Sure Liz, I'll send the wrapping and a short spoonful, ok?

Oughta be enough to eat with a cracker.

Not to be greedy, but I loves me wurst.

BRAT-wurst??

This threads about beer, not German edibles(if you can call it that). Keep it on track.

Watch me now. Here I come.

Reinheitsgebot! Don't hold your arm up that way when you say it.

Reinheitsgebot is the German beer purity law. Although changed from it's original writing, it remains one of the oldest food stuffs regulatory laws still in existence today.

Originally, it said that beer could only contain barley, hops and water. At the time, the late 1400s to early 1500s, most brewers did not add cultivated yeast. They really didn't understand that yeast was responsible for fermentation. It was believed to be a spontaneous reaction among the ingredients or even divine will. Native yeasts were allowed, unknowingly, to float into the wort and ferment it at their will. Yeast has since been added as an essential ingredient.

Reinheitsgebot had the immediate and still lasting result of making German beers the best in the world.

Lambic type beers still use wild fermentation that depends on free floating yeast from the environment to settle into the wort and create the beer.

A few years ago, on an airline flight, I sat next to a Beer importer from Canada. He explained all about the German Beer purity regulations and contrasted them to US beers. It seems there are over 200 chemicals that can be added to our beers to make their head last longer, etc.

It explains a lot about why beer tastes so much better in Germany, doesn't it.

Mentioning beer, especially beer without food being served, is not 'off topic' Stone.

No Brauhaus in Germany serves beer exclusively, without food.

If they do not have a kitchen or an ordering menu, various snacks and side dishes are always offered. Usually for free.

Pretzels and beer anyone?

I don't think insulting the Germans taste in food (or the swiss, poles, italians, greeks and even the french) is productive to a friendly thread about beers either, but that's just me. mentioning beer sans food, is akin to mentioning water without a glass to serve it in.

Edible? According to whom?

There are no laws requiring that food be served w/beer. They simply don't feel they need laws for that. Common sense prevails.

They have this silly notion that food in the stomach is a better way to insure that folks don't get ill, drinking too much alcohol without benefit of food. Good luck finding a pub without some kind of munchies. (Like some dark rye bread, w/butter, pretzels or even just plain peanuts in a bowl)

Light-hearted, informative and many times fun threads seem to be what FM stood for, as well as the more serious matters. Like our health.

You will not find yellowish, cheese-like food products at a table. Imagine eating 'real' butter!

Maybe we could start a thread about Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches instead. Best not stray too far away from the subject though.

PC .. It's the ruination of all things natural.

Maybe some of us lost the manual on 'how to post, what to say' when registering as an FM member. The rules are posted, and have barely changed.

Simmer down Buford. I just know how you have a tendency to steer topics a bit off course and I was just giving a friendly reminder to stay focused. You would think that it's not all that bad of an idea to keep threads remotely in the realm of what the topic title suggests, no?

Of course beer goes with food. It has since the beginning of time and has become far more accepted now that the beer snobs are starting to overtake the wine snobs.

And it was a only a backhanded insult at German food but you do have to admit people that cook with offal, pig lips and puckerholes, should have their sanity questioned. Hey, I love scrapple, absolutely love it, and I try and get others to eat it whenever I can. But when they hear that it has everything but the brain in it, they tend to get a bit squeamish.

I do have that tendency Stone.

It's all the fault of the 60's and maybe one too many 'luv-ins'.

As to the Deutche Gastronome Experiments, us Germans are hardwired to defend our diets of 'Chicken Lips, Pork Snouts, and ummm 'puckerholes' (what an image!) Got horseradish?

In a round-about way, I was suggesting that some of the pork lip dishes served, you may want to try, or get Mikey to, as you might be missing out.

My sanity is questioned daily! I respond on the state owned computer (top of the line 286 MB drive), to which I am allowed access daily, right after 'time-out'. Tough to unscramble THIS brain, in a few short hrs.

Thank heavens for this state run facility, as they pay for the meds too. I should be out in approx 20 yrs. Hope to see ya then, and we'll do lunch, ok? Do they have Blutwurst in Moo Hampshire? Btw, in the 90's, G Dubya was my roomie. (Nice guy. Mumbled something like "I'll get those barsteads, I really will")

I suppose that I just miss the Hard Roll 'brotchen' with 'Coarse Ground Leberwurst', at breakfast.

I was venting on all 13 cylinders. 3 of which have spark plugs. I shall 'straypost' no more.

(Btw, how's that 'Cow' you keep as a 'Pet' in your backyard? I just had to ask! Of course, I WILL also tell.

Postdrift: You've never tried calves brain? scrambled with eggs? and a side of Haggis? You kust haven't lived.

Oh yeh, and to stay on topic .. I love a good stout ale. A 'black and tan' always tastes nice too.

After a week in the fermenter, I moved the beer to the secondary. The secondary is for clarifying and smoothing the beer. A little fermentation my occur, but not much.

Two weeks after that, I bottled this batch. It's a thick brownish amber color and has a bock taste. As it sits in bottles, it is 4.5% abv. A good 1% higher than my first batch.

Carbonation will be achieved by a light fermentation of the beer and corn sugar. Mix the corn sugar into 2 quarts of beer and heat to a simmer. Remove from heat immediately and let cool to room temperature. This is to dissolve the corn sugar into the beer. Pour and mix this into the rest of the beer. Stir well. Bottle and cap. Fill the bottles to just past the shoulder. The CO2 will need some head space. In a few days, the beer will be slightly carbonated. In about 2 weeks it will be thoroughly carbonated.

I've also got another batch of apfelwein going. It's 3 weeks in the fermenter now. This batch is different in that I used apple juice and apple/strawberry juice. It's probably got close to 3 pounds of brown sugar in it now too. I added about a half pound last night and shook it up. It bubbled fiercely. I sampled a taste of this and it is sweeter than the last batch and tastes much more alcoholic. I didn't take a starting gravity, so no telling what the abv is.

Hey Aint!! It's been almost a month now since your post. How's the batch of brew and apfelwein coming along?