Beer 101: A quick guide to German beers

So, you’ve found yourself at a German club in front of a hefty knuckle of pork. There’s some polka-esque music in the background, an old woman is digging into a strudel the size of her face and, to top it off, you’re wearing lederhosen (which, tbh, cute). But something is missing. Between the thimble-sized schnapps and arm-length kransky, there’s a stein-shaped hole that needs filling. And the only thing that’ll fit is, of course, a German beer.

We get it – traditional German beer may not be the coolest craft on the wagon. That hipster down the street with his ironic tattoos will likely turn up his nose at it. But what German beers lack in cloudy-fruit-sour factor, they make up for in hundreds of years of quality. Designed with the Deutsches Reinheitsgebot in mind, or German Purity Law (not as bad as it sounds), most beer is tapped at the highest quality. This means most of Germany’s beer is astounding. 

But what are the best German beer styles, you ask? Well, we’ve made a little cheat sheet of the more popular brews below, so when you’re enjoying your next bratwurst, you can pair it with a traditionell German beer as well.