I was just curious if anyone knows if you can get the ingredients to home brew in Germany? I am in the preliminary stages of applying for a job over there - I haven’t got it yet, but if I do, I don’t know if I would take my homebrew equipment. I might do this if I knew I could get the ingredients - primarily the American hops for making IPAs, because I believe I will be able to get all the lagers I already love there, but I know I’m going to miss IPAs.
If you can’t get those kinds of hops there, do you think there is a way to achieve an IPA using noble hops? I’ve just never experimented dry-hopping with noble hops, and wonder how effective that would be?
Without knowing how old you are or if the job will pay a good wage and/or offer a good path for promotion and future success, I strongly urge you to not even consider turning down a job in Germany (or anywhere else except maybe Alabama) over homebrewing. You can figure out brewing when you get there, but take the job if it’s a good one!
It’s Germany. There will be tons of ingredeants available if you want them. Take your gear - though they do make some pretty sweet stuff there.Maybe you can get some Speidel equipment right from the factory.
I imagine US hops might not be easy to find there. My suggestion…take the chunnel to Britain for a weekend and stock up on UK hops. At least you can make british IPA.
My take on it would be, as long as you are in Germany might as well go local. I bet once you wet your wistle on all the local german beers available, you might just forget about your IPAs for a little while. Make it a point to master the german style - always easier to go with the current instead of fighting your way upstream.
ahem
Yeah, trust me, I’m not going to turn down a job in Germany. I lived there from 7th-11th grade. Or as I refer to them, the “Learning to Drink Good Beer Years”. Of course, I had no idea what I was looking for at the time, but I learned pretty quick at the age of 15 what the difference between a Pils and an Export was. Now that I remembered German Pils, I might actually just forego homebrewing. I think the stint may last 4 years at most, so I might as well enjoy the stuff I can’t get here, or get here fresh. I really want to see if Budvar on tap has been bastardized by AB-InBev. That was my favorite beer when I went back to visit my folks during college. I might want to try Urquell again. So good from memory. Jever…all those. It will be great to get to try Koelsch again, hit Dusseldorf for Altbiers, and then travel to munich for the lagers.
I was able to look up and find German stores that had hops like Citra, Amarillo, Cascade and such. So if I really WANTED to, I could get that stuff.
In Germany it’s considered ‘hobby brewing’ and is gaining popularity. I’ve only been to shops in Dortmund and Berlin, but all major cities have one.
But remember, brewing and drinking is so regionally specific there, you might have to special order certain ingredients. Brewers know many different styles, but the average drinker couldn’t tell you what a Hellesbier is if they live in the north.
Good luck and enjoy the culture again!!!
I am having a similar issue with Italy can not find any home brew shops but figure I can have some stuff shipped.
