German Beer & Wines
 

I will be passing through Germany in the summer and am looking forward to a genuine German beer hall. My question is this -- Where do you go to buy German beer and wine? Do they sell it in special stores or markets? Can I buy some in a grocery store?

You can buy it almost everywhere - yes supermarkets have a large variety of both beer and wine and there are kiosks on streets selling beer at all hours and gas stations, where you can always buy beer when most stores are closed. No problem getting brew in Germany but try the many beer halls and beer gardens for their unique atmosphere and contagious joie de vivre!

I agree that beer is omni- present at supermarkets, gas stations, kiosks etc.
Usually supermarkets will carry a few regional brands plus the domestic big brews from Beck's (from Bremen), Bitburger (from -you guessed it- Bitburg, Western Germany), Warsteiner (also from Western Germany), Veltins (again Western), Jever (North), Holsten (Hamburg), Erdinger (Bavarian Wheat), Franziskaner (Bavarian Wheat) to name only a few.

Wine can also be found at supermarkets. But usually there is a wine store in town that tends to carry some more exclusive products.

A national chain of Wine stores is called Moevenpick Weinland. Quite a nice selection of wines, many at reasonable prices.

And you won't find foreign beers at least those actually brewed abroad - at least i didn't see any in December when i spent a week in Germany quaffing beer, amongst other things of course. Not that i wanted a Heineken with all that great German beer - they did have Carlsberg but it was brewed in Germany.
Supposedly the ballyhooed 'Reinsgeboten' (?sp) law of the 1500s limits German beer to having no preservatives in them,limiting the shelf life of beer - especially those that have to be imported. And Germans still love to drink their local beers brewed for centuries in their towns - there are literally hundreds of breweries in Germany - independent breweries in each sizeable town. Thus even though there seem to be some national brands like mentioned in above post regional brews seem to dominate.
Germany's bottle deposit law is confusing to tourists - about 20 cents US on each bottle or can and, unless it's been changed, you must have a receipt saying where you bought it and then only be able to return it to that store - not conducive to tourists. This may have changed?
Anyway - Prost! - the ubiquitous cheer yelled out when the group starts downing the beer - like 'Cheers'

Pal,

I can actually find foreign brews, too. Heineken is pretty trendy in bars right now (although I think it's a deviation of good taste). I have also seen Japanese beer. However, why would anyone drink something foreign in beer's paradise :-) ?

I will try to outline the return policy:
Bottles of beer are nowadys only available as "Pfandflaschen", bottles designed to be recycled or rather refilled. You can return them in any shop that carries the brand (and if not just remove the brand sticker - the bottles are usually standardized).

The government introduced a mandatory "Pfand" also to cans a few years ago. In the beginning you could indeed only return them in the shop where you bought them and were required to prove this by showing the receipt. This has changed pretty much now as this was a logistical nightmare for consumers. If a can carries an encircled "P" symbol you can return them in most shops and particuluarly at gas stations. However, beer from cans doesn't taste as good anyway and I think it's much nicer and more convenient to buy bottles.

ALDI has cheap and good german beer and decent wine as well.

keep in mind that german stores keep "banker's hours". therefore, you might just be seeking out some beer in a petrol station or train station.

What I found rather curious on my last trip to Germany was that the grocery stores' wine selection is mostly non-German. I was hoping to get some good deals on Mosel and Rhine wines, but there was very little selection. If you are in the Rhine or Mosel valleys, stop at any little Weingut along the road and you can score some great unknown Spätleses wines at super-cheap (less than 5 euros a bottle) prices.

I buy the wines for my wife while I prefer the beers. German beers are at their best vom Fass (on tap). Bottled and canned German beer tastes almost as bad as bottled or canned American beer. Unfortunately you really can't bring home a good German beer. You have to enjoy it while you're there.

If you are near a big grocery store, there may very well be a "trink halle" aka beer/wine distributor and liquor store nearby. You'll get a better choice there.

Where in Germany will you be stopping? Germany has so many fine regional beers, you should try for those. A beer commonly found in one town may be impossible to find in the next. For example, in the Nuremberg area, our favorite beer is Wolfshoeher (www.wolfshoeher.de). In the northeastern section of Nord-Rhein Westfalia, we drink Detmold Pils (Detmold's brewery is run by Germany's youngest and first female brewmaster, who at age 19, mastered all the qualifications in half the time of her 64 male classmates), around Bochum, we drank Warsteiner, in Dusseldorf, Schlosser Alt, etc.

Many residential neighborhoods also have tiny little stands that are open late in the evening, where you can pick up a bottle of beer or Jagermeister or Gerolsteiner and some Ritter chocolate.