Ex-pat Newlyweds

If you go to Germany, and you tell your friends you are going to Germany, they usually request that you enjoy a beer for them.

Yes, Germany has beer. German brewers produce more than a quarter of all beer brewed in Europe and while Germans are drinking less beer than they have in previous years, domestic sales still topped 8.7 billion litres. That’s enough brew to fill up 3,480 Olympic sized swimming pools.

Yes, dear readers, I did that math just for you. Feel special.

While beers of every type and colour flow through the taps, Germans sometimes get tired of beer. This makes them mix things up — literally — by mixing it with something else.

In Berlin, order a Diesel and you’ll get a lager mixed with cola. A Radler will get you lager mixed with Sprite and an Alster will get you beer mixed with Orange Fanta. To make things more confusing, these are just the names that these mixes are given in Berlin. They vary from region to region, not just in name, but the recommended percentages for mixing the beer and pop.

In Berlin, a specialty of the pubs is Berliner Weisse mit Schuss — which isn’t actually white when it gets served to you but either green or red. The colour is determined by the fruit juice (usually raspberry or a lemon-lime juice) that gets mixed with the beer.

You can now even buy your bottled beer pre-mixed and our favourite beer, Schöfferhoffer Hefeweizen (try saying that 5 times fast), is getting on the trend. In our grocery store, Schöfferhoffer has their delicious wheat beer mixed with red grapefruit juice and cactus pear juice.

Just in time for summer to show up.