Florida’s Germans vs Illinois’s Germans

~ Clarissa

The German population of Florida is not useless like the one where I live. It has its own newspaper and even a good schnitzel restaurant, even though it is run by a Czech.

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The Germans in my region are useless. They lost their culture completely and we have to contort ourselves into weird shapes to convince them that having a German program at the university is not a bad idea. And they can’t even establish a German restaurant in the area.

There is Oktoberfest in a neighboring town but it’s about as German as I am (i.e. not at all.) They serve Budweiser at that Oktoberfest! Any self-respecting German would die of shame seeing such an Oktoberfest.

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Published by Clarissa

17 thoughts on “Florida’s Germans vs Illinois’s Germans”

  1. “They serve Budweiser at that Oktoberfest!”

    You think that’s bad? When I was stationed in Germany with the USAF, I bought a case of “Löwenbräu Bier” at the commissary on the U.S. air base, and when I got back to my quarters, I discovered that the beer had been bottled in Detroit!

    The U.S. government had shipped “German” beer bottled in the America all the way across the ocean to sell in Germany! (Regulations required that the commissary sell American-made products whenever possible.)

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      1. I always detested beer. But then I went to Germany, tasted the real thing, and understood why people drink it.

        There was this great green beer that I still haven’t found on this continent. . .

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            1. Er, no…on St. Patrick’s Day, Irish-American bars have a HORRIBLE American beer with green food dye added.

              You’re right about staying home on that day. The only thing worse than the beer is all the fake Irish accents!

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  3. I used to love Mr Dunderbak’s, a small chain of German themed mini-restaurant bars in Florida with imported beers (when that was rare) and German imported foods and other cultural ephemera (like Heftromane*) but some quick googling shows only one left 😦

    *a type of pulp short genre novel still popular in Germany

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  5. About ethnic newspapers, you will want to read this.

    The problem is called assimilation, something that most distinct cultures fear.

    http://www.neh.gov/divisions/preservation/featured-project/chronicling-americas-historic-german-newspapers-and-the-grow

    About beer, you will want to read this.

    3G is an investment firm under the control of Brazilian billionnaires Carlos Alberto Sicupira, Jorge Paulo Lemann, and Marcel Telles. They made their original money in furniture and department store retail.

    They created a small Brazilian brewer, and use that as the platform for an offer for a Dutch been conglomerate (Interbrew — brands Stella Artois, Boddingtons, Beck’s, Staropramen, Bass, Leffe, Labatt and Hoegaarden). They then used the Dutch firm to buy Anheuser Busch.

    There have been massive complaints about changes in the taste of these brands. The Brazilians have been looking for economies of scale by reducing the number of brewing facilities, and many of these brands are now made at Anheuser facilities.

    They also sold off the chain of Anheuser theme parks.

    The replaced US marketing staff with Brazilians, and had a major blow up when they tried to exclude the Clydesdales from Super Bowl advertising, probably in preparation for selling them. They were totally rattled by the uproar that caused.

    Their financial performance (growth) has been mediocre, so they’ve been buying additional brewers. I book on financial analysis that I read years ago said that the best way to mess up a financial sheet and hide bad results is to buy something. Apparently these guys know that.

    I drink beer occasionally, and I haven’t touched anything from Anheuser in several decades. I used to enjoy Beck’s, not anymore.

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    1. And many of their beers are clarified using isinglass, which means I can’t drink them (because of allergic reactions) …

      The same goes for Stella’s “Cidre” — they even clarify scrumpy cider with isinglass.

      Read all about it: http://www.tastingbeers.com/school/beer_production/12008759.html

      Isinglass is typically used by brewers in a hurry to produce a clarified beer, rather than relying on time for settling.

      The annoying part of this is that I have to find out about this for new brands before I hit the shops or the pubs — the information isn’t provided on the bottle (and of course if it were, a number of people might wonder why tropical fish parts are in their usual grog).

      If I guess incorrectly on a sufficient scale, I can expect an exciting trip to the local A&E or (if I’m luckier) a quick intervention by the ambulance service, so I’ve learned it’s safer to do without if I have any doubts.

      So I’ll stick with Thatcher’s Gold scrumpy from the West Country, which I know doesn’t make me sick and is in fact entirely vegan …

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        1. It’s accurate enough when it comes to the other kinds of scrumpy I drink — Weston’s Stowford Press is in fact vegan, for instance, and they have that right.

          Fortunately Waitrose tends to stock its own private label stuff that’s typically vegan — I think most of it’s actually made by Weston’s.

          I still prefer Thatcher’s Gold though — if you ride the 126 bus between Wells and Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset, you’ll pass through the real Sandford (as opposed to the “Sandford” in “Hot Fuzz”, which is actually Wells in disguise), where Thatcher’s is made. The gift shop there is convenient enough that you can pop in between buses to check out special versions of their scrumpy.

          Cheers! 🙂

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