Beer vs. Pils

Here in the Ramstein Air Base area you can buy, what Bitburger claims to be the identical product; Bitburger Premium Beer purchased on base at the Shopette or, off base, on the economy at a Germany getränkemarkt or anywhere else, Bitburger Premium Pils. When we toured the Bitburger brewery a couple months ago the tour guide told us the Bitburger you drink in the U.S. is the same as the Bitburger you drink in Germany. The Bitburger you buy on base here in Germany is the same as the Bitburger you buy in any German city or town. Nothing added, nothing taken away. The only difference, the label on the U.S./on-base version says Premium Beer, the German economy version says Premium Pils.

However, we had noticed that the Bitburger Premium Beer, purchased on base didn't seem to pour with the same quality, foamy head (Jeff told me to say, so to speak) as a Bitburger you get in a gasthaus. We wondered if it was a differnce of bottle beer versus keg beer or was there really a difference between the Premium Beer and the Premium Pils? So we set up a little experiment and here it is.

Eureka!! You can hear the amazement in our voices at what we discovered. What did we discover? Well, like Jeff said, we're not sure. Both beers tasted the same. We did a quick eyes-closed sampling and couldn't tell the difference. But this could shake the very foundation of the German beer industry. We may have stumbled onto an amber nectar cover up of huge proportions.

Our research is ongoing, we will keep you up to date on our findings. This is really exciting and indepth beer reporting is so much fun.