IN THE LAND OF FINE BEER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11559, 21 April 1898, Page 2

IN THE LAND OF FINE BEER.

! MUNICH, ITS BREWERIES, ITS 1 LEGENDS, AND ITS DRINKERS. ! DRINKING FEATS OF ITS OLD 1 BURGHERS, t (Correspondent New Torle Times.) ‘ In the year 1575 there was published in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, a ponderous work in five volumes, with a title of which the following is a close translation : “ On the God-like and Noble Gifts of the Philosophical, Highly-prized and Wonderful Art of Brewing Beer; an Exquisite and Philosophical Secret; a Particular Gift of God to Mankind, That it rriay Discover how to Force a Delicious, Sweet, Happy, Palatable Drink for the Preparation and Cooking of Wheat or Barley that those People may have Entertainment in whose Lands no "Wine Grows and who would otherwise be Doomed to Drink Nothing but Water!” The author was a learned doctor of law known as Heinrich Knaust. So far as we know he was the first eulogist of beer; he could not say or write enough in its praise. This was more than three hundred years ago, but the good Muencheners are not a whit behind him to-day in their appreciation. Supj ose they were reduced to drinking water? , That is something almost

TOO AWFUL TO CONTEMI’LATE. Munich’s prosperity is founded on beer; every inhabitant of the city begins to drink beer as soon as he or she is done with mother’s milk, and often before, and steadily consumes an average of three quarts a day through life. It is indeed difficult to conceive of Munich without beer, so intimately does the life of the people seem to be concerned with iit. Miles before the train gets to Munich you begin to see big breweries along the line. In fact, fifty miles before I got to Munich I saw something that impressed me with the importance that Munich people attach to beer. There got into the train and sat down opposite me a big man weighing several hundred pounds; I had noticed him at the station where he got in, standing by the buffet, which is so conspicuous a feature at all German railway stations, pouring beer into himself at a rate which encouraged me to hope that the train would make no more stops between there and Munich, for evidently this gentleman was preparing for a long journey, during which there would be no opportunities for refreshment. German railway trains stop with a frequency that is disheartening to strangers; even the socalled express trains never run for more than half an hour at a time, and if you look at the time-table you will see every column punctuated with signs representing something like a beer-mug, which is exactly what is intended, such signs indicating that beer may be obtained at the places so marked. There were four such signs on the time schedule between us and Munich, nut I could hardly believe that we were going to stop at every one of them. We did, however, and not only that, but my stout friend got out at every stop and drank a glass of beer at the buffet. And this was not all. Having swallowed his glass of beer in company with half the other passengers, he brought another glass of beer with him into the car, and put it under the seat for purposes of refreshment between stations. I afterward found that this was so common a • practice all over Bavaria that in a few weeks we ceased to notice what at first amused us immensely. CONTINUOUS COMMERS. According to recent statistics, there are nearly 6000 breweries in Bavaria, big and little, or about one to every thousand inhabitants. Eveiy city and town has a line or circle of breweries in the suburbs, which seem to run night and day. The largest are, of course, in Munich, one of which produces annually 7,000,000 gallons of beer, and there are two others not far behind. The city of Munich drinks every year 700,000 barrels of beer, or nearly two barrels for every man,‘woman and child in the place, and pays more than 6,000,000d0l for it. Taking the whole country, the consumption of beer is 260 quarts a year per head of population. Munich alone has nearly 300 breweries, there having been a steady increase in the number for the last two hundred years. In 1600 there were sixty breweries in the capital, but the first records concerning the brewing of beer date back to 1150. For several centuries after the time, however, mead, a concoction of water and fermented honey, was the common drink of the people. When Dr Knaust, whom I have mentioned, wrote his enthusiastic treatise, beer was in common use, and in 1615 was established the Hof-Bran or royal brewery, which is still a flourishing institution, and puts a great deal of money yearly into the King’s coffers. BEER-TESTING TOURNAMENT. The Hof-Brau beer is the standard in quality for Munich, and the size of its beer-mugs regulates the size of all others. Two hundred years ago the burghers of Munich established the custom of putting the royal beer to a public test once a year, and this ceremony is still observed. The leaders of a dozen of the Munich guilds, the butchers, bakers, smiths, tanners, and so on, meet at the Hof-Brau wearing their leather breeches. A big tankard of beer is poured upon a long oak bench upon which the burghers then sit down ; if, after a certain time, about twenty minutes, the burghers find it difficult to get up, the beer upon the bench holding them down to the wood, it is pronounced of good and legal quality. If, upon the other hand, it proves to have no more adhesive power than water, the brew is rejected and the royal brewer denounced. During the twenty minutes of the test, the burghers sing certain old songs in praise of King. Gambrhms, and drink as much beer as they can swallow. Wonderful stories are told of the quantity of beer some of these men selected as champion drinkers and expert judges of beer can put down. I have never seen one of these beer-testing tournaments, but I have seen the beer-mugs used and which one man, it is said, will often empty five times during the twenty minutes; it is a wonder that the judges can get up at all, whether the beer sticks to the bench or not. Each mug holds certainly as much as a quart. BEER CAPACITY OF BAVARIANS. I took some pains to find out how much beer an average drinker in Munich considers a fair daily allowance. One man who kept a beer saloon and ought to know, assured me that the men who work in breweries or who take the kegs around the city often drink fifty glasses of beer a day, or something like twenty quarts. But these men are almost giants, and work hard, especially in hot weather, when the demand for beer keeps them busiest. I suppose that the average beer drinker, not a sot, will drink from ten to fifteen glasses a day. Beer costs three cents a glass, so that the expense is serious. The workman pays about seven cents a quart for it, a very reasonable price, but even at that price it is-a serious tax, • An average mechanic in Munich earns seventy-five cents a day, out of which twenty cents goes for beer and often more. BAVARIAN BEER KELLERS. It is in the kallers or beer gardens that one sees the Munchener in his element. There are nearly a thousand kellers in the city, some of them immense gardens, where excellent music is to be heard every evening. The regimental bands are allowed to earn money by playing in the kellers. Half of the people of Munich take their suppers in them from April to November.- About six or seven o’clock these establishments begin to fill up, whole families arriving. Each keller has an indoor hall for rainy weather and a big garden for fine weather. After the family gets seated there is a call for beer, even the baby in arms getting a glass, and then the mother produces a newspaper parcel containing sausages, black bread and a gigantic white radish as big as our turnips. The father brings out a huge clasp knife, slices up the radish, ■ and the feast begins, lasting until ten o’clock, when the music stops and every one goes home. As I say, there are about a thousand kellers in Munich, and yet I have often found it hard to get a seat at one of the largest of them after seven o’clock. The first round of beer is naturally but a beginning. In order to keep track of the

money due, the waitress and all keller'habitues carry in their pockets a little silver or nickel dial with figures from one to ten marked upon it and a movable indicator;; this dial ,is fastened by a small chain to t' o handle of the beer mug and every tamer the latter is refilled the indicator is' changed. A man who. has got to his tench' glass of beer may well need sometlringj more tban memory to keep his acco'imts' straight. The people who do not resort to the kellers for their suppers get their beer brought in from the nearest saloon and one of the things that may be seen at all hours of the! day and evening, and in every street of. Munich, is a maid going for beer or com-; ing back with it; if the family she serves is a large one, she is apt to carry a sort of tray with a handle and places for each rnug< For some reason or other the people seem to prefer getting their beer in glasses or; mugs rather tban in pitchers. SENT ALL OVER THE WORLD. ...V';The largest : business transactions that come before bur Consul in Munich concern' beer. Two of the Munich breweries.; are heavy exporters to America, and altlinugh the Germans themselves acknowledge the excellence of the beer brewed in America,; there is still a heavy demand in New York and other of our large cities for the imported article, perhaps no whit better than the home-brewed beer. On the day that I visited the most important of the Munich breweries cars were loading for the United States, Brazil, Peru, Chili, and for all parts of Europe. The Turks, to whom wine hi forbidden, are among the largest of this brewery's foreign customers. I was assured 1 that it was no uncommon thing for this establishment to send away in one day twenty-five freight cars filled with beer. These cars are owned by the brewery and are decorated with the crest or trade mark of the establishment. No matter in what city of Germany or Austria you may be you will be pretty sure to see one or more of these Munich brewery cars upon the freight sidings near the stations. It is admitted all over Germany that Munich beer is the, best to be bad, and in Dresden and Berlin it costs two cents more a glass than the homemade article. BEER-DRINKING LEGENDS. • While the • Germans of; to-day may be' champion drinkers as compared to other people, they claim that their forefathers were much greater drinkers than their degenerate sons, and in proof of it they show the enormous tankards which, according to tradition, the men of two hundred years ago were wont to empty at a gulp. Perhaps the most famous, cup of the kind is one kept in the Town Hall of Rothenburg, a curious little walled city in the north of Bavaria. I saw this cup a few weeks ago. According to the story which is to be found in all histories of Bavaria, when Count Tilly> besieged Rothenburg in 1668 he was so enraged at the stubborn and costly resistance made by the citizens that he determined to burn the town. After the capitulation the burghers appeared before him. m the, great room of-the town hall and beseeched him to relent. He was obdurate until the women of the city went down on their knees offering all their jewels as ransom. Touched at last by their despair, he ordered them to bring him a mighty tankard of wine—soma contend that it was beer. “ Now,” said Count Tilly, taming to the Burgermeister or Mayor of Rothenburg, “ if you will swallow every drop in this cup at a draught I shall spare your city.” The Mayor was a big man and a mighty drinker.. He took a long breath and emptied the tankard. Tilly kept his word. The identical tankard or mug, which is of glass, painted with the arms of the town, is shown to all visitors to-day, and, holds nearly three quarts and a half. It does not seem credible that any man can really have emptied it at a gulp, and I am more suspicious of this cup than of the Grown of Thoms from Calvary shown to the faithful in Paris or of the spike from the true Cross that one may see in Rome. But all good Germans and mighty beer drinkers believe most implicitly in the Rothenburg legend and lament the decay of their drinking power. Tbede is still another and more modem si cry of a Munich student who, being “ dared ” to empty a two-quart mug of beer at a gulp, begged to be excused for a moment. He was gone but a few sconds, and when he returned accepted the challenge and triumphantly swallowed the two quarts without taking breath. When "the applause had subsided some one asked him why he had left the room before drinking. “ I wanted to see,” said he, “ if I could do it; so I drank two quarts of water at a gulp in the next room and I came back for my beer! ...