I Didn’t Know What Underberg Was, And I Was Too Afraid To Ask: The Story Behind Craft Beer’s Favorite Herbal Digestif

Have You Seen This Digestif?

If you’ve been to a lot of breweries or taprooms, odds are you may have noticed tiny bottles wrapped in brown paper behind the bar. If you’ve spent enough time at these places, you may have witnessed customers buying these tiny bottles and shaking them directly into their mouths, often accompanied by the bartender. If you’re observant, you may have noticed the bartender collecting the green caps after everyone’s finished their doses. If you’re like me, you never asked what the hell was going on. 

I first encountered Underberg under these exact conditions in 2018 at a craft beer bar in Columbus, Ohio. I didn’t order one, nor did I ask. I was new to craft beer (and drinking), and everyone was shooting them with the self-assuredness of an inside joke, and I dared not interrupt. In the years following, I saw the same ritual unfolding across a number of breweries, taprooms and bottle shops. Still, I kept to myself.

It wasn’t until 2023 while working at a taproom that I found out what they were. I showed up for my usual opening shift one day where that week’s beer delivery was waiting for me. Amongst all the expected arrivals for the week, there was a 30-pack of Underberg herbal bitters. At the time, the taproom only had two employees; my manager didn’t order it, and I hadn’t asked him to. The shipment was from one of our distributors who had a reputation for adding items to our orders, throwing in this-or-that item because you have to have it. Apparently, that was the case with Underberg. In his own words, “You’re not a taproom if you don’t sell Underberg.” Surely enough, it sold.

They were the same 20 ml glass bottles wrapped in brown paper that I had come to recognize. Only now, they were going to be behind my bar, and I was supposed to be the bartender (or beertender) chugging them with the customers. Finally holding a box of them in my own hand, I read that Underberg is a German herbal digestif produced in Rheinberg, consisting of herbs sourced from 43 different countries. Oh, and it’s 44% ABV. 

A Liqueur Loophole

In theory, the taproom where I worked shouldn’t have been allowed to sell something that strong, nor should any brewery or taproom that’s not licensed to sell liquor, which would be most of them. The twist was that, according to the FDA, Underberg is considered a food product, perhaps because of its alleged stomach-settling qualities, perhaps because it would take three individual bottles to equal one standard shot, or perhaps because it would take strong determination and an even stronger stomach to get drunk off them.

After tasting one for myself, I could attest to its medicinal qualities, or rather, its medicinal flavor. The concoction is aggressively herbal, with prominent notes of anise and licorice. It’s thick, too. Imagine a standard bottle of Fernet-Branca boiled and reduced to a tiny container that could fit in the palm of your hand. The opening of the bottle is so narrow that you have to shake the individual drops out if you want to minimize the tongue-coating experience to just a few seconds. 

Because of this culinary designation, Underberg can be sold anywhere. You can find it at breweries, taprooms, gas stations, grocery stores or even eBay, where local alcohol-shipping laws don’t apply. 

Of course, other products have tried to fill the role of “liquor for venues that can’t sell liquor,” from malt-based Fireball to “Hardwater.” Still, none of them managed to carve out a foothold in craft beer establishments like Underberg has. But it seems like this is not due to a lack of high-gravity options, as there are plenty of beers approaching 20% ABV sold in containers ranging from 8 oz cans to 750 ml bombers. So what is it about Underberg that has so many craft-based establishments allocating valuable shelf space to an herbal bitter? 

The Beertender’s Handshake

Colin Miller, the general manager of Ology Brewing in Tallahassee, Florida, had his first Underberg in 2014 while working at a craft beer bar in Galway, Ireland. A manager of his had grown fond of the digestif while visiting Germany and was eager to share. Having already been a fan of “the weirdest, super herbal liqueurs” like Fernet and Jägermeister, Miller was not put off by its intense herbal profile. 

Before Miller’s tenure, Ology had sold Underberg in their taproom since it opened in 2017. When Miller took over in 2020, the taproom was just beginning to resume normal operations after COVID shutdowns. During the shutdown, the supply of Underberg had run out and had not been replaced. After finding a box of Underberg caps, Miller decided to bring the digestif back as one of his first actions as general manager. 

As Miller noted, in craft beer bars across the globe, “It was the bartenders who found a way to bastardize it,” treating the herbal digestif as a shot. At Ology, it’s the bartenders who seem to be the most fervent consumers of Underberg: “It’s one of those things where when we all get together, if there’s four of us in the same room, we say, let’s do this real quick!” and herbal shots commence. Stockholm syndrome may also play a more-than-minor role in its grip on brewery and taproom workers: “Most of the bartenders, when they start [drinking Underberg], don’t like [it]… but because it’s usually one of the shots we buy, they eventually will get a craving for it… It’ll wear you down.” Looking for a comparison, he noted, “It’s like how Fernet is the bartender’s handshake, there’s just that subculture.” Naturally, that would make ordering a round of Underberg the beertender’s handshake. Bartenders are also the most likely to instigate unsuspecting patrons at the bar to join a round. 

Apparently, most customers are like me in their reluctance to ask about the tiny brown bottles. As Miller noted, “it’s very infrequent for a customer to order one out of the blue… it’s more fun for me when you get a group of people in and one person knows what it is and says to their friends, ‘Oh, you don’t know what Underberg is?’ and then buys a round for everyone (hopefully they’ll ask the bartender as well) and we all sit there and see all their faces when they do it—it’s really funny.” Most—but not all—reactions are adverse: “It’s not even 50/50, it’s probably 60/40 for the people who really hate it, yet every now and then you have the people who say, ‘I really like that.’” In an effort to get more people in on the joke, they even modified the taproom’s set of Uno cards, with one reading, “Draw 4 or take an Underberg.” At the very least, it gets patrons asking.

Ironically, around the time Miller took over, Ology began distilling operations and started selling their own spirits in the taproom. In theory, this made the need to sell Underberg as a substitute for shots irrelevant. Still, Underberg persists as a favorite among staff and regulars. The bottles are still featured prominently behind the bar where they continue to be ordered, unwrapped, uncapped and chugged.

Cap Culture

In my efforts to understand Underberg, the cap hoarding was one of the last things I picked up on and the first thing that Miller noticed when he arrived at Ology. So why collect them?

As a sales incentive, Underberg implemented a loyalty program in which customers could exchange their caps of Underberg past for merchandise. At the moment, the cheapest items available are a key chain and a nostalgic metal sign, both “capping in” at 48 caps. The most expensive piece of merchandise is the Underberg Giant Herb Mobile XXL, a huge 25 kg model truck. It’ll only set you back 25,000 Underberg caps. 

For Miller, Underberg merchandise has been part of the fun all along. Through cap redemption as well as personal connections, he’s managed to acquire several absurdly long-stemmed Underberg glasses as well as the since-retired “Underberg bandolier” (picture a wild west cowboy’s sash full of bullets, but sub in the micro-bottles of digestif).

Behind the bar at Ology, the individual bottles of Underberg rest atop a branded receptacle meant to hold the saved caps, which was itself perhaps redeemed from the rewards program. Soon, Miller hopes to cash in several years’ worth of caps for “the most obnoxious one that everyone strives for, the XXL truck… that’s a lot of Underberg.”

Digesting It All

Loopholes and merchandise aside, in theory, the digestif could actually serve a purpose. While neither Miller, myself nor any other taproom lurker can formally attest to any of Underberg’s medicinal qualities, as Miller noted, the herbal profile might actually help to settle your stomach. He also noted that it could just be a placebo effect. Additionally, it’s possible that the intense and jarring flavors could also help to “wake up” your taste buds to better appreciate the subtleties of each beer you drink, but those details rarely make the pitch.

Nonetheless, any medicinal or gastronomic advantages to this digestif are sheerly incidental. At the end of the day, whether it’s for legal or cultural reasons, Underberg remains “a speakeasy in a bottle,” in Miller’s words. Still, when asked why he continues to carry and sell Underberg, the fastest answer he can come up with is, “Kind of just to make me laugh—I like [it].” The next time you see Underberg behind the bar, don’t be afraid to ask, and don’t forget to order one for your bartender too. Most importantly, prepare to laugh—or be laughed at.