From The Atom Mashers German Chapter
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Reiner Friedel

Both Geoff and I arrived here in Lindau, Germany a few weeks back and are
settled in and already brewing. Geoff might as well have brought his whole
brewing set up with him, considering the amount of luggage he and his family
had arriving here at Hannover I wouldn't have noticed... They needed three
trolleys to get all their gear out to the biggest Van I could borrow from
our Institute, which meant that with Cassidy's stroller they could no longer
move themselves...(sorry Geoff...).

I got here a week before Geoff and had brought with me some supplies. A
selection of 8 bottled US microbrews (including two bottles from Assets in
Albuquerque, yes, they do bottle their beer now, but only the Duke City Amber
and the Cactus Koelsch) plus a growler of Second Street IPA. Tuesday is the
traditional pub night in our cellar club, so I brought out these treasures
that I had moved half way around the globe and that had given me long arms.

Now Germans are nothing if not polite. They did taste all the beers but
somehow the sales of our regular German beers jumped up drastically after
that. One guy accepted the tasting glass with the words "but give me a small
Krombacher so I can wash the stuff down afterwards." The Cactus Koelsch got
devastating comments, however on this one I had to agree. The second bottle
of Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic I had to drink all by myself. Mostly comments
ranged from "is this beer?" to eloquent love declarations for the German Pils.

Bunch of beer-tasting morons. If it's not German beer, it's not beer. Their
beer-tastebuds are about as adventurous as a goldfish. I'll still schlep
beer's across the globe, but next time I'll drink them myself. I should have
known though, last time I brought Belgium beers from a bit closer to home to a
much more violent reaction - I was lucky there were no tar or feathers handy...

Nevertheless Geoff and I press on to make this the homebrew capital of
Germany. True geniuses are never recognized in their own time!