The Power Pils Round

Now that we've eased into the Pils with some Beck's and Bavarian Pils, we dive into Germany's big players in the Pils market.

We call this the Power Pils round, as it contains German's top 2 producers and

From the March Madness comparison, Warsteiner and Krombacher are UConn and Syracuse

Warsteiner is enjoyed in over 60 countries and is Germany's largest beer exporter. Far more, however, is drunk in Germany - it's considered one of the top Pilsners. It's not as old as some of the Bavarian breweries, but it's been around long enough (250 years) to be considered a real German player. Interestingly, Warsteiner is an investor in König Lüdwig. Beer is almost a strategic industry in Germany, and the decline in beer consumption has been major news for a few years. According to its annual report, Warsteiner was able to slightly increase its domestic sales last year despite a 2.4% overall decline in the German beer market. Not bad! Among their new marketing efforts is using the Klitschko brothers (both are World Heavyweight Champions and Wladimir is Hayden Pannettiere's boyfriend) to promote their alcohol-free beer to athletes and health-conscious beer lovers. For many tourists, this was their first German beer - I'll let Herr J tell his story later, but I remember this was the beer served in our hostel in Marbella on my first trip abroad!

With all the different measurements (by brand, by brewery, by brewery holding company, etc), it's not easy to say which are the largest breweries in Germany. Warsteiner, Krombacher, and Radeberger are easily in the top 10. The Radeberger Group is often named the largest German brewery group due to its ownership of so many German breweries. It's likely a very close race between Radeberger's and InBev's production in Germany.

Radeberger was founded in 1872 in Radeberg (near Dresden) and claims to be "the first brewery in Germany to brew beer in the traditional Pilsner manner." It also was designated by the Royal Court of Saxony as their beer provider. So perhaps Radeberge was the original German pilsner...it's definitely one of the most popular. You can see exactly how popular their pilsner is from the fact that the Binding Group renamed its entire holding company The Radeberger Group after it purchased Radeberger.

However, the Jever brand is also part The Radeberger Group. Similar to Beck's they use green glass (not as protective as the brown used by most) and 0.33mL bottles. The Jever brewery was founded in the mid-1800s and remained a relatively small brewery. It was hard hit by both wars - in the first war losing its leader on the front and by shortages of hops and barley; after the second, fuel shortages limited them to selling only for self-pickup and the head going from farm to farm trying to buy or barter for barley. But the brewery was able to stay in operation and grow into a modern brewery well-known for its pilsner and exportbiers. The formal name "Friesisches Brauhaus zu Jever" alludes to its location in the city of Jever and its pride in the region Friesland. Friesland is on the North Sea coast, including parts of both Germany and the Netherlands that were settled since the first century. It's also known for its natural beauty, fresh air, and beaches - something you'll see reflected when you open the Jever site to find beaches and seagull sounds! Interestingly, Jever has aligned itself with Harley-Davidson, sponsoring HarleyDay in Hamburg and offering custom Jever Harleys and dune buggies. I'm pretty amused that their alcohol-free version is called "Jever Fun."

And then we have Krombacher, which was founded in 1803 in Krombach (between Frankfurt and Würzburg). They initially brewed only traditional lagers, but began making a pils in 1890 that quickly became popular in the Sauerland and southern Ruhr areas. Part of their high quality is supposed to come from their water source, as many breweries claim. Krombacher has always been on the forefront of marketing - making a major push to win over former East Germans after Reunification, and sponsoring several Bundesliga and handball teams. In 2002, they had an interesting campaing with the WWF, whereby Krombacher would save 1 square meter of rainforest in the Central African Republic for every case sold. Sales jumped 8% that year and other German companies followed suit using charitable campaigns as marketing tools.  After a lawsuit (and successful appeal stating that Krombacher was not misleading consumers), they've changed and relaunched the campaign again. I guess you'd have to be a pretty big beer drinker to make a noticeable impact, but it is an appealing concept to drink beer for the environment! Their Facebook page claims that they have invested over €3 million in conservation efforts.  

 

For this tasting, we had my parents as special guests. During their visit, we took advantage of having an extra pair of votes, as well as giving my dad a chance to taste some new beers. He prefers a Pils, so this was a fun one for him.

We wanted something that wouldn't overpower the beers, so made my favorite paella with chicken, asparagus, and manchego cheese. Really, it's closer to a Spanish risotto, but it's really tasty and easy to make. And Herr J made his famous feta-stuffed red peppers. A good match for the pils!

First up was the Warsteiner-Krombacher matchup. Looking at the beers, the Warsteinger was lighter in color and more carbonated than the Krombacher. It was almost "spritzy," if that's a word. Despite it having a slightly flatter feel, the Krombacher had more taste than the Warsteiner and we chose it as the winner.  We had expected the Warsteiner to prevail, but that's exactly why we've been doing blind tastings.

Next up were Jever and Radeberger. Both were good, standard Pilsners. The Jever, however, had a slight odd aftertaste. Not bad exactly, but enough that the Radeberger clearly won. We will try the Jever again, in case we just had a couple bad bottles.  

We end the night with Krombacher vs Radeberger. Again, we find ourselves changing our minds....thought we normally choose the less hoppy beer, we chose Krombacher over Radeberger because Radeberger tastes a little flat and tasteless when compared to the Krombacher. Though the Krombacher was slightly more hoppy, it was still a smooth and non-bitter, very drinkable beer.

Comments

[cliff1976]

I am a wheat man, through and through. Or on occasion, a Helles drinker. But I started on Kölsch (Gaffel, to be precise) and Warsteiner (at the Warsteiner Treff Kneipe in Bonn, closed so many years ago), and Bitburger (before I knew any better).

Still, having moved to Bavaria and fully adopted regional beers like the Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel and Kuchlbauer's Alte Liebe, I am flabbergasted by the number of visitors we get who are enthusiastic about the beer selection here at first, but then stick to the Pils varieties after trying a few regional specialties. Sure, a Pils in Germany is likely to be a step up in quality and flavor compared to what you can commonly get your hands on in the U.S. But why stop there? Is the sway Budweiser/Coors/Pabst/Labatt/Miller have over North American beer drinkers so strong that they can't properly appreciate the beery goodness of a Dunkles, Helles, Bamberger Rauchbier or Kölsch?

[Frau A]

Cliff - I started on Warsteiner. That might be a future post... On your thoughts - perhaps beer is a comfort food, which is why most people find something and stick with it? You're right that many folks just aren't that adventurous, and it's their loss. There must be something about a clean lager, though, because it is by far the top selling beer variety in the world. We're doing our best to spread the message! (And will try to get more Kölsch in the next competition) Cheers - Herr J