Hops, The Flavouring and the Sign of Quality of a Beer

If you stand in front of the beer department in a German Supermarket, or much worse, a beverage store, you are lost if you don't know how to choose.

There are many different types of beer (wheat bear, bottom-fermentation beer=Lager=Pils, top-fermentation beer=ale=Alt or Kölsch, pale beer, dark beer, clear beer, unfiltered beer, etc.) and your taste leads your choice.

But after choosing the type, you have to rate the quality. The rule of thumb is that the more it costs the better it tastes. But it isn't applicable always. Before you make your final choice, you should look at the label or check out the website of the brewery on your smartphone. If it says Hopfenextrakt=extract of hops be careful, probably you will be ripped off. If it says hops you can give it a try. Of course, this rule only applies to high end beer and not to Aldi beer or Oettinger. No one is able to make 1 liter good tasting beer for € 0,56.

Additional information:
There are two types of hops. Bitterhopfen=bitter hops and Aromahopfen=aromatic hops. Bitter hops is more fruitful, aromatic hops is more tasteful. The more aromatic hops was used, the better tastes the beer tastes.
The Hallertau in Bavaria is the world's largest coherent hop-growing region, more than a third of the world's hops are cultivated there.

[Excellent English.  I got used to German beer when I lived there.  Compared to good German beer, most American common beer is colored water.  The situation has improved in the last 10 or so years, however.]