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RUSS
AKA:
Russ'n, Russ'n Mass
Pronunciation guide for English-speakers:
"Rooss" (as in "rooster")
Definition:
A 50/50 mixture of pale filtered or unfiltered wheat ale (Weissbier) and
lemon soda or lemonade. It is not imported into North America.
Related beer style:
Radlermass, Alsterwasser
Russ—A Tart
and Spritzy Beer-Mix Drink
Russ is a 50/50 mixture of Weissbier and clear lemon soda or lemonade. It
took an amendment to the German federal beer tax law, which took effect
on January 1, 1993, to make the merchandizing of Russ as a finished product
legal in Germany. Because the German Beer Purity Law (the Reinheitsgebot)
forbids the use of anything but malted barley or wheat, hops, water, and
yeast in beer, before 1993, Russ could be made in beer gardens and at home
only if blended on the spot, out of two separate containers. As a concept,
Russ is related to Radlermass or Alterwasser. It is a Bavarian invention
intended for Weissbier lovers who are looking for their favorite beer flavor,
but with less alcohol and umph for the hot months of summer. There are several
fanciful, and not always flattering, explanations as to how the beverage
acquired its unusual name.
According to one theory, the
beverage emerged during the post-WWI inflation years of 1919 to 1923, when
brew raw materials were scarce and brewers tried to stretch what they had.
To make do, they brewed a rather weak (and thus less flavorful) Weissbier,
but added a good dose of lemanade to cover up the anemic nature of their
offering. Because the
lemonade made this concoction sweeter than a regular beer,
it became the favorite drink of Russian emigrant industrial and farm laborers
who were used to sweetened tea at home. The locals called the mix a "Russ´n-Maß,"
which is Bavarian dialect for a "Russian liter-stein."
After another explanation, Russ used to be called "Riesen-Mass" (German for "giant's liter-stein"), because the lemonade made the Weissbier foam aplenty and made it look bigger than it really was. During the Third Reich, when Russians were much in disdain by the political rulers, the Riesen-Mass was mangled to the derogatory Russ´n-Mass, which in modern times was shortened to Russ.
The most probable explanation, however, postulates that the Russ´n-Mass—or simply "Russ´n"—was a child of the leftist revolutionary movement that swept Germany in 1918. The first Russ´n allegedly was served in the Munich Mathäser Bräuhaus, a beer hall that was the regular meeting place of the local Communists after the First World War. Apparently, the Communist hot-heads talked so much when they met—and cooled their parched throats so much with Weissbier—that they started to run out of that delicious lubricant of inflammatory discourse. Besides, their egalitarian "ober-comrades" were worried that the proletarian masses were simply getting too much alcohol for effective revolutionary action (and depleting the party's coffers in the process). So the order was given to dilute the Weissbier with a cheaper and less intoxicating liquid...lemonade.
As it turned out, you did not have to be a Communist to like the new creation. The common folk of Munich, too, took a shine to it. And because they called their Communist fellow citizens "Russ´n" (Russians) because of the revolutionaries' allegiance to Lenin's emerging Soviet Union, the epithet was soon transposed to the drink the left-wing rebels had invented in their beer hall.
In North America, Russ is not imported, but you can mix your own by blending a Hefeweizen (unfiltered) or a Kristallweizen (filtered) with an equal portion of clear lemon soda or lemonade.
