Bavarian beer is brewed according to the oldest consumer protection regulations in the world. Whether mild, strong or wheat beer, no other place in Germany has so may breweries as Bavaria.

Castle Neuschwanstein, Bavaria

Beer is an intrinsic part of Bavarian culture. At Munich's Oktoberfest alone, more than 5 million litres of the foaming brew made from hops and malt is poured down the throats of thirsty visitors every year. The annual beer statistics form one of the key figures of the German state's economic production: 22.6 million hectolitres were produced in 2005, an increase of 0.4 per cent on the year.

The development of beer exports from Bavaria's breweries has been especially successful. They rose 20 per cent, with 2.6 million hectolitres of beer being shipped across the state's borders. «We were able to translate the good reputation that Bavarian beer enjoys abroad into market significance,» says Michael Weiss, president of the Bavarian Brewers Federation. The numbers hide the fact that the domestic thirst for beer has waned, with the rainy 2005 summer perhaps contributing to this.

«Beer is healthy when enjoyed in moderation and as a food occupies a special role among premium goods,» says the homepage of the Brewers Federation, staking out the position of the «national» drink of Germany's southernmost province. Anyone with the least doubt about this needs only to hear the thunderous applause at the tapping of the first beer keg at the Oktoberfest.

The highly quaffable mild beer (Wiesn-Bier) is brewed according to a law that has been in effect for almost 500 years. «We particularly deem that henceforth and in all places in our cities and markets and in the countryside that to no beer may be applied and used more parts than barley, hops and water.» Thus spake the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516, enacted by Duke Wilhelm IV, and still in force today, making it the oldest consumer protection law in the world.

Monastic breweries occupy a special place in Bavaria. The most famous has to be the Andechs monastery between Lake Starnberger and Lake Ammer to the south of Munich. Originally made as a tasty addition to the meagre meals at the cloister, the beers brewed by monks are thought to be the best. During the fasting season, the monks replaced solid food with substantive drink under the rule that «liquids break not fasts.» Sly master brewers in monks robes quickly learned that beer satisfied hungry stomachs when brewed strongly enough.

The annual Munich Strong Beer Tap on the Nockherberg goes back to these times. Whoever drinks too deeply of the bock beer stein, should not be surprised at a full-on hangover the next morning, for beers with names like Salvator, Animator, Bavariator or Maximator, have an alcohol content of up to 8 per cent.

But beer brewing is no longer a man's activity alone. In the town of Mallersdorf, Sister Doris is Germany's sole active monastic brewery nun. And the charm of the ladies at service in Bavarian inns is legendary. The waitresses at Oktoberfest easily carry a dozen and more steins of the foaming festival beer to the tables.

In Bavaria, 4,000 different brands of beer in 40 varieties are sold, brewed from just four ingredients: water, hops, malt and yeast. The region with the most variety is in the state's north-east, where today many still brew beer for home use. An old Bavarian specialty is wheat beer. Nine out of ten wheat beers consumed in Germany come from Bavaria. The Bavarian variety includes several sorts: dark or light, yeasty cloudy or crystal clear, top-fermentation or alcohol-free.

This multiplicity of Bavarian beers did not come out of the blue. More than half of all of Germany's 1,300 breweries are in Bavaria. Currently a wave of foreign drinks concerns are spilling into the state. Dutch brewer Heineken, together with the Munich-based company Schoerghuber, has swallowed up many small and medium-sized breweries. But as long as the breweries hold on to their names and their independence, Bavarian beer traditionalists will raise a glass and toast: «Schwoam mas owe» (Down the hatch!)

© dpa - German Press Agency

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