{"id":4484,"date":"2017-12-13T16:04:12","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T16:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beer-syndicate.com\/blog\/?p=4484"},"modified":"2019-01-18T20:33:49","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T20:33:49","slug":"warmed-beer-health-not-just-german-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/warmed-beer-health-not-just-german-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Warmed Beer for Health— Not Just a German Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The German concept of warmed beer as a restorative<\/span><\/a> dates back at least to the 1600s.\u00a0 As 18th<\/sup><\/span> century Encyclopedist Johann Kr\u00fcnitz described in his Oeconomische Encyclop\u00e4die<\/em>,<\/span><\/a> \u201cWarmbier\u201d was a beverage that grandparents would drink in the 17th<\/sup> <\/span>and early 18th<\/sup><\/span> centuries as a healthy alternative to coffee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course this \u201cWarmbier\u201d wasn\u2019t merely warmed up beer<\/em>, but rather a beer-based concoction made by heating beer and then adding eggs, flour, butter, ginger nutmeg, salt and sugar.\u00a0 To be clear, when we talk about \u201cwarm\u201d or hot beer in modern times, we simply mean beer that is heated, which is something quite different from the old Germanic protein shake known as \u201cWarmbier\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

As odd as it may sound to most of the cold beer drinking world today, serving beer hot wasn\u2019t just a phenomenon unique to Germany, nor were the alleged health benefits associated with it.\u00a0 As early as 1641, a book<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0was produced for sale at the shop of Englishman Henry Overton entitled: \u201cWarm beere, or, A treatise wherein is declared by many reasons that beere so qualified is farre more wholsome then that which is drunke cold with a confutation of such objections that are made against it, published for the preservation of health.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Warm beer seems to have lost favor in the late 19th<\/sup> <\/span>century as W.T. Marchant bemoans in his 1888 book entitled In Praise of Ale<\/span><\/em><\/a>— \u201cIt is a matter of regret that some of the more comforting drinks have gone out of date. When beer was the staple drink, morning, noon, and night, it was natural that our ancestors would prefer their breakfast beer warm and \u2018night-caps\u2019 flavoured.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In his article in The Atlantic<\/em>,<\/span><\/a> beer writer Jacob Grier suggests that it was advances in refrigeration technology and the Prohibition-era decline of saloons and the associated room-temperature ales that helped swing the popular vote away from warm ales and over to cold lagers, or just cold beer in general.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ordering a Warmed Beer Abroad<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The most well-known and commonly available hot beer in Germany and neighboring German-speaking countries is called \u201cGl\u00fchbier\u201d.\u00a0 Pronounced \u201cGlue Bee-Ah\u201d and translated as \u201cglow beer\u201d, Gl\u00fchbier is usually a spiced cherry beer, although other varieties may be found like St\u00f6rtebeker Gl\u00fch-Bier<\/span><\/a> which is made with elderberry juice and winter spices.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gl\u00fchbier is more or less the beer version of the more common \u201cGl\u00fchwein\u201d (\u201cglow wine\u201d), or mulled wine<\/em>, both of which are ordinarily available during the winter season especially at Christmas markets and ski resorts in German-speaking countries. \u00a0A few commercially bottled examples of Gl\u00fchbier exist including Appenzeller Gl\u00fchbier,<\/span><\/a> Gl\u00fchbier aus \u00d6sterreich<\/span><\/a>\u00a0, Gl\u00fchbier aus Franken<\/span><\/a> and Detmolder Gl\u00fchbier.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Gl\u00fchbier is basically the German cousin of the Belgian cherry beer \u201cGl\u00fchkriek\u201d (glow cherry), although oftentimes Belgian Gl\u00fchkriek is sold in Germany under the more generic title of Gl\u00fchbier.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

St. Louis Kriek “Gl\u00fchbier” at a Christmas Market in Berlin, Germany.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Aside from the winter seasonal Gl\u00fchbier, it isn\u2019t very common for beer to be served warm in Germany.\u00a0 However, some traditional German restaurants,<\/span><\/a> particularly in the south, will heat your beer, any<\/em> beer, for you upon request at no extra charge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simply ask for your beer \u201cgestaucht\u201d, which in this specific context means \u201cwarmed up\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

If a trip to southern Germany for a pint of heated beer is out of the budget, heating beer at home is as easy as pouring a beer into a pot and heating it up on the stove.\u00a0 Heating up a sealed beer bottle in a pot of boiling water is not<\/em> a great idea for two reasons: (1)<\/strong> the bottle might explode and (2)<\/strong> hot beer has a tendency to foam up which can be avoided by pouring the beer into the pot.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to get fancy, Westmark, a German company, makes a beer warming device<\/span><\/a> for about \u20ac20-\u20ac30.\u00a0 The device itself is a metal cylindrical vessel which is designed to hold hot water.\u00a0 The vessel is then sealed and placed in a beer mug before the beer is poured, which preserves more of the beer\u2019s carbonation as compared to pouring and heating beer in a pot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hot Beer Recommendations<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Not all kinds of beer are very well suited for being served warm, let alone hot.\u00a0 However, there are some notable exceptions, particularly any Gl\u00fchkriek (spiced Belgian-style tart cherry beer) with some commercial examples being Liefmans, St. Louis, and Timmermans (Warme Kriek).<\/span><\/p>\n

If you have any trouble finding a commercial Gl\u00fchkriek, making one at home is as simple as heating and adding mulling spices and perhaps some sugar or honey to basically any store-bought Belgian Kriek (cherry) beer.\u00a0 Lindemans Kriek Lambic is already on the sweet-side, so only the addition of mulling spices would be needed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another fantastic ready-made warmable brew worth mentioning is Quelque Chose<\/em>, an uncarbonated<\/em> lightly spiced cherry beer from the Canadian brewery Unibroue.\u00a0 Aware of the custom of hot beer, Unibroue recommends serving the beer at 50 – 70\u00b0C (122 – 158\u00b0F).<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Quelque<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition, many dark spiced winter ales can also be pleasant when served hot.\u00a0 As for historic warmed beer recipes and concoctions, Joe Stange produced such a list for Draft Magazine<\/span><\/a> which included mulled ale, aleberry, caudle, Dog\u2019s Nose, Flip, Gl\u00fchkriek, Lambswool, Posset, Shenagrum, and Wassail (the majority of these are some combination of beer heated in a pot with spices added in).<\/span><\/p>\n

Reemergence of Warmed Beer?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Will warmed beer make a come-back in English-speaking countries?<\/em> Only time will tell.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, turns out there might have just been something to that old German home remedy of warm beer to ward off a cold after all.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Gesundheit!<\/em> (Healthiness)<\/span><\/p>\n

Related Article:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Warmed Beer: The Science Behind an Old German Remedy for the Common Cold<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Hi, I\u2019m Dan<\/strong>: Beer Editor for\u00a0BeerSyndicate.com<\/span><\/a>, Beer and Drinking Writer, Award-Winning Brewer, BJCP Beer Judge, Beer Reviewer, American Homebrewers Association Member, Beer Traveler and Shameless Beer Promoter.<\/p>\n\n

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The German concept of warmed beer as a restorative dates back at least to the 1600s.\u00a0 As 18th century Encyclopedist Johann Kr\u00fcnitz described in his Oeconomische Encyclop\u00e4die, \u201cWarmbier\u201d was a beverage that grandparents would drink in the 17th and early 18th centuries as a healthy alternative to coffee. Of course this \u201cWarmbier\u201d wasn\u2019t merely warmed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[589],"tags":[1026,1022,1236,1238,1024,1023,1025,1027,1239,1028,1237],"yoast_head":"\r\nWarmed Beer for Health- Not Just a German Thing - Beer Syndicate Blog<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beer-syndicate.com\/blog\/warmed-beer-health-not-just-german-thing\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Warmed Beer for Health- Not Just a German Thing - Beer Syndicate Blog\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The German concept of warmed beer as a restorative dates back at least to the 1600s.\u00a0 As 18th century Encyclopedist Johann Kr\u00fcnitz described in his Oeconomische Encyclop\u00e4die, \u201cWarmbier\u201d was a beverage that grandparents would drink in the 17th and early 18th centuries as a healthy alternative to coffee. 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