Am I A Beer Snob?

One of Many Recently Sampled German Beers

So last week to celebrate the US election I bought a round of MGDs for some friends at work. I thought the imported American beer would be a fine way to celebrate the first tangible signal of the passing of the Bush era. Although the celebration in itself was good, the beer was terrible. This leads me to the question.....

Have I become a beer snob?

I remember when I was living the US and I was a genuine Miller man. Miller Light actually. Loved it. Much better than Bud. Yeah, I would really reach out once in a while and have a Michelob, or a Pabst Blue Ribbon if I was really feeling wild but I never understood all those Heineken types.

Why the heck would someone pay a couple of bucks more for that stuff from Europe. Beer is beer.

After moving to Europe I discovered the beer section at some of the big stores in Germany. Aisle upon aisle of half liter bottles in neatly stacked plastic crates. One can roam the halls and pick up a case, or if you so choose a single bottle from any case. And that is how it all began.

I took to the habit of grabbing a bottle here, and a bottle there. Always taking one bottle of something that I knew I liked, and a few others because the bottles looked pretty, or had funny names, or were from a region I had not heard of. This habit lead me on a path to try many different styles of beer over the last two years.

With all that experimentation I have found my preferred bouquet. I prefer beers in the Hefewiezen (Wheat Beer) style. Something like a Schneiderweiss or a Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier.

There is a bit of an art to pouring a good Weiss beer. There is a Spanish woman at a local tapas bar in in Baden that pours quite possibly the best weiss beer this side of the Rhine. It his difficult to explain the process but lets just say she puts every once of her concentration and effort into ensuring that you get the optimal pour if you so desire. When she serves you she asks you if you would liketo pour it, or if you would rather have her pour it for you. Only a fool would pass up the opportunity to have this seasoned veteran who has undoubtedly served hundreds of thousands of beers in her lifetime not pour you the most perfect, tall, cool, glass of weiss beer you have ever tasted. I found a fitting website that illustrates the practice. The best part about the site is it has pictures, and of course, the guy doing the pouring is wearing Lederhosen. (Note to those less informed, the part about rolling the bottle between your hands is key.)

I diverge briefly to speak fo Lederhosen. What a disappointing word once you learn German. I thought it would have some kind of great transaltion, like 'little funny pants that fat old beer drinking men wear on Tuesdays at Octoberfest.' Instead it just translates to 'leather pants' What a let down.

So after my continued sampling of some of those God awful 'European Beers' that I once despised I now begin to understand those guys. The beers here are a hell of a lot better than MGD, Coors, and I hate to say it, Old Style (sorry Mom). Ah, I fear it has happened, I have been transformed into a bit of a beer snob.