Victory Lap

As promised today’s post is dedicated to the far and away winners of the 2008 Ale-ympics, the Germans.

Best original German style? How do you choose? Altbier, Kölsch, Weizen, Bock, Helles, Roggenbier, Schwarzbier, Dunkel; they’re all German and they’re all fantastic. That’s eight styles I just came up with off the top of my head, each worthy of a 9 or 10. Some would even argue that it’s more appropriate to break up Bocks into the various different types (Urbock, Eisbock, Doppelbock, Maibock, etc.) because they vary so greatly. You know what, I’m not even going to pick one. It’s so hard to choose, let’s just agree that at least one of those styles is worthy of a 10 and move on.

Determining the single best German beer is probably a taller order than deciding on the best style, once again because there’s just so many. Once again, I could just cop out and say “We all know that one of these deserves a 10” and move on but I’m gonna use this as an opportunity to pitch Hirschbraus’s Doppel-Hirsch. It’s very hard to come by on the east coast and I only stumbled upon it up by accident (literally, I got home and was angry with myself for having grabbed the wrong bottle) but it has become of my favorite brews and is easily my favorite Doppelbock. Hirschbrau is a Bavarian brewery that only imports to the U.S. through an Oregon based company (yet another reason to move out west) but I’m dying to try some of their other offerings so I keep scouring the liquor stores. Anyways, another 10 for Deutschland.

As for the beer culture category, this is pretty much a cakewalk for the lederhosen wearing ale-thletes. One Word: Oktoberfest. That alone is worthy of a perfect score but Germany’s impact on beer culture goes way farther than that. Even when it comes to beers invented outside of Germany, the Germans have a knack for improving on other people’s work. Think of the Marzens I discussed in the last post. Hell, the pilsner wasn’t an original German invention but look at the close association with it today. And look at the amazing impact German immigrants have had on beer here in America. Without Jim Koch’s great-great-grandfather’s recipe, there would be no Sam Adams. The German impact on the beer world has been huge, so huge, in fact, that if I hadn’t already used the joke, I’d give them an 11, but since I can’t, they get a 10.

So congratulations to the German team Have fun celebrating guys, just don’t do go overboard.

And for any of you out there upset with the results of this illustrious competition, I’ll remind you, just like the events in the real Olympics, no one is going to give a shit about it for the next four years.