Bierstacheln is the German practice or sticking a red hot iron into a stein or mug of beer. Have you ever done it or had it done to a serving of beer you quaffed?

The origin of this practice is said to be that during Germany's winter months, when beer got too cold to drink comfortably, an ingenious blacksmith got the brainstorm to stir the drink with a tool of his (yes, very probably his) trade. If you have drank or would try beer that has undergone bierstacheln would you prefer it be done with a blacksmith's implement or one of the specially-designed spikes now available to administer the process?

How the process works? A bierstacheln spike is heated to 600 degrees Celsius and immersed into a beer and stirred a bit. The procedure caramelizes the complex sugar in the beer's excess grains, producing a beverage that's not longer cold but possessed of a warm, marshmallow-like consistency with concentrated malt flavor. It' works especially well with daker beers with especially high alcohol content, like bocks. A slow stir of four-to-five seconds' duration should suffice; any longer, and the brew's remaining carbon dioxide will be removed, resulting in a flat, foamy drink. Even if I never get to imbibe any bierstacheln-administered beer, it looks like it would be a fun process to observe. Agreed?

I've enjoyed non-alcoholic beers brewed in a darker fashion to mimic the look, taste and consistency of the bocks and ales the articles I've read about bierstacheln say work best for it. I am , however, unsure whether the booze in the brew is necessary for the caramelization to occur. If it would work with NA beer, would you try--or, have you tried--bierstacheln without alcohol?

Would it surprise you at all to learn that I discovered bierstacheln from a polka music radio show?