Drinking Up The Wonders Of Germany

Travellers have long flocked to Germany for Oktoberfest – in fact some 6 million guests attend the annual event now in its 183rd year – but the German beer scene extends far beyond the Munich-based festivities, reports Ann Ruppenstein in this week’s digital edition of Travel Courier.

The country is home to over 1,300 breweries and 5,500 different beers, and this year celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Beer Purity Law.

Reinheitsgebot, as it is known in German, is said to be the world’s oldest enforced food regulation, limiting beer ingredients to malt, hops, water and yeast.

“We don’t claim to have invented beer, but over the past centuries our brewers have certainly refined the art of brewing to perfection,” says Antje Splettstoesser, director of marketing and sales, Canada, at the German National Tourist Office.

“Today, Germany still boasts 1,300 breweries, more than half of them in Bavaria … No other country in the world offers as much choice, and all these different beers still follow the German Beer Purity Law from 500 years ago,” she told Travel Courier.

For those clients with a penchant for beer, Travel Courier worked diligently to taste some local brews – the most consumed beverage in the country – with the German National Tourist Board to come up with a few ideas that may whet their whistle.

And you can check them all out — the ideas, that is, not the beer — in this week’s digital edition of Travel Courier by clicking here.