Pretzel Necklace

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago, I spent my weekend imbibing in The Great Atlanta Beer Fest at Turner Field. For a few hours on Saturday, the Atlanta Braves home field turns into a drinkin’, jammin’, and beer slammin’ beer festival. I had a great time, and of course, Instagrammed the whole thing.

A few of you spotted one of my Instagram photos in particular: My pretzel necklace. I got a few comments saying what a great idea it was; that’s funny to me because I thought everybody knew about the genius that is pretzel necklaces! I didn’t invent this concept, but as a beer gal who loves beer tastings, beer festivals, and touring breweries, I’ve seen it many times before.

Basically, you grab some string or baker’s twine and string up a bunch of pretzels before trying it at the ends and hanging it from your neck. Throughout the day, whenever you get a hunger pang or you just want to clear your palette between tastings, just reach down and bite off a pretzel. It’s like a grown-up candy necklace!

They’re packed with symbolism

Because they were inexpensive to make and kept easily, pretzels were often distributed to the poor. They came to be seen as a symbol of good luck, prosperity, and spiritual fulfillment.

The three holes in the traditional pretzel shape have also taken on religious meaning over the years. These are sometimes seen as being representative of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Old History of Pretzel Necklaces

• When Germany enacted its Reinheitsgebot beer purity law—a decree that instructed brewers to only use water, barley, and hops in beer production—in 1516, it’s unlikely that anyone imagined it would spur an enduring beer festival tradition: pretzel necklaces. By that time, German bakers had been making pretzels for centuries.
• “As beer became more and more popular, bakers started to realize they had all the ingredients to make beer as well as bread,” says Mark Stratton, U.S. consultant for German brewery Veltins. “So, bakers in Germany, especially in Bavaria, started making beer alongside pretzels. That’s where the marriage of the two things came together.”
• Those three ingredients became known among brewing monks as the “holy trinity” of beer. They saw the trinity in pretzels, where each hole represented one ingredient and one aspect of the famed religious counterpart. To keep that sacred trinity at heart, 16th-century brewer-monks strung pretzels and wore them around their necks.

• Pretzel necklaces have come a long way. As far back as Stratton remembers, pretzel necklaces were on the scene at Oktoberfest in Germany. They’re a common sight at U.S. beer events like the Great American Beer Festival, Great Lakes Brew Fest, and Great Taste of the Midwest. There, pretzels don’t represent worship, but palate cleansers.
• “At a beer festival, you get in line for the beer you want first,” says Meg Schultz, organizer of Vermont’s SIPtemberfest. “You could have this big chocolate oatmeal stout, and then you want to go over and try a delicate Pilsner. Well, you’re going to need something in between so you can taste [each of] them.”
• Early necklaces were plain, mass-produced pretzels on a string. Now, festival goers try and top other necklaces with ever more creative statement pieces.
• “Beer is part of the food arts world,” says Julia Herz, the former craft beer program director at the Brewers Association, which runs the Great American Beer Festival. “Food is art itself in many forms, and the pretzel necklace is a great convergence of art and food in a very fun form.”
• Pretzel necklace aficionados sit in three distinct social camps. The first are expressive people who look for a good time. They tend to have a veritable grocery store around their necks—artfully arranged pretzels alongside cheese, sausage, pizza slices, or even entire Lunchables. The bigger and more elaborate the necklace, to them, the more you love both beer and a party.

• It can even turn into a unique mating ritual, where people may try to attract a partner with ever-more-flamboyant necklaces.
• Schultz calls the next group “the serious beer-mission folks.” They arrive with a list of beers to taste at the festival and a strict plan. “They’re here for the beer, and the necklace is just a means to an end at that point,” she says.
• Some of these attendees, Stratton says, are part of beer guilds and groups. They use medallions that represent their organization to separate pretzels on their necklaces.
• And the third group? People who don’t wear pretzel necklaces at all. In fact, they actively hate them. In a 2014 article in First We Feast, writer Aaron Goldfarb says pretzel necklaces are a way to “ID all the bozos.” Graham Averill agreed at Paste, as he compared the wearers to “four-year-old girls with those candy bracelets and lollipop rings.”
• Schultz’s opinion? The haters are secretly jealous because they’re too afraid to wear a necklace of their own.
• But regardless of whether they’re used as a drinking aid, fashion accessory, or source of identity, the necklaces remain a surprisingly functional part of beer festival culture.
• “Moderating sips between bites is a good way to practice responsible and enjoyable appreciation,” says Herz. “And any time you see someone wearing a pretzel necklace, they’re probably in a damn good mood.”

Conclusion

Any time you see someone wearing a pretzel necklace, they’re probably in a damn good mood. They were inexpensive to make and kept easily, pretzels were often distributed to the poor. They came to be seen as a symbol of good luck, prosperity, and spiritual fulfillment.

Basically, you grab some string or baker’s twine and string up a bunch of pretzels before trying it at the ends and hanging it from your neck. Throughout the day, whenever you get a hunger pang or you just want to clear your palette between tastings, just reach down and bite off a pretzel. It’s like a grown-up candy necklace!