Eric Warner - German Wheat Beer (Classic Beer Style)

The German word Brotzeit, literally translated, means bread time. So when the boss said Brotzeit at 9 a.m. on my first day of work in a small brewery outside of Munich, I thought it was time for a coffee break. I asked Lorenz where I could go to get some refreshments and he directed me to the small restaurant next door. I quickly located the only familiar faces in the room, those of the beer drivers Id met earlier that morning. I sat down at their table and struggled to understand them as they babbled away in the local Bavarian dialect. I was able to understand the waitress when she came and asked what we wanted. I was the first to order at our table, and sheepishly blurted out the word Kaffee.

Suddenly I felt like I was in one of those commercials for financial advisers, where the room suddenly goes totally silent. Then the youngest beer driver looked at me, and began talking to me while shaking his head. I couldnt understand a word he said, but it seemed clear he was chastising me. The oldest driver just stared down his swollen red nose at me in sheer disbelief. Finally Rudi, who reminded me of Barney Rubble, told the waitress to bring us four Weissbiers, and before I could open my mouth to explain how I was a good boy and wouldnt dare drink before noon, let alone while on the job, Wilma (that really was her name) was headed to the refrigerator.

This wasnt my first Weissbier, and after we had said Prost and taken our first sip, I looked around the room and noticed that we werent the only ones who were enjoying the frothy, full-bodied wheat beer produced at the brewery right next door. This was a working mans pub, and at that moment I realized that this was the beer of choice in the German state that boasts one of the highest per capita beer consumption levels in the world. I had seen plenty of students and club goers enjoying this turbid brew, but on September 21, 1987, I became a reborn Weissbier drinker.