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Generalisations about beer culture Germany

German vs. British Beer Gardens

German beer garden, Wuerzburg.

The German Beer Garden
Tall trees sway and rustle in the breeze; discs of sunlight dance across the well-manicured gravel floor; and, on the air, a hum of quiet conversation. The view through the surrounding woodland is of summer haze in a green-sided valley. There is a powerful smell of roasting pork and wood smoke from an open grill. On the table, newly delivered stone mugs brim with cool, fresh beer. Birds are singing.

The British Beer Garden
Wasps buzz around the hatchback-sized industrial waste bin, over by the wooden fence with its dropped slats. The concrete paving slabs under foot are littered with cigarette ends, knotted crisp packets and squashed chips. The remains of steak and ale pie sit on the next table over, as they have done for the last two hours. A tattered white Bacardi-branded parasol is threatening to break from its moorings in a gathering gale. The ashtray on your table overflows.

5 replies on “German vs. British Beer Gardens”

Always found the German wasps more aggressive! Not a xenophobic anti-German wasp comment btw!:-)

In much of Germany, a beer garden is a specific kind of place distinct from a pub or bar. And, especially in the South, they have much more reliably warm and sunny weather in summer which makes them viable.

I can see exactly where you’re coming from. Pubs should make more of their beer gardens, if they have them. Augustiner beer garden in Munich is one of the nicest places I think I’ve ever had a beer, and I didn’t even like the beer that much.

It’s a British -pub- beer garden, anything else is an inevitable faux import monstrosity. That makes me think of lots of lovely ones: the ones with flowers tended by the retired old local, the ones with a view on the dales, lakes and so on.

A German beer garden. Huge place only even open in the sunny days, with banks and banks of ‘a beer set’ benches-and-tables.

Very different beasts that should never be mixed.

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