Garnishing Beer with Fruit

General brewing information, questions and discussion. Topics that do not seem to fit elsewhere.

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l48shark
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Garnishing Beer with Fruit

Post by l48shark »

If you've ever ordered a cheap Mexican beer in The States, then you have been served a beer with a lime wedge sticking out of the bottle. This is convenient, because it allows you to pretend like you are drinking a limeade from Sonic or Braum's so you can choke it down. But then you order a not so cheap German wheat beer and it arrives with a slice of lemon on the rim of the glass. It is a wonderful beer on its own. So what gives? I am wondering where and when this trend started and why. Anyone?
Cheers,
Ford
andytv
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OK with the Huns

Post by andytv »

I don't know where it started, but some of my Bavarian friends actually prefer a slice of lemon in their wheat beers. An interesting aside.... Radler (1/2 light beer, 1/2 orange flavored drink) is a popular drink in Bavaria, it was my typical breakfast meal when I visited!
Your right when you say that a good wheat can stand alone, the beer snob in me wholeheartedly agrees.... but I'm also all for throwing down some "weizens mit lemon".
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Mesa Maltworks
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Origin of the lime in the beer thing...

Post by Mesa Maltworks »

You'll get a kick out of this....

I know a few of the Cerviceria Modelo (part of Grupo Modelo) brewers and have been to their faciliy on a couple of occasions. They laugh at us because we actually put lime in the beer !!!!!

This bizarre practice (to them) was started in the early 80's when tourists saw limes ON TOP of the necks of the bottles when in Mexico.

Limes in traditional areas of Mexico (not the tourist traps) are REALLY common and cheap and are almost always at table side. When the locals get up to go to the bathroom or whatever, they placed a lime slice on top of the bottle TO KEEP THE FLIES OUT !!!!! Somewhere along the way, someone decided to put it into the beer.... a trend was born and was exported to yuppies all over the world.

Modelo wasn't stupid... they decided to capitalize on the fad and now promote the practice !!!! Besides... ever try a Corona or Tecate without one... in my opinion it is actually worse than with lime in it. (which is bad enough)
lootcorp
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Lemons in weissbier

Post by lootcorp »

Replying to this very old post - I was just at a tasting at the Harpoon Brewery in Boston, MA and they explained the origins of the lemons in the beer. According to them barkeeps placed lemons in the glasses of weissbier so the waitresses could tell them apart from the other beers on the serving tray. People found they loved how the lemon brought out the natural citrus flavors in the beer and the tradition stuck!

Anyone have more info or can verify that?
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