Vacation on my Mind

Frau A and I haven't had a vacation since May.  That's quite a while to go without time off, and for Germany is bordering on criminal.  Over here, most people get 30 vacation days a year!  (Annual salary is proportionally lower, but it's a pretty good trade off)  Many take a 2 two-week trips per year, plus three weeks over the year end holidays (including public days).  Some will take a big three-week vacation instead -- I've never had one that long.

I am so ready to get out of town with Frau A, and channeled that excitement by browsing through some of my favorite photos from trips long ago.  These were taken on an old Canon compact, so nothing as gorgeous as Frau A's pics.  Hopefully in the next weeks we experience a combination of...

Something Different

In the Yukon (Canada), you can ride a 4-wheeler over light sand, running down to a wide lake, with mountains as backdrop.  Just a really unusual combination of natural features.

Good Timing

It's always nice to catch the things at just the right moment.  In this case, light-from-heaven and a rainbow off a cruise ship in Alaska.

     

Cool Creatures

Landscapes are nice, but a fur and fang are exciting.  Here, from completely opposite ends of the spectrum, stingrays in Grand Cayman and Huskies pulling a sled across an Alaskan glacier. 

       

Peace and Quiet

Adventure is great, but sometimes you need a little R&R.  Courtesy of a hut in the South Pacific.

Look for some vacation photos here in late November... 

Where is Georgetown in the Beer Bracket?

Yesterday, Frau A reminded me, quite clearly, that in my post Understanding the Beer Bracket, Part II, there was an inexcusable omission.  Actually, two.  Without hesitation, she offered a suggestion for the appropriate analogy linking the missing university and beer.

 

Her argument goes like this:

Georgetown is part of the Big East, but lies geographically closer to ACC country, near the heart of the sport.  Franziskaner is located in Munich (beer central) rather than the German northwest like the others in Part II.  Like the brewers in Part II, Franziskaner is big - the 3rd largest producer of weissbier in the world.  The others in Part II produce mainly pilsner, but we can probably agree the Hoyas play a different style of basketball than their Northeast conference mates.  Franziskaner started as a brewery across from a Franciscan monastery (hence the name and friar in the logo).  Georgetown was the first, and is therefore the oldest, Roman-Catholic (Jesuit) university in the U.S., and was founded by the first American bishop, John Carroll.

 

Note:  I'm sure her idea has nothing to do with the fact that Georgetown is her alma mater... or that Franziskaner is probably her favorite weissbier...or that Franziskaner brewed the first Vienna/Märzen style with higher alcohol content for Oktoberfest (in 1872)... or that Franziskaner had a cool carousel-bar at this year's Oktoberfest which rotated to give drinkers a changing view of the fair (see below)... but I had to admit it was a good start.  So I looked further into the matter.

 

Franziskaner Carousel Bar at Oktoberfest, 2010 

 

Munich is the capital of Bavaria, Washington the capital of the U.S..  Franziskaner is not far from the Isar River; Georgetown's main campus is on the Potomac.  In 1683, Bavarian troops stationed at the gates of Vienna to fight the Turks are supplied with weissbier, helping the Austrians achieve a historic victory.  Georgetown had over 1100 students (most of 'em) enlist to preserve the Union in the Civil War.  But there's more.

 

There have always been concerns that beer is unhealthy, whether for physical or spiritual reasons.  (In the year 600, an Irish missionary travelling through Bavaria was mortified to observe beer being sacrificed to a heathen god.  Today our gods are sports teams?)  But in 1602, Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria recognized that weissbier is an "ideal refreshment" for the population. He places every Bavarian brewery that produces weissbier under state ownership... Is this kind of like Obamacare - government medicine for the masses?  Did G-town grads have a hand that legislation?  But that's not all.

In the first decade of the 20th century, Franziskaner started delivering beer to North America.  In the same time frame, Georgetown founded their School of Medicine and School of Nursing.  Well, now that weissbier is available over here, they probably thought they should train healthcare personnel to administer it, right?  Healthy and ideal refreshment, right?  Within the same ten years, Georgetown began its basketball team/program too.  I'm not sure if this was a place to sacrifice the beer to the new god, or simply a central place/events to administer a recurring student healthcare treatment.  In either case, I'm guessing it was quickly followed by the first visit of the police to a campus party, but there is no historical evidance to support this theory.  Overall, the evidence is clear: Frau A's idea really makes sense.

 

A few final thoughts on Georgetown, beer and Franziskaner:

In the year 719, Duke Lantfrit decreed in his code of law, the 'Lex Alemannorum', that all bonded peasants must pay tribute to their lords IN BEER.  Why can't the government-types from Georgetown change U.S. tax laws in this direction???

In 1924, Franziskaner's parent company unveiled a new slogan:  "Lass Dir raten, trinke Spaten" (literally "Let yourself be advised, drink Spaten").  The verb "advised" is interesting... a more influencial approach than just marketing?  Not long after, in 1928, the U.S. Senate passed the first bill that attempted to regulate lobbyists (but it was blocked by the House).  Georgetown is known for government and political affairs... can this just be concidence?  Hoyas in the beer lobby are out of control!

Frau A spent quite some time in Texas, and Franziskaner's web site has most of its marketing events there.  There is Spaten Pint Night at The Libertine Bar in Dallas, Spaten Sundays (Franziskaner is part of the Spaten/Löwenbräu brewery group) at Ginger Man in Fort Worth, and Franziskaner Hefeweisse avaialble at the American Airlines Center.

 

So there we have it.  Franziskaner = Georgetown.  Readers:  any other beers/teams you think should be included?

Franziskaner logo and dried hops, Oktoberfest, 2010

Understanding the Beer Bracket, Part II

This is a continuation of the post where we describe the major German beer regions and brewers by comparing them with their counterparts in NCAA basketball.  It's now time to look at the northern breweries and their NCAA basketball counterparts.

Nordrhein-Westphalia & Rheinland-Palitinate = The Big East

Nordrhein-Westphalia is the state in germany with the greatest population (18 of Germany’s 80 million) and the center of “liberal” politics in the country – think Northeast corridor in the U.S..  The breweries here, like Big East schools, often are located outside the large cities.  The brewing towns may be small, but the production is immense.  Despite having only about 10% of the 1200 breweries in Germany, they crank out 2.7 billion liters of beer each year (25% of German production volume).  Here’s who were talking about:

Warsteiner and Krombacher = Connecticut and Syracuse

These two brewers are located in the region north of Frankfurt (the NYC of Germany) and are the #2 and #1 volume leaders in Germany respectively. Each makes 450 million liters annually, with Warsteiner exporting 80 million of that.  Marketing is the priority here and it is executed to perfection – these brands are always on television with expensive commercials, sponsoring sports teams and events, and reminding everyone how good they are.  Their pilsners are good, though are missing the feeling of tradition and cultural integration like that found in Bavaria.  But it’s consumed and enjoyed in volume by locals and foreigners alike.

Bitburger = Pittsburgh

 

The town of Bitburg is in Rheinland-Palatinate, a state often overshadowed by it’s larger and richer neighbor Nordrhein Westphallen.  (Hello, Pennsylvania.)  The culture here is distinctly more blue collar, and the beer reflects that.  It’s the brew that factory workers grab after their shift.  Bitburger has a stronger presence of hops giving a, well, more bitter taste, and many northerners claim it is the real thing – not like the glossy offerings of Warsteiner and Krombacher.

Veltins = Villanova

Veltins is the seventh largest brewer in Germany and is strongly associated with the soccer team FC Schalke 04 which has a broad base of fans.  Why the match with Villanova?  Both Schalke and Villanova have blue colors. Like Villanova, Schalke is known for an open (rather than defensive) style of play.  Finally, Villanova is a catholic university… and Pope John Paul II became an honorary member of Schalke's Fussball Club after celebrating a mass in the stadium.  God, football and beer. 

Best of all, Schalke plays in the Veltins Arena, which seats 61,000 people, has a slide-out field, a Teflon-coated retractable roof, and was the first stadium with the four screens above the pitch (the new Cowboys stadium super-sized this concept).  More importantly, it has a 5km long beer pipeline, direct from the brewery to the stadium, which pumps 52,000 liters of beer to the concession stands during each home game!  Despite the fact that it’s yet another large sports-oriented beer, I have never actually tried one – but am looking forward to the tasting in our tournament.
 

 

Cologne and Düsseldorf

A final note on Nordrhein-Westphalia:  Are you familiar with the Rheinheitsgebot from 1517?  It defined “what is beer” and anything that did not conform to its definition was not recognized as beer.  Well, Cologne and Düsseldorf are not interested in obeying orders.  They’re like many teams in the Big East that will try any approach to basketball.  Stick to a zone defense (‘Cuse), go with a 4 guard lineup (‘Nova), run & gun (Louisville), or just cut and paste a football offensive line as your starting five (Pittsburgh)?  No problem.  Likewise, Cologne has “kölsch” and Düsseldorf “altbier”, neither of which conform to the RHG, and that’s just how the locals want it.  The are served in special kinds of glasses too, to make sure everyone knows this is not your grandfather’s lager.  In fact, these are not even clearly an ale or a lager, as they use mixed production techniques.

One more metaphor is quite useful for the Schnitzelbahn Beer Tournament: 

Franconia = Midwest/Grain Belt Basketball

              

Franconia is a region, not a state, comprising parts of Baden-Wüttemburg, southern Thuringia, and northern Bavaria.  Small towns, lots of local flavor, purist mentality – I think of kids shooting hoops in the driveway, no showboating or hard fouls, just great passing and accurate jump shots.  The city of Bamberg is the spiritual center of beer here (not sure if I would make this Indiana or Kansas…) and coincidentally has one of the best professional basketball teams in the German league!

Frau A and I have actually heard both Bavarians and northern Germans admit that they think Franconia has truly the best beer in Germany – and one colleague at work actually takes beer tours through the region!  Locals claim that it’s the pure water that makes the difference (water is the main ingredient in beer, after all), and everyone seems to take advantage:  there are more breweries concentrated here than anywhere else in Germany, though typically smaller (often a brewery/bar combo) and with limited or no distribution outside the region.  This is truly the heartland of beer, and Frau A & I are looking forward to a beer tour here – we will post when we do.

What New Media can tell us about ourselves

In July, an interesting article made the news rounds.  A team at Northeastern University analyzed three years' of public tweets, and categorized them as "positive" or "negative" by identifying indicative words.  Then with this data, the team could measure the "mood" of the United States across different dimensions (e.g., typical mood curve throughout the day, East vs West Coast, etc.):

I admire people that take new sources of data and look at it in interesting ways like this.  Nerd envy.  So in a moment of boredom I tried something:  comparing the count of results that Google fineds for specific words.  Here's what we find:

Love:     1,080,000,000
Like:      1,480,000,000
Hate:        127,000,000

Ours:          29,000,000
Yours:         89,500,000
Mine:        184,000,000

Debt:          87,200,000
Profit:       130,000,000

Peace:      180,000,000
War:         478,000,000

Gun:          122,000,000
Kiss:          135,000,000

Fun:          443,000,000
Work:    1,180,000,000

Sour:           18,500,000
Bitter:          30,100,000
Sweet:       212,000,000

Candy:        77,600,000
Healthy:    131,000,000

Earth:        279,000,000
Water:       590,000,000
Air:             661,000,000
Fire:        2,290,000,000

Yes, I know that I'm not controlling for homonyms, but it was somewhat fun and interesting to do.  I was surprised at so many results for "fire" -- I had thought that "earth" would have more results.  readers:  any thoughts from your perspective?

Understanding the Beer Bracket, Part I

Obviously, the Schnitzelbahn Bier Tournament was modeled on the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  (Yes, we know the field is now 68 teams.  We’re sticking with tradition.)  But let’s take that further, especially for those that are not familiar with Germany or major German beer brands.  In the spirit of the Sports Guy, let’s match some German beer regions with a athletic conferences, and specific breweries with corresponding basketball teams.  Of course we need to start with…

Bavaria = The ACC

 

Perhaps Bavaria did not invent beer (just like basketball was invented in Massachusetts), but they’ve taken over now.  And within Bavaria, think of Munich as the Research Triangle.   Munich’s breweries created the biergarten tradition, include the most famous beer hall in the world, and are the backbone of largest fair in the world where 6.9 million liters of beer are consumed in just two weeks.  (And yes, tickets to Oktoberfest can be very hard to get.)  Even more, the “barbeque” of choice is pork in both regions, not beef.  Carolina has its pork roasts, and Bavaria loves its pork cracklins too, in the form of schweinehaxe...  Yum.

The major players in Munich:

Augustiner = North Carolina

 

When you ask a Bavarian what the best beer is, Augustiner often is the answer.  It’s in the blood – many Muncheners will only go to Augustiner restaurants and beer gardens, as if no other beer exists.  Plus, check out the flag of Bavaria: Carolina Blue and white.  This brewer has all the tools as well:  fantastic food and desserts to go with the brew.  And yes, despite the we-do-it-better-than-anyone arrogance, when you get a cold one at an Augustiner summer beer garden… yeah, it’s that good.

Hofbräu = Duke

Just as Cameron Indoor Stadium is usually listed as one of the sports venues to see before you die, so too is the Hofbräuhaus on the short list of destinations for beer drinkers.  And like Duke, the entire Hofbräu experience/aura evokes a strong response: you either love-em-or-hate-em.

           

The Hofbrauhaus and Cameron Indoor Stadium 

Ironically, Duke doesn’t really feed the NBA like Carolina – likewise, Hofbräu is a quality beer but never discussed as the “best”.  Maybe both get too much backlash because they sell so many damn sweatshirts and steins to tourists.  But in the end it doesn’t matter, because Hofbräu is a major player year in and year out.

Löwenbräu = North Carolina State

 

Tell a non-fan you attend N.C. State and they say “isn’t that where Michael Jordan played?”.  Again and again you grit your teeth and explain no, that’s UNC, not State.  Same thing here:  Americans think of this, which was a Miller licensed product that uses a completely different recipe, including corn.  The real Löwenbräu biergartens and restaurants in Munich are nice, but between the name confusion and general bullying by the big boys, only locals really go here.  Beer is good, atmosphere nice, and schnitzel excellent, but just doesn’t have the magic of UNC or Duke.

Significant players outside of Munich:

Andechs = Wake Forest

Both were founded to do God’s work, but have grown well past their original roots, although Andechs is still run by the monks, not the Demon Deacons.  Andechs is now a producer of premium beer, schnapps, and dairy products sold throughout Bavaria.  Although the monastary is a 45-minute train ride from Munich and an additional hour hike from the station, its restaurant (in the Cloister) is routinely packed because the food is outstanding.  If it makes the finals, everyone will be rooting for them because it just feels like they deserve it.

Tegernseer = University of Virginia

It’s all about the campus – Tegernsee is gorgeous in summer and winter.  Maybe it’s not a World Heritage Site like UVA, but Thomas Jefferson would approve.  Beer is very good too, just smaller and not located in the triangle of basketball mecca.  Might not win the big event, but behind mostly-empty bottles of their Helles are smug smiles of people who know they’ve got it good.  It’s already in the Sweet 16 in our tournament! 

In the next installment, we’ll look at the northern German brewers and their NCAA counterparts.

Beer Types, Part I

In the Schnitzelbahn Bier Tournament, the structure and “competitors” were not really planned in advance.  The competitors emerged as we discovered simply what was available in two local supermarkets.  The structure evolved as we assessed the beers we had collected and started learning about formal “types” of beer – then we grouped the beers we had on hand in a way that made sense.  This is the result:

We knew that it would be Munich-biased, and so it is:  Helles (“light”), Weiss (“wheat”), and Dunkel (“dark”) are more traditionally Bavarian beers.  Although Pilsner has Czech and northern German roots, it is the most consumed in Germany (and the world) so also has a strong presence in Bavaria too (and forms the basis for most export beer).  More regional German beer types like Alt (“old”) and Kölsch (from Köln / Cologne) did not make the cut, and will be addressed in another tournament.

We also recognized that at the core, a “winner” between two beers is really a matter of personal taste.  Therefore, we decided to determine our favorite beer of each type first, before pitting different beer types against each other.  You really can’t claim a Dunkel is “better” or “worse” than a Helles, because they are fundamentally different.  When it comes to the “final four”, our champion will be just our favorite beer, regardless of type.  We’re not even tasting the beers in the “correct” type of glass (see pic below, with credits to Augustiner Helles maß, Hofbräu Weissbier glass, some random Dunkles glass, and Pilsner glass types from Warsteiner, Krombacher, and Bitburger).

But this process begs the question:  What are the formal types of beer?  What are we really comparing in the tournament?  Should we really be using different kinds of glasses???

You can spend hours reading Internet sources on the topic of beer types (also addressed as categories, sub-categories, styles, sub-styles, etc.)  Online sources range from individual web pages to the Beer Judging Certification Program, with its 1.4MB / 51 page manual! And that is before reading books by the grandfather of beer typology, Michael Jackson.

                                       

But we learned something from just the first readings on this topic.  Beer traditionally has only four components:  water, a sugar source (usually a grain), yeast, and hops (by the old laws, German beers had only 3, but the yeast was naturally ocurring, thus not considered an ingredient). 

Almost every brewer begins with the same high-level distinction:  Beer can be an Ale or a Lager.  This distinction addresses the differences in the yeast used and how it affects the brewing process.

Note:  Lambic is a third type commonly found, but how to address this type and other/mixed types is inconsistent. 

The name "Lager" actually comes from the German verb "lager" (to store), denoting that this type of beer was stored longer than Ale, and produced a clearer beer.

Below this first level of distinction between Ale and Lager, beer categorization methodologies start to fragment almost immediately.  A Google search bring up a “family tree of beer styles”, a “periodic table of beer styles”, and other amateur and commercial mappings.

                

Some sources try to get pretty scientific about measuring beer types, using color, sweetness, bitterness, and even specific gravity scales!  I also found a "flavor wheel" similar to what some wine tastings use -- basically to help the drinker put descriptors to the experience, put prose to chemistry.

                                              

              

Beer Evaluation sources:  Color, Bitterness vs Specific Gravity, Bitterness vs Sweetness, and "Flavor Wheel"

But the main point of interest for us is that about three-fourths of the beers in our tournament are Lagers (Helles, Pilsner, and Dunkel) and only a handful are ales (Weissbier or Weizen).  I think Frau A will want more ales in the next tournament, because she really likes Weissbier!

We’re doing further reading on beer categories, and overall, I find the current ways of describing beer unsatisfying for the average beer drinker.  They’re either too microscopic (who really can tell the difference between an regular ale and a “premium” ale?) or just don’t make sense (why are some beers categorized by ingredient like wheat, and others are grouped by geography like Scottish Ale and “Vienna-style”???)  This needs to change!  Look for this topic in another post soon.

Make yourself at home....and please sit down to pee

When studying a foreign language, culture usually is part of the curriculum.  Not only does culture make language studies interesting, but assuming the goal is to function effectively in another country, you'll want to understand all aspects of life.  Specific topics of study will differ depending on the focus of the class or the experience level of the students, but generally they are: food and drink, education, business, religion, politics, etc.

Until recently, I thought I had a fairly good grasp of German culture.  There were studies from 7th to 11th grade in high school, a semester at a German university (living with a family) and summer internship as a steel mill engineer.  After that came two years living and working in Hamburg and Berlin, and now two years in Munich.  But the Germans continue to surprise.  Ironically, at a Fourth of July picnic at a biergarten, we learned something that definitely is not taught in German class:

At home, German women make their men pee sitting down.

Honestly, I don't remember exactly the circumstances of the conversation.  At some point, a German woman was describing the experience of potty training her young boy and clearly stated that upright urination will not be taught or tolerated at home.  Logically we asked what, uh, technique her husband uses.  The answer was clear:  he sits to pee because she forbids him to stand.  Needless to say, the conversation got interesting from there.

The first response was a quest for understanding:  “Why?”.  Answer: Because relieving himself from a vertical position has a higher potential for splashing, dripping, or general messiness, and she will not allow that or clean it up.  The second response was a defense of manhood, from an American man married to a German woman:  “No red-blooded American boy of mine will pee sitting down!”  (I’m guessing that they are still discussion about this – no children yet.)

The next response came from Frau Schnitzelbahn herself, and questioned the choice of restricting freedom to prevent a problem vs. having clear consequences to address a mess when it happens:  “Why don’t you just have a household rule that if someone makes a mess, they are responsible for cleaning the entire bathroom?”  (That’s how it was in my house – you make a mess, you clean it up.)  Our German friend understood the alternative, but prefers her method.  And the men accept (acquiesce?).

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense as part of the broader culture.  Germany is a land of “kontrolling” – lots of rules, people challenging the rules, and people to enforce the rules.  It also fits with the German characteristic of preferring direct conflict (vs. America where we tend to prefer indirect conflict and subtlety).  Indeed, this will be the topics of future posts...

But is this really the case overall, or just an isolated behavior?  Time to torture the guys at work.  I can attest to the fact that they happily use urinals in the office, but they admitted that they sit to pee at home – and for the same reason, wife’s orders.  One said that his mom taught him the same thing, and he does believe that small (cannot be seen) splashes make it out of the bowl and onto the floor.  Another said that he does it as a compromise, but also thinks it makes less noise for people outside.  A third explained that since his wife cleans, he’ll do what she asks.  Culture confirmed.

It’s not the nicest topic with which to start a blog, but you don’t get lessons like this every day.  At least future topics at Schnitzelbahn have nowhere to go but… up.