Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from March 11, 2011

MUNICH'S STRONG BEER FESTIVAL!

    Can you say Starkbierzeit?   It's German for "strong beer festival", an event held every March in Munich.  For two weeks, breweries bring out their most potent beverages, and beer halls throw noisy parties with a  host of Bavarian entertainment and food.  It's Oktoberfest without the tourists.    The festival's roots go back to the Paulaner monks who, according to legend, began making an extra strength beer to sustain themselves during their Lenten fast.  The beer, first brewed in the 17th century, gained a "word of mouth" following.  The townspeople called it Salvator.    Strong beer's popularity took off after Napoleon rode into town and sold the monasteries to local businessmen.  Paulaner ended up in the hands of a entrepreneur named Franz Xavier Zacheri , who turned the monastery into a beer hall and mass produced the monks' beer.  In an inspired bit of marketing, he promoted Salvator as a cure for the wintertime blues.