’Tis the season to sample the good stuff...
We’ve been doing something wrong. For years, pious souls have been abstaining from meat, chocolate, dairy products or otherwise, all in the name of Lent. Not a lot of fun, it has to be said. Especially when it’s cold outside and you could kill for a bit of comfort food to warm your cockles.
Perhaps we should have taken a tip out of the book of Europe’s greatest hedonists—the Italians. When the Paulaner monks arrived in Munich from Italy in 1627, they found it extremely difficult to cope with the cold German climate, especially during their annual fast. That is, until they discovered the local beer. It didn’t take the monks long to realize that the stronger the beer, the more filling it was—doing away with the need for as much food. They experimented and, in 1629, produced their first Starkbier in their monastery in the Au, naming it Sankt-Vaters-Bier, after the founder of their order, Vater Franz.
Word travels fast. It wasn’t long before Münchner had latched on to what the old monks were up to and were lining up at the monastery for a helping of the strong stuff. Officially, of course, the monks weren’t allowed to serve their brew to the laity. But because it tasted so good, the authorities turned a blind eye to the practice. Indeed, it soon became common practice for the monks to invite Bavaria’s Prince Karl Theodor to tap the barrel of the Sankt-Vaters-Bier and to serve him the first glass. The prince found the honor so great that, in 1780, he gave the monks official permission to serve the beer to the public. And, over time, townsfolk gradually started to shorten the brew’s name, first to “Savaterbier” and then “Salvatorbier.”
Twenty years later, with secularization, came the privatization of many monastery breweries and, as a result, competition. Soon, Salvator was being produced by brewers across the city—a fact that didn’t go down well with the new owners of the Paulaner brewery. They took their rivals to court, and won—which left all the other breweries having to rename their special ales. All chose titles ending in –ator and, by 1972, 120 such names had been registered with the Munich Patent Office. These ranged from the better-known Triumphator (Löwenbräu), Optimator (Spaten), Maximator (Augustiner) and Animator (Hacker-Pschorr) to the more obscure Gladiator (Dimpfl Bräu, Furth im Wald), Spektakulator (Weissbräu Jodlbauer, Rotthalmünster) and Kulinator (Brauerei Hutthurm), although only a selection of those registered are actually brewed. The –ator suffix has even made it into the Asterix series, where readers will come across a magic drink named Zauberator!
So what makes a Starkbier a Starkbier? The key criteria is that the beer must have an original wort content of at least 18 percent. Wort is the mixture of malt and hops, which is fermented, with water, to make beer. As the wort contains sugar, which then turns into alcohol, the higher the original wort content, the more alcohol is produced during fermentation. As a general rule, the alcohol content of the finished product is around one-third of the initial content of wort, leaving most Starkbier with an alcohol content of around 7.5 percent. The beer is also aged for six weeks longer than your average brew. For those watching the waistline, it has a calorie content of 59.8 per 100 ml, compared to 42.3 in a normal Helles.
Today, of all the beer produced in Bavaria, only around 1.3 percent is Starkbier. Still—now’s the time to try it. Starkbierzeit—often referred to as Munich’s fifth season—runs this year from March 17 to April 2. Although some breweries may sell the special ale earlier, officially, the season starts—as in the good old days—when the mayor of Munich taps the barrel. This takes place the day before the season officially opens, when 500 invited guests gather at Paulaner am Nockherberg for the “Salvator-Probe,” a traditional political satirical cabaret night. Although the event in its current form has existed only since the end of World War II, its history goes back to the days when the prince would sample the first glass.
And, as was the case then, commoners also have their chance to partake in festivities, either at Paulaner during the following two weeks or at one of the other Munich breweries, which put on a range of events to mark Starkbierzeit. In the Löwenbräukeller (Nymphenburger Strasse 2), for example, there’s a daily beer-stein-lifting competition, with a grand finale on the last day of the season, April 2. There’s also an ox-roast on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between March 10 and April 2. The Augustinerkeller (Arnulfstrasse 52) will be running a range of live music events between March 15 and April 1. Check out www.augustinerkeller.de for details.
And, if you think Starkbier’s strong, get this: the Mühlfelder Brauhaus in Herrsching produces the strongest beer in the world, with an alcohol content of 25.4 percent. Visitors to the Brauhaus are served the potent brew in schnapps glasses, with one setting them back € 2.90. Although only 340 liters have been produced in the first year, there’s been such demand for the beer that it is likely to be brewed on a larger scale in the future.
