Chinesischer Turm e.V.The vessel makes the difference
Mass mug and Keferloher
A beer garden can be read from its crockery. The glass Mass mug is the picture the world has of Bavaria. The grey Keferloher is the older, quieter vessel and the true mug of beer garden culture.
Beer garden culture
The Mass: one litre, calibrated
The Mass is a unit of measure, not a vessel. Today it holds exactly one litre. The mug it is drunk from is the Mass mug, and it carries a fill line: it is subject to calibration, because a legally defined quantity is sold at the tap. The foam does not count.
In German the word is feminine and spoken short, die Mass, not das Mass. It has to do with measuring, not with the size of the vessel, which is why there is no half Mass in the language but simply die Halbe.
The Keferloher: grey, barrel-shaped, without a lid
The Keferloher is a lidless beer mug of salt-glazed stoneware, barrel-shaped, with straight walls and of that unexcited grey that never looks dirty in a beer garden. The form in common use today holds one litre.
The name comes from the village of Keferloh, today part of Grasbrunn east of Munich. A fair has been held there since 1325, at times the largest gathering of people in the Kingdom of Bavaria before the Oktoberfest overtook it. At that fair people drank from mugs of this kind.
The Keferloher became a fixed term only at the end of the 1870s. The name goes back to the brewery circle around Georg Pschorr, which attached the homely place name to the lidless stoneware mug. In large-scale hospitality the name caught on within a few years.
The older mugs excavated at Keferloh itself were something else again: lead-glazed earthenware, light red-orange, with a volume around 1,100 millilitres. The grey stoneware came later.
Why stoneware makes sense in a beer garden
- Temperature
- Stoneware is thick-walled and keeps the beer cool longer than glass. In the shade of the chestnuts that was the only cooling there was.
- Light
- Opaque stoneware protects the beer from sunlight. That is not nostalgia but protection of taste.
- Durability
- A Keferloher survives clinking and stone tables that shatter glass.
- Weight
- Full, it weighs considerably more than a glass mug. That is the price, and for some the appeal.
The association's Keferloher
The Chinesischer Turm e.V. has Keferloher mugs made specially, bearing the association's emblem. They are not souvenirs but working vessels at the Stammtisch: whoever belongs drinks from the association's mug. In this way the association keeps alive a form that in most beer gardens gave way to glass long ago.
How to hold a Mass mug
Not by the belly but by the handle, with the whole hand, thumb on top. A hand on the glass warms the beer; besides, the handle bears a full kilogram plus mug better than an embrace. When clinking, base meets base or the thickest point of the wall, never the rim. A cracked rim makes the mug unusable and is an audible faux pas in the beer garden.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Mass mug hold?
One litre. The Mass mug is subject to calibration and carries a fill line; the foam does not count.
What is a Keferloher?
A lidless, barrel-shaped beer mug of grey salt-glazed stoneware. Named after the village of Keferloh near Munich, where a fair has been held since 1325.
Where does the name Keferloher come from?
From the village of Keferloh, today part of Grasbrunn. As a name for the mug it caught on at the end of the 1870s, starting from the brewery circle around Georg Pschorr.
Is it die Mass or das Mass?
Die Mass, with a short a. The word denotes the unit of one litre, not the vessel. The vessel is the Mass mug.
Why does stoneware keep beer cooler than glass?
Because the thick wall conducts heat more slowly and the opaque material also protects the beer from sunlight.