Germany and US enjoy close trade ties, with the US becoming Germany's main trading partner last year. The road to this close relationship has been a long and winding one.

Germany and the US enjoy close economic ties, a lively cultural exchange and many shared values. But it's only when the going gets tough that the true nature of a friendship is revealed. And recent years have taken their toll on German-US relations.

United Parcel Service wants to be a world leader. Germany is its biggest market in the EU, and Frank Sportolari is managing director of UPS Germany.

What are the commonalities and differences between Germans and Americans? We talk with Irwin Collier, economics professor the Berlin's Free University.

We speak with Nina Anika Klotz, a beer sommelier and editor of the Hopfenhelden beer magazine.

In 1516, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria decreed that beer should only be brewed from barley, hops and water. This purity law brought German brewers worldwide success. But 500 years on, some rebels are trying to add more variety and new ingredients to German beer.

Upper Franconia is a paradise for beer lovers. The region of around a million inhabitants boasts over 200 breweries, giving it the highest number of breweries per capita in the world. Here beer is mostly brewed the traditional way. Made in Germany takes a look behind the scenes of the Grosch brewery.

Almost one in every four beers consumed around the world was made in the breweries of corporate giant Anheuser-Busch InBev. It owns around 200 beer brands. ABInBev is a force to be reckoned with in the beer market.

The Research and Teaching Institute for Brewing in Berlin was founded in 1883. Because Germany is world-renowned for the art of brewing beer, most of the institute's students come from abroad.

Nowhere else in Germany do they adhere to the purity law as strictly as Bavaria. And that's a big problem for breweries who want to create new kinds of beer to combat stagnating demand. But that kind of creativity isn't allowed.