Understanding the Beer Bracket, Part I

Obviously, the Schnitzelbahn Bier Tournament was modeled on the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  (Yes, we know the field is now 68 teams.  We’re sticking with tradition.)  But let’s take that further, especially for those that are not familiar with Germany or major German beer brands.  In the spirit of the Sports Guy, let’s match some German beer regions with a athletic conferences, and specific breweries with corresponding basketball teams.  Of course we need to start with…

Bavaria = The ACC

 

Perhaps Bavaria did not invent beer (just like basketball was invented in Massachusetts), but they’ve taken over now.  And within Bavaria, think of Munich as the Research Triangle.   Munich’s breweries created the biergarten tradition, include the most famous beer hall in the world, and are the backbone of largest fair in the world where 6.9 million liters of beer are consumed in just two weeks.  (And yes, tickets to Oktoberfest can be very hard to get.)  Even more, the “barbeque” of choice is pork in both regions, not beef.  Carolina has its pork roasts, and Bavaria loves its pork cracklins too, in the form of schweinehaxe...  Yum.

The major players in Munich:

Augustiner = North Carolina

 

When you ask a Bavarian what the best beer is, Augustiner often is the answer.  It’s in the blood – many Muncheners will only go to Augustiner restaurants and beer gardens, as if no other beer exists.  Plus, check out the flag of Bavaria: Carolina Blue and white.  This brewer has all the tools as well:  fantastic food and desserts to go with the brew.  And yes, despite the we-do-it-better-than-anyone arrogance, when you get a cold one at an Augustiner summer beer garden… yeah, it’s that good.

Hofbräu = Duke

Just as Cameron Indoor Stadium is usually listed as one of the sports venues to see before you die, so too is the Hofbräuhaus on the short list of destinations for beer drinkers.  And like Duke, the entire Hofbräu experience/aura evokes a strong response: you either love-em-or-hate-em.

           

The Hofbrauhaus and Cameron Indoor Stadium 

Ironically, Duke doesn’t really feed the NBA like Carolina – likewise, Hofbräu is a quality beer but never discussed as the “best”.  Maybe both get too much backlash because they sell so many damn sweatshirts and steins to tourists.  But in the end it doesn’t matter, because Hofbräu is a major player year in and year out.

Löwenbräu = North Carolina State

 

Tell a non-fan you attend N.C. State and they say “isn’t that where Michael Jordan played?”.  Again and again you grit your teeth and explain no, that’s UNC, not State.  Same thing here:  Americans think of this, which was a Miller licensed product that uses a completely different recipe, including corn.  The real Löwenbräu biergartens and restaurants in Munich are nice, but between the name confusion and general bullying by the big boys, only locals really go here.  Beer is good, atmosphere nice, and schnitzel excellent, but just doesn’t have the magic of UNC or Duke.

Significant players outside of Munich:

Andechs = Wake Forest

Both were founded to do God’s work, but have grown well past their original roots, although Andechs is still run by the monks, not the Demon Deacons.  Andechs is now a producer of premium beer, schnapps, and dairy products sold throughout Bavaria.  Although the monastary is a 45-minute train ride from Munich and an additional hour hike from the station, its restaurant (in the Cloister) is routinely packed because the food is outstanding.  If it makes the finals, everyone will be rooting for them because it just feels like they deserve it.

Tegernseer = University of Virginia

It’s all about the campus – Tegernsee is gorgeous in summer and winter.  Maybe it’s not a World Heritage Site like UVA, but Thomas Jefferson would approve.  Beer is very good too, just smaller and not located in the triangle of basketball mecca.  Might not win the big event, but behind mostly-empty bottles of their Helles are smug smiles of people who know they’ve got it good.  It’s already in the Sweet 16 in our tournament! 

In the next installment, we’ll look at the northern German brewers and their NCAA counterparts.

Beer Types, Part I

In the Schnitzelbahn Bier Tournament, the structure and “competitors” were not really planned in advance.  The competitors emerged as we discovered simply what was available in two local supermarkets.  The structure evolved as we assessed the beers we had collected and started learning about formal “types” of beer – then we grouped the beers we had on hand in a way that made sense.  This is the result:

We knew that it would be Munich-biased, and so it is:  Helles (“light”), Weiss (“wheat”), and Dunkel (“dark”) are more traditionally Bavarian beers.  Although Pilsner has Czech and northern German roots, it is the most consumed in Germany (and the world) so also has a strong presence in Bavaria too (and forms the basis for most export beer).  More regional German beer types like Alt (“old”) and Kölsch (from Köln / Cologne) did not make the cut, and will be addressed in another tournament.

We also recognized that at the core, a “winner” between two beers is really a matter of personal taste.  Therefore, we decided to determine our favorite beer of each type first, before pitting different beer types against each other.  You really can’t claim a Dunkel is “better” or “worse” than a Helles, because they are fundamentally different.  When it comes to the “final four”, our champion will be just our favorite beer, regardless of type.  We’re not even tasting the beers in the “correct” type of glass (see pic below, with credits to Augustiner Helles maß, Hofbräu Weissbier glass, some random Dunkles glass, and Pilsner glass types from Warsteiner, Krombacher, and Bitburger).

But this process begs the question:  What are the formal types of beer?  What are we really comparing in the tournament?  Should we really be using different kinds of glasses???

You can spend hours reading Internet sources on the topic of beer types (also addressed as categories, sub-categories, styles, sub-styles, etc.)  Online sources range from individual web pages to the Beer Judging Certification Program, with its 1.4MB / 51 page manual! And that is before reading books by the grandfather of beer typology, Michael Jackson.

                                       

But we learned something from just the first readings on this topic.  Beer traditionally has only four components:  water, a sugar source (usually a grain), yeast, and hops (by the old laws, German beers had only 3, but the yeast was naturally ocurring, thus not considered an ingredient). 

Almost every brewer begins with the same high-level distinction:  Beer can be an Ale or a Lager.  This distinction addresses the differences in the yeast used and how it affects the brewing process.

Note:  Lambic is a third type commonly found, but how to address this type and other/mixed types is inconsistent. 

The name "Lager" actually comes from the German verb "lager" (to store), denoting that this type of beer was stored longer than Ale, and produced a clearer beer.

Below this first level of distinction between Ale and Lager, beer categorization methodologies start to fragment almost immediately.  A Google search bring up a “family tree of beer styles”, a “periodic table of beer styles”, and other amateur and commercial mappings.

                

Some sources try to get pretty scientific about measuring beer types, using color, sweetness, bitterness, and even specific gravity scales!  I also found a "flavor wheel" similar to what some wine tastings use -- basically to help the drinker put descriptors to the experience, put prose to chemistry.

                                              

              

Beer Evaluation sources:  Color, Bitterness vs Specific Gravity, Bitterness vs Sweetness, and "Flavor Wheel"

But the main point of interest for us is that about three-fourths of the beers in our tournament are Lagers (Helles, Pilsner, and Dunkel) and only a handful are ales (Weissbier or Weizen).  I think Frau A will want more ales in the next tournament, because she really likes Weissbier!

We’re doing further reading on beer categories, and overall, I find the current ways of describing beer unsatisfying for the average beer drinker.  They’re either too microscopic (who really can tell the difference between an regular ale and a “premium” ale?) or just don’t make sense (why are some beers categorized by ingredient like wheat, and others are grouped by geography like Scottish Ale and “Vienna-style”???)  This needs to change!  Look for this topic in another post soon.