Beer Poking (Bierstacheln in German) is a 400 year-old activity of sticking a red hot piece of metal into a beer. While this was originally for places that are very cold, such as Germany in the winter, the idea of playing around with fire and beer was too good to pass up the chance to do some beer poking in Bangkok.
The question of ‘Beer Poking’ was asked at a great German Restaurant in Bangkok. However, the owner seemed skeptical it was a real thing, and more likely made-up by Americans.
– Maybe we should have used the traditional name to ask about it….
Bierstacheln recipe
To poke some beer in Bangkok you will need:
- 1x beer poker
- 1x source of fire (we used a butane torch)
- Beer to poke (dark beers like bocks and dopplebocks are recommended)
Method:
- Heat up the beer poker to be red hot.
- Put the red hot metal into the beer, and give it a very slight swirl.
- Remove the poker from the beer and drink the warm beer foam with caution.
You will know the beer poker has worked because the beer will foam up quite a bit and you will be able to see heat and steam escape the beer.
Beers used in the ‘experiment’ were two different German beers, a bock we got from G’s Bangkok, and a dopplebock we got from Isara BrewPub.
We kept it ‘traditional’ and used German malty beers, as is suggested on YouTube videos and on Reddit. Perhaps when we try again, we can try to use some local Thai stouts and see how well they work.
It is noted that generally hoppy beers like IPAs do not work as well… but maybe we need to try it.
Other sources on Beer Poking
What Is Bierstacheln? Stoking the Fires of a Historic Beer-Poking Surge. Link to Hop Culture.com
The History Of Beer Poking, link to Brewer World.com
Image is also from Brewer-World