and beers offered for each table, according to the floor plans. Yet other volunteers worked like a corps of ants bringing crumbs into the nest, shuttling between the ice truck and the halls with hand trucks stacked with six 35-lbs bags of ice. They'd drop their load as other worker-ants broke open the bags and distributed the ice around the beer, placed in the large plastic tubs. Where was NatGeo to record this?!

Don't worry Joel -- this is the EASY part.

Many of the volunteers were assigned the job of working the admission area, checking tickets, handing out glassware and guarding the doors. Some were conscripted to help the brewers pour beer. Many more were in charge of emptying out dump buckets and constantly refilling water coolers. Everyone did their part.

All the beer was kept in this refrigerated tractor-trailer.

Rebecca and Selena, who organized the volunteers, along with Big Jim and Andrew, did an incredible job at getting things done. There were a few other staffers, we think that some were from High and Mighty, who helped direct things as well. And many volunteers just jumped into problem-situations that needed to be rectified, and used common sense and muscle power to just git 'er done. It really was an unbelievable orchestration, and considering the complexity of the logistics and all the challenges, nothing really went wrong. Well, of course there were small issues, but by the end of the day, hundreds of visitors had sampled hundreds of beers, ciders and meads, and glowingly sauntered away quite content!

Ice had to be hauled from an ice truck, outside, to the halls. Ice sidewalk (hand) truckers.

Once set up was complete, we continued working to make sure that all the brewers had what they needed, and assisted them. But after a while, with things humming along, we were able to get out our own sample glasses and have at it! (That angle of the story is in part 2 of the blog post.) At the end of the 1st Saturday session, from noon to 4pm, we were charged with restocking the tables with beer  and ice, which was a scaled-down process, similar to the morning work.

There was absolutely no time for goofing around!

At the end of the 5:30pm-9:30pm Saturday session, there was a LOT of work to do, emptying out water in the tubs of melted ice, replenishing ice for the beer that would stay on the floor overnight, and cleaning up. But following a long day of hard work and sampling beer (some people consider them one in the same!), we were treated to another VIP party for the brewers and staff at Armsby, this time featuring High and Mighty's Beer of the Gods, gratis!

Seriously -- we were too wrapped up with work!

We'll tell you about our Festival experience that took place in between the work shifts in the next blog post. Prepare to be jealous!

The loading dock hockey stick. Yes... there was a $200 Warrior hockey stick
stashed on the dock, for God-knows-what purpose. Hockey and Beer...

Pilsners At Blind Tiger With Sean of Victory Brewing

WFMU's Beer Hear! with Bob W. and B.R. from 8/4/2011

PILSNER style lagers are unquestionably the "kings of beers" the world over and have been for the last century. But beer wasn't always bright, clear, crisp and clean. Two changes in the brewing process in the mid-1800s made pilsners possible: lighter malts, pioneered by English maltsters who began malting barley with indirect heat, and bottom fermenting yeast that worked at colder temperatures.

The result, when brewed with German and Bohemian noble hops such as Tettnang and Saaz, and with the soft water found in Plzen, is a beer that is clean, clear, with an extremely light golden color, and which is the definition of "refreshing". Prior to the advent of the pilsner/pils/helles style, you can imagine that most beers would be dark, roasty and yeasty. But the cleanly fermenting lager yeast and the process of lagering -- fermenting and aging the beer in cold caves -- changed all that.

How and why was this beer revolution begun? According to the PILSNER-URQUELL brewery, in 1838 the Burghers of the city of Plzen dumped out 36 barrels of beer down the drain in protest of the poor quality and inconsistency of the beer at the time. In 1839 they formed a municipal brewery for the purpose of correcting the situation, and by 1842, with the help of German brewer Josef Groll, pilsner beer was born.

You can find lots more on pilsner history at the websites of Pilsner-Urquell, Wikipedia, Budweiser Budvar and others.

As part of their monthly series, this Wednesday Blind Tiger loaded up their taps with 12 special pilsner beers. One of our favorites, VICTORY BREWING's BRAUMEISTER PILS was one of them, and Sean, the brewery's "king of New York and Connecticut" was on hand to talk to us about it.

We didn't try all twelve, but from the seven that we did try it was clear that there's quite a wide range of interpretations of the most popular style of suds on earth. The Victory Braumeister Pils is an unfiltered American pilsner (available only on draft), with a more assertive hop character than most European versions -- a big hop aroma and bitterness along with full bodied maltiness -- and delicious! Though similar to the Victory PRIMA PILS, which can be found in bottles and on draft, it is, in the words of King Sean, more of a Kellerbier.

 
The Victory brew had more in common with the MAHR'S PILSNER, also a sumptuous unfiltered lager, though from Bamberg, Germany. Quite on the other end of the spectrum was the MIKKELLER DREAM PILS (aka American Dream) from Denmark, which had even more hop flavor, aroma and bitterness than the Victory, and a slightly deeper copper color than all, though crystal clear. It also had a nice malt sweetness.


CHRISTOFFEL BLONDE from the Netherlands had a softer profile, very light straw color and a slightly sweet malt flavor, with a bit of a haze -- it's one of those rare unfiltered pilsner varieties. Another malt-centric lager that we tried was the SCHLENKERLA HELLES. This one was together quite different from all the others, with it's subdued smoke-malt flavor and aroma -- well, subdued when compared to the full-on Rauchbiers of Bamberg! I love all the Schlenkerla beers and, frankly, all the rauchbiers of Bamberg that I've tasted, and it's amazing to taste a pilsner beer in this traditional rauchbier style. This one gets special honors for achieving uniqueness, enjoyability AND the oft hard to nail subtlety.



And the always tasty KULMBACHER EDELHERB PILS was on tap, which is considered a quintessential example of the German Pils style. Classic.

BLIND TIGER has beer events pretty much every Wednesday often featuring a particular brewery's beers, but the first Wednesday of the month generally reserved for featuring a particular beer style, rather than one exclusive brewery.

BONUS PODCAST! A loud, noisy bar recording of some tasting comments by B.R., Bob and Alan Rice!