Ever drink a Rattler?
 

It sounds bad, but when in Rome… (or Berchtesgaden)
One of the more obscure tastes that I acquired when I was stationed in Germany was a Radlermass. I noticed that many of the Germans that had just finished the long climb up the mountain to the Vorderbrand Gasthaus would call for what I thought was a “Rattler”. They would say. Ein Radler bitte! Soon they were served this very tall cold drink – it looked like beer? I soon found out that it was a mixture of the local brew, mixed with lemon/lime carbonated drink.

Since my team was staying at the Vorderbrand, we started ordering a Rattler, as we thought they were called. It is a well known thirst quencher amongst the locals there, we had never heard of it up north. We would usually work up a sweat, even on the coldest days coming back from the Jenner Ski Area, just a short kilometer away from the Vorderbrand, and that one liter Rattler would go down lke a Big Gulp from 7-11. But then we order a Weinbrand and a Bier, and break out the pinochle decks – life was good back then.

No, it’s not my favorite German Beverage, but is still in the top five. What’s your favorite from Germany?
;)
Mitch

Radler
 

Radler refers to a bicycle, if I remember correctly.

My favorite drink from time spent in Germany is Maiselbrau Bier produced locally at the brewery in Bayreuth. I lived between Bayreuth and Grafenwoehr, out on the economy, and had Maiselbrau delivered to my house weekly. That is, when I could afford it on a SP4 salary raising 3 kids and a stay at home mom. When times got tight, I canceled the weekly deliveries and drove into Kemnath and picked up a rack at the monastery brewery there. They also made a good radler at the time.

Wenn Sie in Bayern ist...

Radler's are a great thirst quencher when skiing, hiking, biking, rafting, etc in the mountains of Bavaria.

The Radler came about because, in the mountains of Germany and Austria, the bicyclists (Radler in German) needed (1) something refreshing and somewhat nutritious after a long climb up a mountain road and (2) something which would allow them to remain sober to return down the long, steep hills. From this came the concept of a beer and lemon-lime (actually Zitronenlimonade in German) mixture in Germany and Austria, the Radler (D) and the Russ (A), basically the same as a Shandy in England.

The Radler is a normal Munchen "Helles" or a pilsner-style beer such as Zipfer mixed with 1/2 lemon-lime soda; the Russ is a mixture of 1/2 Weizenbier, such as Edelweiß Hefetrüb, and 1/2 lemon-lime soda. Both are refreshing, relaxing, and quite enjoyable (about 2.5% alcohol) when in the mountains and exercising.

Various names emerged for this mix from the various breweries - such as Alsterwasser, Russ'n, Weizenradler, Kristall Radler, etc.

Alsterwasser is often used in place of Radler because the Alster river in northern Germany was considered a source of cleaner water and, even though the beer was not actually brewed from the Alster's water, the lightness and clarity of the water became synonymous for those features of the Radler.

The source of the Radler was reported as follows:

On a hot summer afternoon in June of 1922, Franz Xaver Kugler, the owner of a Gasthaus high in the Deisenhofner Kugler-Alm in Bavaria realized that he did not have enough beer to accomodate all of his guests for the day, both bicyclists and mountain hikers. He decided to offer his remaining beer, a dark beer, as a mixture of beer and lemon-lime soda of which he had an ample supply. The drink was a hit and he named it after the bicyclists -- RADLER!

For me -- it's Grunerbrau, Rosenheimerbrau, Spatenbrau, Hasenbrau, and Auerbrau. I was never a fan of Klosterbrau aus Reutberg. :)

Y'all are making me homesick for the environs surrounding Bad Tolz...although the Weinsteuben around B-W aren't bad, either. ;)

Richard's $.02 :munchin

As much as I may have liked my Rattlers - I'll go the other way - the one I liked least.

One evening, my team and a few strap hangers were in a restaurant called the Maerkersher Hof - having dinner - we followed the food up with biers and schnapps as usual. Once that starts, dinner soon becomes about four hours long. Anyway - it didn't take long that every body was buying everbody a round of this and that, Gold Wasser, Korn, Kirsch Wassr, etc. Everybody was having a good ole time until one of the Straphangers secretly orderd a round of Ratzeputz!

Now I was still new, as were many on my team - we didn't know what Ratzeputz was. As they were passed arround, Doc Barnes just about jupmped out of his chair - he said "Hell no" I'm not drinking that shit agian." But he was trapped - there it was in front of him, and a man's got to do what man's got to do. I looked at this stuff, gave it a sniff and started to choke. Then the Straphanger gave us the rules. We all drink at the same time - the first one to chase it - buys the round.

So - Ein, zwei, drei ... Oh God - Help - I thougt my head was going to explode - after ten seconds my eyes waterd so bad I couldn't see - I couldn't breath. But Doc to the rescue - he hollerd out something obscene and poured what was left of his beer down his thoat - we all immediately followed suit.

I belive this stuff is some kind of grain alcohol mixed with ginger and various peppers and other hot stuff - I don't know. The name Ratzeputz means Rat Cleaner in German - fitting name.

Believe it or not, it's not so bad the second time you do that - you never knew when those damn straphangers were coming arround.
:D

Ditto,, My Scot buds got me into drinking a "ginger beer shandy" as the 1st round after Golf.

Then it was on to the good Whisky...

I never realized the combo is so common:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandygaff

Used to love the New Wine Festivals. Drink itself was called Federweisser or Sauser, I believe (trusting a very old and foggy memory).

The stuff was so smooth and tasty you could set and drink it for hours, with what appeared to be no effect, till you stood up after an hour or so of showing the Germans how to drink.

Got many blank spots in my memory banks because of that stuff.

I was never much for the "mixed" drinks. Liked my wein und bier rein.

But I did like the Spatsi (sp?) for a thirst quencher so that I could get on with the beer at those mountain huettes.

Been hanging around Hamburg a lot lately; Baltic coast and Sylt, Danemark... The beer is okay... BUT, I sure miss those Bayern days.

Took my girlfriend (soon to be Frau) down to Toelz this last summer from Hamburg and, to my delight, she love it. Said the air was so fresh. Now she "wouldn't mind" eine Ferienswohnung down there...

There are so many great beers and wines in Europe it is hard for me to decide what I like best.

But I will say this, there are more and more good beers and wines here in the US and we are on a roll too. Still don't but any lemon lime soda in it though...

Spetzi, I remember those things too - and yep I liked them. It was like the Radlermass withoout the beer, (made of Coca-Cola and Fanta).

Regarding the american brews - I discovered Shiner about 12 years ago - Wow - a real German Beer made here in Texas (part of the problem is that its been so long since I've had any German beer, right out of the tap - I can't remember). I do know that most of the German Exports, just don't seem right to me. But the Shiner - it'll do.

Mitch

German export beers have preservatives which aren't in the beer you buy at the local gasthaus. Same with Singhai from Thailand. Expensive, too.

Shiner Bock - a nice, weighty beer but not a true Bock like in Germany - is also my beer of choice. Living in Texas makes that easy. My wife drinks Corona with a wedge of lime. :p

Richard's $.02 :munchin

Like Richard said, the exports do have perservatives in them. But I will still drink an Erdinger or Maisels over a frigging Budweiser. Maybe not as good as in Euroland, but...

But a lot of the microbrews are really getting good in a lot of places in the US.

Shiners... I drank that back in 300F1 at Ft Sam Houston (back in the good old days when medics didn't have to do their whole course at Ft Bragg Medical University of UW Excellance). Good beer then and now, I am sure.

Really, I can't remember a favorite brand of German Beer - manily, becuse everywhere I went, I would usually drink the local brew - I do remember particularlu licking (edit: well, I guess I might have licked it, but I prefered to sip it ha ha) the Dinkel Acher.

Mitch

Do you mean Dinkelacker - Schwabenbrau from Stuttgart? MOO - it's OK - some was brewed by Spatenbrau and IMO better tasting.

As far as 300F-1, we drank mostly Pearl. Saturday morning barracks GI parties included a keg of iced down Pearl in the shower room downstairs in each of the two wooden WW2 barracks in which we were billeted and a steady stream of cup filling young SFers in and out as we went about cleaning the barracks and doing landscape maintenance. The 1SG would stop by and hang out with us when he got thirsty from all that supervising - he was Airborne and 1SG for a Company that was 1/2 SF (which he liked) and 1/2 legs going through the X-Ray tech program (which he hated). By the mid-point of 300F-1 we were down to occupying only one floor of one barracks and the other barracks was used to house more X-Ray techs.

Making the beer rounds:

• 91A Fort Bragg (veteran 91B4S instructors, male nurse OIC) any beer
• 300F-1 Fort Sam Houston Pearl
• Hospital Rotations (I did mine at Reynolds Army Hospital, Fort Sill, OK) Coors which you couldn't get East of the Mississippi River back then
• Dog Lab Fort Bragg in old hospital area (veteran 91B4S instructors, DVM OIC) any beer
• 91B4S at Bad Tolz used to do annual 4-6 week hospital rotations to either Augsburg (Hasenbrau) or Nurnberg (Patrizierbrau), too. Hasenbrau was pretty good, I didn't like the Nurnberg beers and mostly drank Spatenbrau.

I'm making myself thirsty here. Think I'll go to Roosters for a burger and a Shiner. :D

Richard's $.02 :munchin

Being of German Danubeswabian heritage, my father, who is well up in years, still has a six pack of Dinkelacker in his fridge on a consistant basis. On any given trip to the doctor, his first question is always.....
Can I still drink Beer?????

"Dinkelacker, Dinkelacker, Hoi, Hoi, Hoi". from a radio spot while I was in Deutchland in the early 70's.

Dinkelacker - Ok - that's how you spell it :o. I know that I liked it generally. But what's more, I just liked saying the word Dinkelacker - one of those German words that you just have to smile when you say it. Then too, it helps when it tastes pretty good.