Why does Texas love an "ice cold one" with their BBQ?

Facing economic turmoil in the 19th century, Germans were lured by letters describing the untapped potential of Texas. They chose to leave Europe amidst growing economic problems and overpopulation, launching a massive migration to the eventual state of Texas.

Although there were a few Germans in Texas when the area was under Spanish and Mexican rule, the first permanent settlement of Germans was in Austin County, established by Friedrich Ernst and Charles Fordtran in the early 1830s. Ernst wrote a letter to a friend in his native Oldenburg which was published in the newspaper there. His description of Texas was so influential in attracting German immigrants to that area that he is remembered as "The Father of German Immigration to Texas." By the 1840s, the social, economic, and technological conditions in Germany, coupled with the availability of lands in Texas frontier, created an ideal climate for an influx of immigrants.

Where there are Germans, there is beer and still to this day, Germany is the largest brewing and beer consumption country, per capita, in the world, second only to Ireland. The German immigrants brought their old family recipes and techniques, eventually changing the beer industry in America forever. Along with their strict beer brewing technique, came a very refined art for butchering, sausage making and smoking meat. These old butcher shops and meat markets would eventually create what is known today as Texas BBQ, or more specifically Hill Country BBQ.