Vitamalz
Vitamalz is a
German malt beer without
alcohol. The correct pronunciation is
vee-tah mahltz.
Vitamalz comes in brown 0,33l bottles. The logo shows six circles in decreasing size with a color gradient going from dark blue to red to white, featured on a yellow ground.The beer itself is of dark brown color. It almost looks like
cola, though it develops a nice light brown
foam.
Due to the German food law ("Deutsches Reinheitsgebot", first established in 1516) it is not allowed to call the beverage
beer. It must be called
malt beer (in German: Malzbier also in some areas Dunkelbier'').
Vitamalz contains
Water,
barley malt,
glucose syrup,
carbonic acid,
Food Coloring E 150c and
hop. It does not contain
alcohol. According to the bottle, it should be consumed within one year of purchase. The website claims it has about as many
calories as an orange juice.The company recommends it for young people and
pregnant women because of its
nutrition. Unfortunately, no information on said nutrition can be found, other than the fact that it contains several
B-Vitamins which support the
metabolism and that it gives lots of energy to the body.
After the scientist
Fritz Lux from
Weihenstephan managed to retrieve Vitamin B1 from
yeast cells in 1920,
Ferdinand Glaab had the idea for a new kind of beer:
Malt Beer.It was not until 1931 however until it was actually produced, when the
Seligenstadt brewery Glaabsbräu purchased the patented recipe from the
VITALUX company. The new beer was called "VITAMALZ".In 1966, the brand "VITAMALZ" was patented.Since 1970, when the licenser Glaabsbräu F. Glaab & Co. founded together with other breweries the VITAMALZ Group, whereas each member works with the same recipe, 13
breweries have joined the production of Vitamalz. VITAMALZ has been the leader on the German malt beer market since 1980, with hardly any commercials running for it. In 2000, Vitamalz started a campaign with a German offering Vitamalz to various Americans, who responded "Ah, Cola!", whereas he replied "Nix Cola, Vitamalz!". In those spots, they were all pleaseantly surprised by the taste. They stopped airing after running for about a year.Vitamalz has been sponsoring the "Vitamalz Cup" (a women's bicycle tournament, which has evolved into the German National Championship, and a basketball competition called "
Monsterdunks".
Vitamalz is hard to find in the
USA, it might be available through special importers. In
Germany it can be found at almost every store that sells
beverages.
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Official Website
