the search for "bier" in the usa

one of the facts about u.s. life best known to germans is the start of u.s. legal drinking age: 21. but this is just the tip of a red tape iceberg related to alcoholic beverages. passing the magic age does not guarantee to get to the fermented grains and grapes. over the past year i have experienced different situations that left me baffled.

one just happened recently when jerone and i – we both 26 years old – ventured out to get some of my favorite leinenkugel berry beer at the local walmart. after handing the six bottles of reddish liquid to the cashier, the mandatory line on the display blinked “persons under 40 must show id”. since jerone was paying, he did. this was expected although he certainly does not look like a 21 year old. the odd thing happened when i was about to grab the half a dozen bottle box and the cashier mumbled: “don’t touch or i need your id.” fortunately i didn’t understand him, too quiet, quick, and muffled, because if i had i would have broken out in laughter.
jerone took the beer and explained to me later what was going on while i had stood confused between these two guys who obviously thought it is the most normal thing to ask for an id from someone obviously over 21 to buy low-proof beer(!) – not that we wanted any liquor, god forbid! (i come to that later). but also that "the don’t touch, don’t show" policy is just a part of normal crazy u.s. shopping.

a similar incident had happened the evening before. curiously i had ordered a self-brewed wheat beer “with a kiss of cherry” at jackie o., a local athens bar. of course, i had to show my id, which i in wise foresight had tucked into my back pocket. to my surprise the bartender didn’t make a fuzz about it being german. however, i cannot remember the last time i had to show my id for anything alcohol-related in germany since i turned 16.


now to the hard stuff. in germany beer, wine, and liquor are sold in gas stations, supermarkets, little shops, cafés, restaurants, open-air festivals, you name it. i can’t tell the number of locations where you can purchase alcohol of any kind and proof in my german hometown zeitz of about 28,000 people. there are just too many. in ohio there is a division between beer and wine on one hand and liquor on the other. only one (!) store in athens, a 22,000 people town, sells high proof liquids such as whisky. it’s called lucky dog and possesses the precious retail liquor license to sell booze containing over 20% of alcohol. but again only the ones who carry an id are lucky, which is the ticket to the store. this also means that if i just accompany someone without buying anything in the lucky dog, i still need an id. occasionally i had to stay outside because I usually don’t carry my id with me.

a couple other odd things i noticed with regard to alcohol. once upon a year ago i had the idea to buy a bottle of wine on a sunday morning in preparation for some gathering later that night. but how could i have had such a naughty thought when at the same time the pious ones pray in church. no, no, no – no alcohol before noon on sundays, said the cashier. baffled i had to return half hour later.

as teenager i went out with friends to our favorite chinese restaurant in zeitz every now and then. the waitress always greeted us with a shot of low-proof plum wine for each of us. i never drank it because i didn’t like the taste then. fast forward a dozen years later to a lovely chinese restaurant in a detroit suburb. meanwhile i appreciate exotic wine and looked forward to such an aperitif. however, again stubbornly id-less as usual, the pleasure was denied to my palate. even the persistent guarantee of the kind elderly person (with id), who invited me to such nice meal, that I am over 21 and that he would take responsibility could not convince the smiling waitress to budge an inch on the issue. so it was. as a comfort i clandestinely took sips of the warm saké offered by the id-carriers at the table whenever our waitress was out of sight. the saké came in cute little egg-shaped bottles with a black plastic cap to be used as cup. but to buy such a glass bottle from the restaurant – even empty – was impossible. so sorry, we don’t sell them, it’s against the law, said the smiling waitress.

ps: of course, no alcohol in the public anywhere in the usa, including u.s. public parks (and they close at 11p.m. sharp, too). brown bags need to be wrapped around any closed and sealed bottle of alcohol to transport them from shop to car to home to somewhere. gone are the german days when we would ride in the street car playing guitar, sipping red wine, laughing and singing all the way. yes, it is disgusting when people almost drown in beer and use public transportation at the same time. but the occasional package of beer bought in a bar on the way to a party or peaceful bonfires with bratwurst and beer in leipzig’s parks i do miss.

ps2: the u.s. american sitting next to me says there is no story to write about here. you don’t drink in public or until 21 and show an id every time afterwards. period. very normal, he says.