G0 BAVARIA:The Bavarian beer garden's 200th birthday is as good a reason as any to visit, writes DEREK SCALLY
NECESSITY IS NOT just the mother of invention, but also of the Bavarian beer garden, which is 200 years old this year.
Germans are among the world’s most enthusiastic lovers of Irish pubs, but in the warm summer months their love belongs to another. And anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting the real thing in Bavaria will know why: as in a good pub, the biergarten is as much about the atmosphere and the people as the drink.
In Bavaria in the Middle Ages beer was classified not as a beverage but ranked alongside bread and potatoes as a basic foodstuff. Bavaria’s extra-stringent beer-purity law, in place since then, ensures nothing but barley, hops and water is used to make this golden elixir.
Most German beers are fermented at between seven and eight degrees, about 10 degrees below Irish beers. How, then, in the pre-refrigeration era could beer be stored cool enough to be potable in the warm summer months? To solve the problem, brewers dug their own beer cellars outside the walls of Bavarian cities. They built warehouses above the cellars and, to keep the summer sun from heating the ground, planted trees. Chestnut trees were favoured, combining maximum shade with narrow roots that would cause minimum damage to the cellars below.
One of the first mentions of a Bavarian beer garden was in 1783, describing brewers enjoying their beer in their yards outside the city limits. Soon they were selling a few sneaky pints to passers-by. Over the next decades, a casual sideline became a full-blown business for the brewers, to the annoyance of pub owners in Munich city centre. They were convinced the breweries were trying to put them out of business and complained to Bavarian King Max I Joseph.
Anxious to keep the peace – beer had caused wars in Bavaria – he passed a law legalising beer gardens, but under strict conditions.
The beer could only be sold in beer gardens from June to September, and it was to be dispensed in open containers and drunk in minuto (on the spot) not sold for later consumption. The law also guaranteed a pub monopoly on food; beer garden operators were forbidden from selling customers anything but beer and bread.
Instead customers were allowed to bring their own food to the beer garden. One of the great pleasures of the season is watching visitors open baskets and spread tablecloths on the bench for a feast of bread and pretzels, sausage, salad, radishes and cheese. Allowing such freedom is a bold leap of faith, yet the far-sighted food rule is one of the reasons Bavaria’s beer gardens have been so successful, sustainable and inclusive through the centuries.
Unlike Munich pubs, once open only to men, the beer gardens outside the city welcomed their wives and children, too. To this day, Bavarians’ happiest childhood memories are often of golden afternoons spent under the chestnut trees in their local beer garden. “It was a great, affordable, social equaliser,” says Christian Vogler, landlord of Munich’s Augustiner-Keller beer garden, dating back to 1812. “For the city’s poor people, without a garden or balcony, the beer garden brought the countryside to their doorstep.”
On a quiet weekday morning, the 44-year-old Vogler strolls proudly through the beer garden he has run for the last two years, greeting dozens of staff by name as they make the final preparations for another day’s trading.
The hall and gardens, a vast green oasis near Munich central train station, has been owned by the Augustiner brewery for the past 150 years. Above the redbrick cellar is the main hall, with decorative, painted walls and a miniature stage. Tradition hangs heavy in the air with the light fragrance of fried chicken. But the centre of the action each summer evening is the beer garden, with its 6,000 places. Besides the regular benches clustered around the ancient chestnut trees are unique stammtisch tables belonging to the beer garden’s many regulars.
“The table belongs to them, they bring it each summer and take it with them each autumn,” says Vogler. There are tables belonging to local companies, as well as local families, millionaires and even pimps.
The beer gardens have changed with the times: the ban on offering food has been lifted, and customers can buy everything from chicken and chips to ribs and salad. And the city’s pubs have recognised that a rising tide of beer lifts all boats and accept their summer competitors.
To ensure a continued peaceful co-existence, the state government passed a law in 1999 anchoring the crucial attributes of the beer garden as part of Bavaria’s “cultural legacy”.
“Each garden has its own character,” says Lukas Bulka, of Munich’s beer and Oktoberfest museum. “In some gardens you wash your own glass, in others there’s brass band music, others play jazz. The beer gardens bring together all social classes.”
The beer garden as a social leveller is one of its most important achievements, says Vogler, as he completes his rounds at the Augustiner. But welcoming all does not mean anything goes. Heavy drinking is not tolerated, he says, nor is the rowdy behaviour it generates. Despite the vast quantities of beer consumed, Vogler and his staff rarely have to intervene. Mostly, he says, the customers do it among themselves.
“In England or elsewhere people think they can say, ‘I was pissed,’ and be absolved of everything but not here,” he says.
This self-regulating nature means that, for 200 years and with no end in sight, the Bavarian beer garden is what the locals make it.
Just how much the Augustiner means to its customers can be seen on one varnished round table, owned by a family, in a corner of the garden. In honour of the popular patriach, who died a few months ago, his son had the table embossed with his late father’s maxim: Leb’n is schee – life is good. In Bavaria’s beer gardens, life is very good indeed.
Munich's best beer gardens
1 Augustiner-Keller
Celebrating 200 years in business, customers used to delight in watching a “beer bull”, hooked up to a winch, bring up beer from the storage cellar. The bull is gone; the beer, including the delicious Edelstoff, remains. Landlord Christian Vogler quietly supports Munich-Irish charity events, so feel free to support him back.
2 English Garden at the Chinese Tower
Situated around the striking wooden Chinese tower in the English Garden park. This is the second largest garden in the city, with room for up to 7,000 people enjoying Löwenbräu beer and, on Sunday afternoons, traditional brass bands.
3 Viktualienmarkt
Centrally located, on the Viktualien food market on Marienplatz. Pick up some delicacies at the neighbouring stands and spread them out for a Bavarian feast. The beer at this garden changes every six weeks, so return visits are a must.
4 Hischgarten
Near the pretty Nymphenburg Palace, the Hirschgarten seats 8,000 and claims to be the largest beer garden in the world. Serves many beers including Augustiner and King Ludwig.
5 Beer and Oktoberfestmuseum
Near Marienplatz (Sterneckerstr 2), the museum has a special exhibit on the 200-year history of the beer garden. Beer is available in the museum’s ground-floor area for thirsty visitors. Open: Tuesday-Saturday, 1pm-6pm. Tickets: €4.