Beer I Am Drinking

Herrmannsdorfer Schweinsbräu Weisse

This was a random purchase at a random Hy-Vee in Davenport: It is impossible to pass by a beer with a photo of a pig wearing pearls on the label and not pick it up. The words "Bavarian Hefeweizen" ensured it came home with me. It was a darker color than I expected, but very tasty with hints of carmel not found in most hefeweizens I can buy in the U.S. I enjoyed it, and at the end of the glass wished for a second. Alas, I only bought one bottle.

I have decided beer is the best way to learn German geography, so I looked up the brewer; Glonn is not too far from Freising. There is a Käserei und Handgemachte Würste. ♪♫These are a few of my fav-or-ite things...♪♫

...and after six or seven years of drinking wheat beers, I finally wondered how they are able to claim they comply with the Reinheitsgebot, since wheat is not barley, hops, or water. The answer: Bavaria had their own beer purity laws that included wheat when they joined the German Empire in 1871, and were allowed to keep them until 1918, when the law for the whole country was modified. In 1987, German beer laws were changed again to allow the importation of Bud Light. It's a sick, sad world.