The Case of the 11 AM Beer

The Drudge Report picked up a Daily Telegraph story asking, "Why is Barack Obama drinking beer at 11 AM?"

I was prepared to defend the President on this one. It's a local custom for Sunday mornings.
Eleven in the morning might be considered a little early for a beer in some parts of the world, but in Bavaria breakfast is not complete without a weissbier, as the local wheat beer is called. It’s not quite as hard-drinking as it sounds: Bavarians don’t down a quick pint before heading to the office every morning. It originates in Frühschoppen - a local tradition of meeting for a drink late in the morning on Sundays and holidays.

According to Bavarian custom, the sausages cannot be eaten after 12 noon, because no preservatives are used and they are made fresh every day. Therefore those who wish to wash their sausages down with a beer must get supping before that time. The local saying is that the sausages must not be allowed to hear the church bells chime noon.
Besides, if he just flew in from D.C., it's not 11 AM in any meaningful sense for him anyway. So I was going to say that he should be given full pardon for this alleged offense.

Until the last line of the article, I was convinced of this position. But:
A local farmer told reporters Mr Obama had in fact drunk non-alcoholic beer at the breakfast.
Non-alcoholic beer in Germany? There's simply no excuse for that.

4 comments:

E Hines said...

Non-alcoholic beer? Aside from being an oxymoron, I spent four years in Germany while in the USAF. There is no such thing. Our President was fed a fraud.

Obama also is reported actually to have eaten a sausage with that fraudulent...drink. Did Michelle really authorize that?

Eric Hines

Anonymous said...

Three years ago, in Germany, I did try one of the new near-biers some of the breweries make. It was OK. It tasted kinda like beer smells. I can't drink alcohol, and I had no reaction from the near-bier. But the beer drinkers with me said it lacked the depth of flavor of the alcoholic version.

YMMV.

LittleRed1

Grim said...

I drank a fair amount of nonalcoholic beer in Iraq, but that was because of General Order #1. I don't like it especially, but it's better than no beer at all for months at a time.

In Germany, though?

douglas said...

Non Alcoholic Beer- It's better than no beer. I mean that both ways.