GERMANY: Berlin is looking to compete with Munich with its own international beer festival
- 00:03:12
- ITN Source
GERMANY: Berlin is looking to compete with Munich with its own international beer festival
If there is a battle of the beer festivals, then it could only be in Germany. For years the Oktober Fest in Munich was not only Germany's biggest festival, but one of the world's most recognized and visited beer extravaganzas - and now Berlin is challenging the Bavarian beer-swiggers. And with the revival of 'Ostalgie' what better place for the reunited capital's festival, than in the Eastern district of Friedrichshain. Where once the tanks used to parade down the Karl-Marx-Allee, on Sunday (August 6) there were Bavarian-style beer stands and a parade of people drinking. According to the organisers, the 2.2 kilometre "Beer Mile" is the longest beer garden in the world, with more than 240 breweries from 80 countries presenting 1,750 brands of beer. "I just wanted to get to know the beer culture here in Germany, and it is so substantial, 1,400 beers or more," one fan, Matthias Meck said. "You don't see so many beers anywhere, I would like to know where else there could be such a festival apart from Berlin." "The differences between the different beers are mainly whether they are light or dark coloured, some are sweeter, some are more bitter," another beer fan Mario Schumacher explained. "I am not really a fan of the sweeter ones, wheat beer and such aren't my thing, and I don't like these mixed beers either - they should stick to the German beer purification law and make proper pilsner - and Radeburger is the best of those." The most popular beers aren't necessarily the German ones though, as beer seller Uwe Greite from Hamburg explained: "We have various specialities here, and the absolute hit, which we have now sold out of, so that says everything, were two of the strongest beers in the world. One was Austrian with 14 percent alcohol, one was from France which has 13 percent alcohol content," he said "They were an absolute hit, the highlight of the stand. People took them home, they didn't drink at the stand as much as at home, because the beer has such a high alcohol content, so you should drink it just before you go to bed."
ITN Source | August 11, 2006
