Chinesischer Turm e.V.The vessel makes the difference
Mass mug and Keferloher
You can read a beer garden by its crockery. The glass Mass mug is the picture the world has of Bavaria. The grey Keferloher is the older, quieter vessel, and for many it remains the true mug of the beer garden.
Beer garden culture
The Mass: one litre, calibrated
The Mass is a measure of volume, not a vessel. Today it stands for exactly one litre; the old Bavarian Mass, at a little over 1.06 litres, was a touch more generous. The mug that goes with it is the Mass mug, and it carries a fill line, because what is sold is a quantity fixed by law. The foam does not count.
In German the word is feminine and, in Bavaria, spoken with a short vowel: die Maß, not das Maß. Half of it is simply called die Halbe.
The Keferloher: grey, barrel-shaped, without a lid
The Keferloher is a lidless beer mug of salt-glazed stoneware, barrel-shaped rather than bellied, in that unexcited grey which never looks dirty in a beer garden. In the form common today it holds one litre.
It takes its name from Keferloh, today part of Grasbrunn, east of Munich. A market is documented there from 1325, and for a long time it counted as the largest gathering of people in Bavaria, until the Oktoberfest overtook it around the middle of the 19th century. People drank from clay mugs at that market, and it was the market that came to mind when the stoneware mug later needed a name.
The Keferloher became a fixed term only at the end of the 1870s. It was then that the brewer Georg Pschorr, or those around him, named the lidless one-litre stoneware mug his businesses had introduced after the old market town. The name stuck.
The older mugs dug up at Keferloh itself were, incidentally, something else again: lead-glazed earthenware holding around 1,100 millilitres. The grey stoneware came later.
Why stoneware makes sense in a beer garden
- Temperature
- The thick wall takes up warmth more slowly than thin glass, so the beer stays fresh for longer. In the shade of the chestnuts that was for a long time the only cooling at the table.
- Light
- Opaque stoneware keeps out the sunlight that spoils the taste of beer. That is not nostalgia but chemistry.
- Durability
- A Keferloher forgives a hearty clink that would splinter thinner glass.
- Weight
- You feel what a full mug weighs by the second Mass at the latest. That is the price, and for some the appeal.
The association's Keferloher
The Chinesischer Turm e.V. has had its own Keferlohers made, bearing the association's emblem. They are not souvenirs but everyday vessels at the Stammtisch: whoever belongs with us drinks from the association's mug. So a form stays in use that in many 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, and a litre plus its mug sits more securely by the handle than in a clutch. You clink with the body of the mug, never the rim. A chipped rim makes the mug unusable, and the whole table hears it happen.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Mass mug hold?
One litre. It carries a fill line, and the foam does not count.
What is a Keferloher?
A lidless, barrel-shaped beer mug of grey, salt-glazed stoneware. It is named after Keferloh near Munich, where a market is documented from 1325.
Where does the name Keferloher come from?
From the village of Keferloh, today part of Grasbrunn. As a name for the mug the word came into use at the end of the 1870s, in the circle of the brewer Georg Pschorr.
Is it die Maß or das Maß?
Die Maß, spoken in Bavaria with a short a. The word denotes the measure of one litre; the vessel that goes with it is the Mass mug.
Why does stoneware keep beer cooler than glass?
Because the thick wall takes up warmth more slowly, and the opaque material also shields the beer from sunlight.