What is that german word? Farviewenbier?

April 28, 2007 2:29 PM

What is the German word for a beer enjoyed at the top of a summit that you have just climbed?

So, a few months ago, my wife and I hiked over the summit of Mt Tongariro. When we reached the summit and were enjoying the view, we saw two German gentlemen enjoying beers and the view (and we wished that we'd had that sort of foresight). They told us that this was a traditional thing for German hikers to do on top of mountains that they summit, and they even had a specific word for the beer enjoyed on such an occasion. It was a long compound word (perhaps t he words for beer and mountaintop smooshed together). It was a noun: "We are drinking our _______ at the edge of the red crater".

What was this word? And what do you know of the tradition of drinking a beer on the summit? Or were they just pulling our legs?

posted by toxic to grab bag (6 comments total)

Yummenbierzen.

Heh. no, that's a lie. I've tried multiple searches, and I'm not seeing any suggestion of this anywhere on Google, so I'm wondering if they were indeed pulling your leg?
posted by Malor at 2:57 PM on April 28, 2007

I never heard of such a tradition in my time in Germany, and they might totally be pulling your leg but on a whim I searched for Gipfelbier ("summit beer'). I got 702 hits on Google and 7 photos on Flickr that seem to depict the scenario.

Awesome title, btw.
posted by sueinnyc at 3:08 PM on April 28, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Gipfelbier or Gipfelhalbe (Halbe = half a liter of beer), it's simply a reward for having made it to the top, Gipfelschnaps is also common.
posted by snownoid at 3:19 PM on April 28, 2007

Sueinnyc is correct. Prost!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:47 PM on April 28, 2007

Maybe related: There's a small beer company from here in the Twin Cities called Summit, most well known for Summit Extra Pale Ale. I always assumed it was named after Summit Ave. Turns out the brewery is not even on Summit ave. Their website doesn't explain the origin of the name. Maybe it's named after Summit ave. Maybe after the traditional German beer. Maybe both. Maybe neither.
posted by gauchodaspampas at 4:08 PM on April 28, 2007

"Peak Beer."

The phrase itself makes me shudder.
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:21 PM on April 29, 2007