When my dad was in Germany for a stint, he consumed a ton of beer, as it is part of the culture. None of the big names were the beers consumed. Most of the beers served at the eateries that he and the others frequented came from a menu featuring a wide variety of local brews and my understanding from the Brewmaster at a local place here, who travels to Munich to sample various hops frequently, is that this is the common practice there. That each "area" has its own cross-section of small breweries that have their own unique products that taste the way they do because of the water used, where the hops are grown...etc. It is essentially a culture of local micro breweries which serve their surrounding areas. Now, this may not be the case for the large urban centres of course.