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5 L keg of black beer with a special tapping cock and valve on top
If you think pre-Christmas season is only imaginable on German, Austrian 'Christkindl' markets with (alcoholfree) hot coffee, tea, punch, you're wrong.
Liquor (rum) spiced coffee, tea, punch (called Grog in GER and AUT), and, of course, special brews of extraordinarily malty X-mas beers are offered. This time, though, German Christmas markets will be a lot quiter. Reason: The company that collects royalties for music authors and performers, here, called GEMA, intends to extremely increase the fees for playing X-mas music. The kiosk shop-owners unanimously call it a rip-off and scandal if they will be charged to the number of the whole crowd of people attending the 'event' and not to the people in their direct vicinity.
Then the crowd should sing the Christmas songs and carols instead. But, you need some 'revs' by alcohol to get relaxed enough to sing with your 'co-drinking' bunches of people attending.
The supermarket chains, like REWE, EDEKA, REAL, FAMILA, and speacial bargain markets, i.e. Jawoll or Kruemet in Kiel, North Germany, have been offering regular and special brews with specially nice prices.
One example, unbelievable, is the offer of JAWOLL's in Schwentinental near Kiel of selling re-imported black beer and lager of the privately-owned brewery of Eichbaum's, Mannheim, for €3.99 incl. tax ($5.40). It's a keg of 5 liters (imagine: 2.5 six packs of small beer bottles or 15 times 12 fl ounces). In the U.S., you pay at least $7 for a six pack, right? Then, you would be charged at least $17.50 for the respective keg, more than 3 times to this offer.
Top valve and nice price of 3.99 euros
Relax, we Germans envy you your cheaper gas at the filling-stations, on average, our prices here are twice than yours.
Well, this beer came back to Germany from abroad. I can't understand why.
Well, the first glass needed about 7 minutes. The foam has to settle and you should not open the cock fully due to the initial high pressure.
The next glass of this yummy stuff needed only 2 minutes.
It tastes almost like Guinness Stout, has the same darkness, sweetness, is as malty and hoppy as the Irish beer. Result: Perfectly yummy.
With 4.8 pc APV, it's in the average range of German, Austrian, Czech beers of 5 +/- 0.5 pc.
Alcohol containing beverages are ubiquitous on our X-mas markets.
If the prices at the beer booths there were as 'competitive' as at Jawoll's, the crowd would take care of the singing on the market and royalty 'tax man' would return home with empty revenue bags.
