Erdinger Brewery

White Beer and Pretzels

Once again we had an awful weather last week: it was cold with lots of rain. With this changing weather I finally got a cold on Tuesday. I stayed home in the afternoons, drank lots of liquids and was feeling better within 2 or 3 days. On Thursday afternoon we made a field trip to Erding, a suburb about 50 minutes from Munich where the Erdinger brewery is located. This brewery exists since 1,886 and it is still a family-owned business. We made a very interesting one hour tour of the brewery and at the end were treated to beer (of course) and some typical Bavarian food: white sausages (the ones made out of veal), pretzels, and mustard. The total cost of the event (tour, drinks and food) was 8 euros. Not bad! During the tour we learned about the main ingredients in producing beer, the fermentation process, and the bottling, packing and shipping process.

Brewery Tour

Erdinger is mostly known for their white beer (Weiβbier in German): a type of beer that is very popular and highly consumed in Bavaria. White beer is also known as “liquid bread” since it is made with wheat. It is not as clear as the beer we are used to but it sure fills you and fattens you up much quicker. In Munich there are basically 3 types of beers that are offered everywhere you go: white beer, dark beer, and helles (clear beer); and then there is also the Radler which is the mix of lemon soda with helles beer. The oldest law in the state of Bavaria dates back to 1,516 and it is called the “1516 Bayerishe Reinheitsgebot”. The literal translation is 1516 Bavarian’s Pureness Commandment. This law guarantees the pureness and good quality of the beer by specifying the 4 ingredients to be used when brewing beer: water, hops, yeast and barley (I had to look this one up in the dictionary). The only exception is in the making of white beer where the barley is substituted for wheat. All of this information I learned from one of my teachers and also from the Erdinger tour guide. Oh!! and another interesting fact is that in Germany you can legally start drinking beer at the age of 16 (No hard liquor until you reach 18).
After the tour we had about one hour and a half to enjoy as many beers as we wanted from the different types of beers produced by Erdinger (in the 0.5 liter glass). I had a glass of the white beer (of course) and a glass of the dark one. However, some of my classmates had a little bit more to drink. Just picture this: being a twenty something year old student and getting all the beer you can get without having to pay an additional cent.

White Beer tasting

The filled-up glasses of beer were constantly arriving to the table. I’ve heard that some of them had 5 or 6 glasses during the one and a half hour time span. Needless to say everyone was very very happy by the time we left Erding to go back to Munich. Everyone was singing on the train songs from Shakira, Ramazotti, Celia Cruz, and even “Pasame la boteeellaaaaaaa quiero beber en nombre de ella….paaaasame, paaaasame, pasame la botella” etc etc. And just as you would expect I was the chorus director!!