This page is referenced by:

• 1 media/lowenbrau-1693940__340.jpg media/woodcarving.jpg media/oktoberfest-soma.png 2017-04-12T19:44:07-07:00 The Beginning 16 How Beer Gardens were Born plain 2017-05-04T07:52:42-07:00

                              NO WARM BEER!

           
  German brewers discovered that lagers, when fermented between 33 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit, produce much purer beer. The Brauordnung  (laws pertaining to the brewing of beer) are often traced back to the year 1539, but Franz Hofer, who teaches German history at Cornell University explained by email to the Atlantic, that the “decree limiting beer-brewing to the time between the feast of St. Michael [September 29] and that of St. George [April 23] wasn’t promulgated until 1553.” The decree came from Duke Albrecht V and applied only to Bavaria, the southeastern region that contains modern-day Munich. The decree was designed to protect the public from fires that were common in the hot summer months throughout Europe. Bavarian "Fachwerk" architecture comprised almost wholly of wood burned easily and the Duke feared that the coal fires used to heat the brew kettles would cause fires to break out across the countryside. 
  
  
  
  Brewers began digging deep cellars close to river banks to store the lagers during the winter months to fill the demand for beer in the summer months when brewing was prohibited. They spread gravel over the ground and planted large trees to maintain the temperature during the summer months. Local townspeople would come to buy the beer and many stayed to consume the frothy beverages on the grounds beneath the trees, the beer garden or biergarten was born.
  
  The beer garden became a place for people to come enjoy their beer of choice and picnic outside. These social constructs became so popular that innkeepers and tavern owners began to complain to local authorities that they could not compete with the beer gardens because the breweries sold the beer directly to the public.In response to this Maximilian I, the King of Bavaria, signed the "Compromise Decree" restricting breweries from selling any food other than bread. The backlash from the public was swift and resolute, they began bringing their own food to picnic and the beer garden was born. 
• 1 media/Immigration_by_country.jpg media/20130620beergardenstory.jpg 2017-03-16T09:24:42-07:00 Beer Gardens and German Immigrants 15 The Relationship Between the Two plain 2017-05-05T10:12:17-07:00
  Beer gardens were brought to America by German immigrants as well as other Eastern Europeans. Immigrants were drawn to America for the promise of opportunity, land and a new start. There were also push factors that helped these people make the decision to leave their homelands such as war, religious persecution, economic turmoil, political unrest. German immigrants tended to settle in areas which had a similar climate to Germany. This gave them the opportunity to grow the same crops they had in Germany, wheat, barley, hops among others. A problem many German-Americans faced was a lack of quality beer. Germans had mastered the craft of making lagers, a pure delicious form of beer. The German-Americans worked hard throughout the week and each and every Sunday, after church, they would gather in parks, gardens or even on farms to enjoy beer, games, music and family in a uniquely German manner which was commonly called the beer garden. 
  
  The Americans of English decent favored ales, ports and India pale ales, none of which suited the German-Americans' taste. Germans started out small, making home brews and selling them to the local community in all parts of the colonies. After the Revolutionary War German-American beer became more popular mainly due to the high standards of the brew-masters. The German brews were renowned for their purity at a time when there were no standards regulating the quality or safety of commercially sold beer. Germans began large breweries in New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and eventually St. Louis. Wisconsin brewers began mass producing beer due to a high demand in New York City and Chicago. The location of Milwaukee made it ideal to serve this demand with high quality ingredients, pure water, and low shipping costs so Milwaukee brewers could keep prices competitive. The market expanded quickly for the Wisconsin beer barons and Milwaukee became the beer capitol of the world.