German Beer Styles You Need to Know (2024)

FAQs

What is a German beer style called? ›

A beer style is basicly a type or variety of beer, and the range of beer varieties in Germany is huge: Alt, Bock, Dunkel, Export, Hell, Kölsch, Lager, Malzbier, Märzen, Pils, and Weizenbier, to name just a few.

Pilsner. By far the most popular type of beer in Germany is pilsner, generally known as 'Pils'.

The altbier is an ale that ferments at cooler temperatures, like a lager. The kolsch is a lager that ferments at higher temperatures, like an ale. Marzen, a lager, was historically made to age, with a higher ABV and moderate bitterness from the addition of extra hops, a preservative.

But the kicker is that pilsners tend to taste dryer and more bitter, while Kölsches are more subtly complex, creamy and soft. Then if you push flavor aside completely and get down to the roots, you'll find that the foundational difference between these two is that kölsch is an ale whereas pilsner is a lager.

The Purity law required that “nothing other than barley, hops, and water” be used to produce beer. Yeast is the fourth ingredient that is allowed, but it's not listed in the original law because yeast's role in the fermentation process had not yet been discovered at the time that it was written.

Kellner /Kellnerin. German for Beer Maids and Beer Waiters. Staff at Oktoberfest Munich have to be incredibly tough!

The most popular beer brand in Germany is Krombacher from Krombach. Other leading names include Beck's and Warsteiner.

Stella Artois is proud of our rich Belgian heritage. Stella Artois traces its origins to over 600 years ago, to the Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven, Belgium founded in 1366. Stella Artois was born as a Holiday gift to the people of Leuven from the brewery.

Both the Kölsch and Altbier share many similarities. Both are German in origin. Both are crisp, clean and well-balanced. Both are made primarily from Pilsner Malt.

Hefeweizen means “yeast wheat” which is probably more descriptive, but if you're going to acknowledge the origin of the beer, you might as well call it the same name the locals do. The names weissbier, hefeweizen, and weizenbier are largely interchangeable.

Is Kölsch top or bottom fermented? ›

Both have a slightly sweeter taste, with pilsner's attributed to malts and hefeweizen's sweetness to wheat. Pilsners tend to show more hop and bitter characteristics. In the glass, there's no mistaking the two: Pilsners are filtered and distinctly clearer, unlike the cloudy hefeweizens.

Märzen – Malty, amber in color, and extremely drinkable. No wonder this beer is a favorite during Oktoberfest! Hefeweizen (weissbier) – A wheat beer with a light body, hint of bananas, and slightly sweet finish.

The German-style Kolsch is light in color and malt character. This style's fermentation process yields a light, vinous character which is accompanied by a slightly dry, crisp finish. Ale yeast is used for fermentation, though lager yeast is sometimes used in the bottle or final cold-conditioning process.

Beer (German: Bier pronounced [biːɐ̯]) is a major part of German culture, with only water, hops, and malt permitted as ingredients in its production. Beers not exclusively using barley-malt, such as wheat beer, must be top-fermented.

You see, the sentence structure is very simple – to say I would like a beer in German, you begin with the word ich möchte, then the number, and finally the type of beer. Ich möchte ——- (number of beers) ——- (type of beer) ——- , bitte.

The basic brewing process is to prepare cereal grain (be it wheat, barley, rice or whatever) in such a way as to make it an ideal meal for yeast to feast upon, the outcome of which is beer. That's it. The essential stages are: mashing, filtering, boiling, fermenting and filtering again.

Beer in German is “das Bier” and the plural is “die Biere”. There are so many different beers in Germany that it's easy to get overwhelmed.