News Discussion
Alcohol-free Beer Becomes More Popular in Germany


Weekly News Digest
ニュースディスカッション教材

Alcohol-free Beer Becomes More Popular in Germany

今回はドイツで人気が高まるノンアルコールビールの記事です。ドイツといえばビールやオクトーバーフェストを思い浮かべる人も多いですよね。そんなビール大国でも、近年は健康志向やライフスタイルの変化からノンアルコールを選ぶ人が増えています。文中の「evaporate」は「蒸発させる」という意味で、evaporate water(水を蒸発させる)、evaporate alcohol(アルコールを蒸発させる)のように使います。お酒を飲まなくても楽しめる選択肢が広がることについて、あなたはどう思いますか?

1.Article

Directions: Read the following article aloud.

The head brewmaster for Weihenstephan, the world’s oldest brewery, has a secret.

The secret is that he really likes to drink alcohol-free beer.

Tobias Zollo is quick to say that he enjoys real beer more. Still, the expert brewer says he enjoys alcohol-free beer when he is working.

Alcohol-free beer has the same taste as usual beer but has fewer calories, he said.

The caloric reduction is a result of the brewery’s process of evaporating the alcohol.

“You can’t drink beer every day — unfortunately,” he joked recently at the Bavarian state brewery in the German town of Freising, located about 31 kilometers north of Munich.

Zollo is not alone in his enjoyment for alcohol-free beer. The drink has been gaining popularity in recent years as interest in the alcoholic version decreases.

Christian monks established Weihenstephan as a brewery in 1040. The operation began to produce non-alcoholic wheat beer and lager in the 1990s. Now those non-alcoholic drinks account for 10 percent of its total beer production. The same is true, generally, across Germany’s beer industry.

“The people are unfortunately — I have to say that as a brewer — unfortunately drinking less beer,” Zollo said recently. He spoke the day before the start of Oktoberfest, a 16-day celebration held yearly in Munich.

Zollo said that if there is a way to offer a choice that has “the crisp and fresh taste from a typical Weihenstephan beer, but just as a non-alcoholic version, we want to do that.”

Celebrants can choose that version at all but two of the 18 large tents at the event. The alcohol-free beer will cost the same as an alcoholic beer.

Oktoberfest celebrant Mikael Caselitz of Munich seemed to approve of the drink choices.

“For people who don’t like to drink alcohol and want to enjoy the Oktoberfest as well, I think it’s a good option,” he said.

The 24-year-old continued, “Sometimes people feel like they have more fun with alcohol, which is not a good thing because you can also have fun without alcohol...If you want to come and drink alcohol-free beer, nobody will judge you.”

Oktoberfest began in the early 1800s.

This year marked the first time an alcohol-free beer garden opened in Munich. “Die Null,” which means “the zero” in German, served non-alcoholic beer and other alcohol-free drinks near the city’s main train station this summer.

Walter König is managing director of the Society of Hop Research. He said researchers have had to create special hops for alcohol-free beer. If brewers use the usual hops for alcohol-free beer, the special smell gets lost when the alcohol is reduced during the brewing process.

But alcohol-free beer buyers do not care about that, König said recently as he prepared for Oktoberfest. He explained, “They only want to know that what they are tasting is as good as traditional beers with alcohol."

Stefanie Dazio reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.



Source:Alcohol-free Beer Becomes More Popular in Germany VOA

本教材は、the U.S. Agency for Global Mediaより許諾を得て、産経ヒューマンラーニング株式会社が編集しています。

テキストの無断転載・無断使用を固く禁じます 。

Weekly News Digest
ニュースディスカッション教材

2.Key phrases and vocabulary

First repeat after your tutor and then read aloud by yourself.

  1. 1. evaporate (v.) the process of removing a liquid by turning it into a gas
    In these salt ponds, salt is made by evaporating water using the heat from sunlight.
  2. 2. brewery (n.) a factory where beer is made
    The restaurant was originally a brewery, and now it serves both food and locally made beer.
  3. 3. establish (v.) to start or create (a business or an organization)
    This school was established over a hundred years ago.
  4. 4. account for (v.) to be one fraction or one part of something bigger
    Chinese account for almost a quarter of all visitors to Japan.
  5. 5. judge (v.) to think or say something negative; criticize
    You should not judge someone from their appearance.

3.Questions

Read the questions aloud and answer them.

  1. 1. In what ways is non-alcoholic beer different from normal beer?
  2. 2. How have tastes in beer changed in Germany?
  3. 3. What is Oktoberfest, and how available is non-alcoholic beer there?
  4. 4. Why do you think non-alcoholic beer is becoming so popular?
  5. 5. Oktoberfest visitor Mikael Caselitz said, “Sometimes people feel like they have more fun with alcohol, which is not a good thing because you can also have fun without alcohol.” Do you agree or disagree with his opinion?

本教材は、the U.S. Agency for Global Mediaより許諾を得て、産経ヒューマンラーニング株式会社が編集しています。

テキストの無断転載・無断使用を固く禁じます 。