Fucking Hell is a German
pale lager
Pale lager is a pale-to- golden lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness.
In the mid-19th century, Gabriel Sedlmayr took British pale ale brewing and malt making techniques back to the Spaten Bre ...
, a
Pilsner
Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Brewery.
History
...
, with an alcohol content of 4.9%.
It is named after Fucking, the previous name of the village of
Fugging in Austria; ''
hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...
'' is the German word for 'pale' and a typical description of this kind of beer. The beer's name was initially controversial. Both the local authorities in Fucking
and the European Union's Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office initially objected to the name. It was eventually accepted and the lager is sold internationally.
Production
Fucking Hell is not brewed in Fugging, but was originally brewed in the Brauerei Waldhaus, a brewery in the
Black Forest
The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...
town of Waldhaus,
Weilheim in Germany. From 2013, production moved to the Brauerei Hartmannsdorf in
Hartmannsdorf, near
Chemnitz
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...
.
At the time of the launch of Fucking Hell, there was no brewery in the village of Fucking.
Fucking Hell is a pilsner and is not considered to be a true
Hellbier, as beers brewed in the traditional Munich style have a
malt
Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting".
Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...
ed taste and are slightly darker in appearance.
History
In 2010, three German businessmen, Stefan Fellenberg, Florian Krause and Hans-Jörg Schaller, devised a plan to bring a new beer to market. Krause was originally from
Bad Reichenhall
Bad Reichenhall (; Central Bavarian: ''Reichahoi'') is a spa town, and administrative center of the Berchtesgadener Land district in Upper Bavaria, Germany. It is located near Salzburg in a basin encircled by the Chiemgau Alps (including Mount Stau ...
, a
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
n town over the border from the Austrian village of Fucking. The village's name inspired them to devise a humorous brand name, combined with the German word "Hell" for 'pale lager', and they applied to register a
Community Trade Mark
A European Union trade mark or EU trade mark (abbreviated EUTM; named ''Community Trade Mark'' (''CTM'') until 23 March 2016) is a trade mark which is pending registration or has been registered in the European Union as a whole (rather than on a ...
for "Fucking Hell".
The European Union's
Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office initially refused to grant a trademark for the beer on the grounds that it contained an expletive.
However, Fellenberg and Krause argued that the name referred to the village in Austria and that ''Hell'' was an
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n and
Southern German term for
pale lager
Pale lager is a pale-to- golden lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness.
In the mid-19th century, Gabriel Sedlmayr took British pale ale brewing and malt making techniques back to the Spaten Bre ...
.
The Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office permitted the registration of the trademark, stating that the name was "an interjection used to express a deprecation, but it does not indicate against whom the deprecation is directed, nor can it be considered as reprehensible to use existing place names in a targeted manner (as a reference to the place), merely because this may have an ambiguous meaning in other languages."
Fellenberg and Krause intended to use the trademark as a brand name and use it to produce Fucking Hell branded food and clothing.
The beer went on sale in Europe, Asia and Australia in 2011.
In 2020, it was granted a United States trademark.
See also
*
Beer in Germany
Beer (, ) is a major part of German culture. According the Reinheitsgebot (German beer purity law), only water, hops, yeast and malt are permitted as ingredients in its production. Beers not exclusively using barley-malt, such as wheat beer, ...
*
List of brewing companies in Germany
This is a list of brewing companies in Germany. Beer plays a significant role in the German culture, and for many years, German beer was brewed in strict adherence to the '' Reinheitsgebot'', a regulation that permitted only water, hops, yeast, a ...
*
Helles
Helles or hell is a traditional German pale lager beer, mainly produced in Southern Germany, particularly Munich. The German word ''hell'' can be translated as "bright", "light", or "pale".
Flavour profile
Helles-style beers are typically ...
References
External links
*
Privatbrauerei Waldhaus on the German Wikipedia
*
List of active breweries in Germany on the German Wikipedia {{in lang, de
Products introduced in 2011
Beer brands of Germany
Obscenity controversies