Braukunst Live! beer festival with record number of visitors
More than 100 exhibitors and over 7,800 visitors (+45 percent over 2013) attended the Munich beer festival Braukunst Live! which was held at the weekend of 21 to 23 February 2014. Beer lovers, who on average had splashed out EUR 50 for a ticket and beer samples, were enthusiastic about this year ’s wealth of innovations, special brews, lectures and master classes offered at the fair.
From microbreweries such as Ale Mania or Kehrwieder to traditional breweries such as Hofbräuhaus Munich or Schneider Weisse, from the well-known craft brewer Braufactum to Czech brewer Pilsner Urquell: all drew a crowd.
What pleased the organiser Frank-Michael Bröer was that this year ’s festival – the third to be held to date – was even more international than last year ’s: punters could not only taste beers from neighbouring countries such as Austria, Italy or France. There were also several from further afield, such as Denmark, Scotland, Norway, the Czech Republic and the United States. Even the Brewers ’ Association from the U.S. had a stand and represented 20 member breweries.
If there was a common trend this year, it was beers that had been conditioned in wine, whiskey or sherry casks. “The brewers use the new aroma hops, they experiment with yeast and create fantastic beers that previously no one knew,” said Mr Bröer. Even though there was an initial concern that his event would undermine or even overturn the Reinheitsgebot (“the German purity law”), the opposite is true: “The new, innovative beers – whether a wine barrel conditioned wheat beer or one of the strongly hopped beers such as the double hopped Hallodri by the Hofbräuhaus Munich – all meet the purity requirement to 100 percent,” Mr Bröer emphasised.
A personal impression: Was it because of the relatively high price of the samples or the restricted opening hours – this event proved far from boozy. Contrary to fears that there would be hordes of inebriated visitors, punters on the whole behaved impeccably.
