6/22/2005: Beer pitch

[rupip]

gentlemen - and ladies (if involved in that beer-discussion)

as an Austrian I think I need to explain a bit of German beer culture.

concerning the glasses and types of beer: they won´t serve you a wheat-beer in a pils glass - they wont put a pils into a mug for "lager". There are even very different techniques of pooring the beer into the right glass.
That is necessary and minimum beer-culture!

Like you do not eat soup with a knive, you cannot eat a burrito on a silver plate, and you (hopefully) do not drink nice red wine from a can.
Wouldn´t you doubt a waiters clear mind if he served you a real good filet-steak into a burger-box with some plastic cuttlery. I am sure you would.

Technically the food itself does not change - but...

See - very easy, isn´t it. The wainter can not serve the beer in the wrong glass.

@footfootfoot
Concerning Cologne and Munich:
As you certainly remember Koelsch from Cologne is served in small glasses (0,2 liters) and the waiter will replace any empty glass with a full one, except you ask for the bill or put your hand on the glass. http://www.beerglass.nu/sion.koelsch.htm

In Munich you drink either wheat-beer or type-of-lager each from different glasses: wheat-beer in 0,3 or 0,5 liters http://www.beerglass.nu/maisels.htm / lager http://www.feichtner-hof.de/biergarten.html in 0,3 / 0,5/ 1 liter mugs
Sitting in a beer garden in Munich people drink from 1 liter mugs mostly

Glasses for Pils look like that: http://www.beerglass.nu/veltins.html and are 0,3 liter.

btw: 0,3 liters is the normal size of a coke-can around the world.

I hope I could give you a brief insight into beer-culture.

have a nice day!
rupert