Drinking Beer: St. Pauli Girl

I'm thinking the most politically-incorrect major import would have to be St Pauli Girl. Like most imports to the US, it comes in a green bottle. In Europe, it is always in a brown bottle to protect the hops in the beer from becoming skunky from exposure to light. Somehow, Americans have come to associate a green bottle with a quality import beer, probably because of the Heineken importer.

A little while for a green bottle on the shelf in a sixpack is enough to ruin the beer in my opinion. Even my beloved Pilsner Urquell comes to these shores wrapped in a green mantle. What I do is wait for a sale involving 12packs that are sealed, so the beer is not so bad.

St Pauli Girls is not very hoppy, so as a pilsner style it falls flat for me. However with Brittany on the label, I can make it through a 12pack without being too critical of the lack of hops. Being un-PC can get you a long way with me. If you go to the website, you can see Brittany and some of the St Pauli Girls from the past.

Some beers that come in a clear bottle have had their hops chemically processed to remove the compounds that go skunky. That process is verboten by the Rheinheitsgebot of 1516 (Purity Law), which most German breweries still adhere to though it is no longer the law of the land (EU overlords forbid it).

There is probably a regulation against green bottles in EU countries (they all seem to be brown returnables), but they don't seem to care if they send stink bombs to us.

Why look, Brittany's already opened me another one.