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.

Weissbier (white beer), also called Weizenbier (wheat beer) or even Hefeweizen, is a top fermented, unfiltered, bottle conditioned wheat beer with yeast sediment and a cloudy appearance.

Weissbier © Moe_/flickr.com

The typical Weissbier or Weizenbeer is a Bavarian specialty beer with a significant amount of malted barley being replaced with malted wheat. According to German law it must be made with at least 50% malted wheat, but most Bavarian Weissbiers contain 60 to 70% of it.

It is not quite clear whether it is called Weissbeer due to its paler colour or due to its content of wheat as both words are of the same origin. It is quite sweet and fruity with a full body.

You get special glasses for Weissbier and it should be poured smoothly not to produce too much head. When there is about a quarter of it left in the bottle, swirl it to lift the sediment and pour it into the glass. This will give the beer its cloudy appearance. Serve it chilled at about 6-8 °C.

Some people add a slice of lemon to a Weissbier but you will hardly see any Bavarians do this, as it ruins the taste of the beer and kills the head. It is more common to add lemon slices to Kristallweizen, the filtered version of Weissbier.

The Bavarian city of Bamberg is located in Upper Franconia on the River Regnitz and is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed during the Second World War.

Because of its authentic medieval appearance and the many valuable architectural monuments the old town of Bamberg is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Old Town Hall/Altes Rathaus © Qole Pejorian/flickr.com

Two of the most outstanding buildings are the Romanesque cathedral and the Old Bridge Town Hall, built in the middle of the Regnitz and accessible by two bridges.

The Bamberg Cathedral (Bamberger Dom St. Peter und St. Georg) is Bamberg’s most famous landmark and one of the best-known architectural monuments in Germany. The late Romanesque building has four imposing towers and was founded in 1004 by Emperor Henry II. The magnificent marble tomb of the founder and his wife, Empress Cunigunde is considered to be the masterpiece of the famous sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider. It was carved between 1499 and 1513.

Another very famous treasure is an equestrian statue inside the cathedral called the Bamberg Horseman (Bamberger Reiter). Over the years people have tried to guess who the knight on horseback really was but as the sculptor has not carved his name on the statue, it isn’t even clear how old it really is. But it is now thought that the statue shows 11th century Hungarian King Stephen I.

Bamberg Cathedral/Bamberger Dom © liquidbonez/flickr.com

At a time the river was a boundary between the merchant and episcopal parts of the city, the old town hall was built on an artificial island in the middle of the River Regnitz, as according to the legend neither side could agree on a location.
Even though the façade of the town hall is painted in a baroque style, the core of the Gothic building of 1763 has still been preserved. The half-timbered Rottmeister House (1688) next to it seems to float on the river.

Also worth a visit is the row of neatly kept houses along the river known as ‘Little Venice’. Most of them are finely restored half-timbered fishermen’s houses dating back to the Middle Ages. Many of them have balconies and tiny front gardens with moorings for barges.

But Bamberg is also a beer city with 9 breweries within the town boundaries producing more than 50 different beers. You can not only try the smoked beer but join the Sandkerwa summer beer festival at the end of August, visit the Franconian Brewery Museum or one of the many beer cellars in town.

Bamberg boasts a total of 14 museums and you can learn about the history of Levi Strauss, who became world-famous because of his jeans, and many other things.

This year the Munich Oktoberfest is going to celebrate its 200th anniversary. It will be held from September 18th to October 4th, 2010.

The Oktoberfest is the world’s largest fair and an important part of Bavarian culture. It traditionally takes place during the sixteen days in up to the first Sunday in October and is held on the so called Theresienwiese (or Wiesn for short) in Munich, Bavaria. More than 6 million visitors come from all over Europe, the US, Canada, India, Japan, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.

Oktoberfest Munich © flickr/digital cat 

The Oktoberfest was first held in October 1810 to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hilburghausen. The citizens of Munich were invited to join the festivities held at the Theresienwiese (Theresa’s field) outside the city gates and a horse race marked the end of the festival. The decision to hold a horse race again the following year gave rise to the tradition of the Oktoberfest.

And still today you can see horses drawing the carriages on the opening day of the Oktoberfest. On that day the ancient brewery carriages and the horses will be magnificently decorated.

If you want to catch the officially opening ceremonies you should be in the Schottenhamel tent at noon on September 18th.  The lord mayor of Munich then will have the honour of tapping the first keg of Oktoberfest beer. And once the barrel has been tapped, all visitors will be allowed to drink beer too.

Oktoberfest © flickr/sanfamedia.com

At the Oktoberfest not only about 70,000 hectolitres of beer will be drunk,  visitors will also eat huge amounts of typical Oktoberfest food such as Hendl (chicken), Schweinsbraten (roast pork), Haxn (pork knuckle), Würstl (sausages), Weisswurst (white sausages), Brezn (pretzel) and many more.

Since 1850 the statue of the Bavaria, the worldly Bavarian patron, has been watching the Oktoberfest. It was first sketched by Leo von Klenze, roanticised and ‘Germanised’ by Ludwig Michael Schwanthaler and constructed by Johann Baptist Stiglmaier and Ferdinand von Miller.

This year special events will be held to celebrate the anniversary of the Octoberfest. There will be a historical Oktoberfest with ancient fun rides and beer tents and a horse race will also take place. Even a special anniversary beer will be brewed. Normally every brewery has its own beer for the Oktoberfest but this year there will be a special beer brewed by all of them using old recipes that are slightly modified to match today’s taste .  Visitors interested in the history of the Oktoberfest can learn more about it in the Museum Tent.