Day 23 opens up with a question one of the readers asked me the other day: Why try the “industrial” beers when one can try the real local ones? Well, not to worry, some locals are coming up, but there is a reason why some beers, like the König Pilsner deserve some attention. As we saw with the Lübzer and Wicküler, some beers love projecting their image of success and sponsor some activities and organizations to foster their success. This includes the brewery’s sponsorship of soccer in and around Duisburg, where it was founded in 1858 by Theodore König. For those who love zebras and the 3rd League team MSV Duisburg, yes König is supporting them in hopes they will succeed in on the national stage. Even a soccer stadium in neighboring Oberhausen is named after König. Fascinating, isn’t it? 🙂
And as for König himself, Theodore founded the firm in a small village called Beeck, which was not part of Duisburg until after World War II. He started brewing the pilsner although in the fashion that was not well-liked at that time: through bottom-fermentation. Yet records showed that the first König Pilsener beer was introduced in 1911. The beer became a popular drink during the Weimar Republic as it was sold in the heavily populated regions of western North Rhine Westphalia. However, the brewery was destroyed through air-raids during World War II and was subsequentially rebuilt. Since 1950, König pilsner beer has been one of the beer products found on the shelves of grocery stores and supermarkets. The brewery is part of the Bitburger Group.
And as for the König Pilsener, with its straw-colored appearance, brillant clarity and a decent head, the beer represents an average pilsner found in Germany with a a couple exceptions to the rule. The beer had a faint aroma that has a balance between sweet and sharp, when I tried it. Despite its bread aroma and earth hops, the impression was that the aroma was somewhat neutral. While drinking, I found three different tastes on the tongue, even though the ingredients are the same with the possible exception of an adidtional herbal herbal hops. It was a combination of bitter, spicy and sour but somewhat not mixed together like other pilsners I’ve tried so far. The beer was not bad and it did have a warming, mouthcoating feeling to it while drinking it, but it was just a typical pilsner for the northern half of Germany that is nothing spectacular. Just a mild-tasting pilsner that one can enjoy at any occasion. 🙂
Grade: 2,0/ B The König Pilsener pilsner is a classic example of a typical pilsner that one can find and drink for special occasions. In addition, its social commitments to extra curricular activities/events have made it very popular, especially in the sport of soccer, where the sport has served as compensation to all the problems facing the Ruhr Gebiet area, where Duisburg and other cities are in the vicinity of. This includes unemployment, social inequality and the latest facing Germany, the problem of integrating the refugees coming in from the Middle East. But like the Germans, these people also love the sport of soccer and would love to watch or even play the sport while drinking a good beer. Especially if these people are fans of MSV Duisburg, which could use some support if they want to continue competing on the national stage.
So have you hugged a zebra and a good bottle of beer lately? If not, maybe you should. Theodore would be very happy to see this. 😉 ❤
THE FLENSBURG FILES 