German beer is not only part of the German culture but thanks to the Reinheitsgebot (purity order) one of the best beers in the world.

According to the Reinheitsgebot German beers only contain of water, hops and malt and beers such as Weissbier, not using only barley-malt must be top-fermented.

Pils © leah.jones/flickr.com

Beer was first mentioned in Germany in the Bavarian town of Geisenfeld in 736 and a document from 766 says that beer was delivered to the abbey of St Gallen in Gaisingen on the banks of the Danube River.

In Germany you can get about 5000 different beers many of them produced in small regional breweries. So if you wanted to try a different beer every day, it would take more than 13 years to try them all.

The most popular certainly is Pils or Pilsener, a pale lager with a light body and a prominent hop character. Export is maltier and less hoppy than Pils. Weissbier (wheat-beer) is very popular in the south. In Cologne the most popular beer is the Kölsch a pale beer with a light body too, whereas in Düsseldorf people drink Altbier, dark amber, hoppy beer.

Typical for Berlin is the Berliner Weisse, a pale and sour wheat beer. In Bamberg you can get the so called Rauchbier with a dark colour and a smoky taste as it is made of smoked malt.  But as you can imagine these are only a few German beers. Wherever you are, you will for sure find the right beer to suite your taste.