Beer served in 1 litres only, not halves. Rant!

Unglaublich
I ordered a half liter (Halbe) of bier and the dirndled lady says only maß (1 liter) are the deal. "ja whatever" i says. ( I drink too slowly and the brew gets too hot and loses the crispyness with a liter). so as I am sipping on my maß I see her bring other patrons a halbe. I thinks " WTF?". So I kinda accosted her and asked "wazzup, why they got a halbe and me not?" the reply was it was a nonalcohol bier, and that if I wanted a normal bier, then I had to take a Maß.( I bowed down did the submissive eye thing and said "sorry"..I thought at first it was only conspiracy to piss me off until I read the drink menu. They were for real on this! I am certain there is a lesson in making real drinkers buy a liter and pansy non alcohol drinkers buy a halbe, but I have no idea what the lesson is...Please enlighten me..
PS, I did have some fun..
take care,
space

Yeah usually in the Festzelte you can only get helles in a Maß. If you can stomach weißbier, they are always served in 0,5L and Radler too.

Yes, it's normal.

Also in all larger Munich beer gardens Helles typically only comes as a Maß, where as other drinks can come as Halbes (or whatever size). Exception being Weißbier, here you can choose having either a Maß or Halbes.

I know it's hard to rationalise, but this is indeed perfectly normal behaviour. You will more often than not find that Helles comes only in litres whilst everything else is available in halves too. You will see signs at many beer gardens announcing that Helles is available in halves only until a certain time, after that only the full Mass.

It's not that hard to rationalize. Helles and Weissbier are on tap, so filling Maß glasses rather than half liters saves on loss due to overfoaming. When it's less busy, and they are less prone to overfoaming since they don't have to fill glasses as quickly as possible, you can usually get a half liter in beergartens but not at the festival tents. Alcohol-free beer comes in 0.5 bottles, so is therefore is served in 0.5 glasses.

Also they sell less of the other stuff so they try to maximize profits by selling the stuff that doesn't really sell in Halbe. Halbe are actually more expensive than half the price of a mass. In the end, if you're there for a while, it works out cheaper buying the Mass Helles than buying half liters of other stuff. For most beergarden visitors that's the decisive factor, and they just don't see the point of catering for people who want to drink real beer but not in real amounts.

Sure it's obvious why bottled drinks are decanted into either half or litre glasses according to the wishes of the customer. And Weissbier if it's bottled too. However if it's on tap it's still served in halves, but that's maybe because there's not so much demand for it and no true Bavarian would drink it out of any other than the curvy half-litre glass anyway.
I hadn't thought of the relative losses due to overfoaming though. Generally in my experience they just fill the glass so that the foam stops at the rim or just slops over and it's tough luck if it ends up being only three-quarters full. You can always complain of course in that case though few do.

All very true until you go to the Oktoberfest and you get half a litre of liquid and half a litre of foam...

The fact that somebody refused to sell you a beer smaller than a liter is nothing to rant about atall. Fuck me, its one of the few redeeming features about Bavaria - big beer. Go to Düsseldorf, and be prepared to wait 3 or 4 hours for them to fill up a bloody 125 ml wine glass with foul tasting pils. Then you can rant.

Don't listen to Riina. The beer in Düsseldorf is OK, just a bit small really. Best bet is to order a tray of 20 glasses at a time.

But beware. Once you have finished them they will come and bring a new tray of beers unless you place beer mats on each glass which symbolises that you do not want any more.

Weird as hell.

OK, He may be right about the 3-4 Hour wait or whatever

1) The beer comes in wine glasses
2) They put a lacy fucking paper doilly on the glass
3) Instead of working out the correct gas mix, they löie and tell you that its MEANT to come out of the tap in frothy squirts, and are even PROUD of the fact that it takes 7 minutes to pour a beer. Lame lame lame.
4) They think that Weissbier is clear

OK. The ALTBIER in Düsseldorf is OK. I do not drink PILS unless:

a) The Pub has been drunk dry and you have a choice between Pils and the Washing Up water (which you already tried...)
Well actually a) applies to most situations. Just replace "Pub" with "Party" or "Barbecue" or whatever...

the beer in Düsseldorf is just as good as here, just different. Alt Beer is totally different to anything served in Munich (similar colour to Dunkeles but bitterer) and just like Weißbier you either hate it or love. I preferred to drink Kölsch which is a cardinal sinn in Düsseldorf and difficult to find since it come sfrom Cologne and the the Köllers hate the Düsseldörfer and vice versa.

The advantages of the small glasses? Your beer is always fresh. And the waiters react quicker to your needs. I have never sat with an empty glass in the Rhineland, whereas in Munich it can often be struggle to get served!

And the doilies are only put on Pils glasses. Alt and Kölsch are served in 0,2L straight glasses.

Hiya
One of the few places that stock Kölsch on draught in Munich is the bar/restaurant Schmock in Augustenstr.
I like drinking Kölsch (even though this fact does not impress Herr Indoors in the slightest) but this bar/restaurant comes recommended by me for the beautiful lamb dishes that they serve (and it is a Kosher restaurant if that interests any of you, the connection between Kölsch and Kosher is beyond me though) and if you sit at the bar the Kölsch comes as quickly as it does in Köln (i.e. you get served before you ask).
Alt is nasty but not as bad as Rauchbier bleeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Katrina

Another bar serving Kölsch and Alt is called "Cherie" on Gärtnerplatz

mmmmmm lamb! My favourite. Unfortunately most places (except some very fine Italian restaurants) here in Munich either don't have, ruin it or pass off mutton as lamb.

(I am a bit spoilt when it comes to lamb, since my father breeds a rare-breed of sheep and the lamb they produce it indescribably good).

I will have to try these places out! Thanks for the suggestions!

Edit:

@Katrina:

Just looked at the link you added and couldn't find any lamb on the menu

I talked to some locals and they agreed that this was out of order for this shadeless fest. The reason why is that the Maß is for biergartens with shade trees or bierzelt (bier tent), definitely not in served in the hot summer sun. They also pointed out that only auslanders (me) would agree to such a ridiculus proposition. But hey, I learned alot more bier culture. And i agree it is a minor rant but i did have some substantiation.
prost,
take care,
space