I was in Marburg a couple of years ago. It's a college town. I was in a college bar and we had many pitchers of beer and watched lots of beer poured in glasses. Never noticed anything taking that long. We didn't order any Pils. One thing we took note of was that every pitcher came with fresh glasses that had the name of the brew on it. The pitchers were dirt cheap and the beer was awesome.

Cool candles too...

What you're referring to is a hand pump beer. It's found here in the US at a lot of microbreweries. I often see it advertised as "on the firkin" which is a bit of a misnomer. A firkin is just a small barrel, which is usually what the hand pour is poured from. When I've had it with beers they normally pour via conventional methods it is as you've described.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=...ugfUM7NXofCRhtsRBC3j

quote:

Originally posted by ubelongoutside:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=...ugfUM7NXofCRhtsRBC3j

That was a terrible pour. He needed to give it another pump. While that would result in much of the head rising above the top of the glass, that's why there were beer combs (aka foam scrapers, foam skimmers, head cutters, etc.) used in combination with these older style beer engines.

The beer in Germany seems to have much more carbonation in general which makes for a slower pour and thick head.

American beer isn’t as carbonated, I’ve been to craft beer bars where it’s virtually flat which I’m not a fan of, I much prefer the German style.