Thursday 26 November 2015

Schlossbrauerrei Au-Hallertau Hopfull Dark Ale

Next up is one of the increasing range of Craft beers that have been emerging in Bavaria in recent years. Still slightly behind the craft-beer-craze-curve that has already swept most of the English-speaking beer world, Bayern is now playing a little bit of catchup.

This beer is brewed in the Hallertau region, and it is a Dark Ale.Unsurprisingly, the colour is dark, but the reddish hue is obvious. The brew is slightly opaque too, and the colouration comes through into the head which takes on a creamed tone.



The nose is a combination of hops, some heavy malt and something I can't quite pin down that could be citrus of some kind, or a bitter metallic note.... The slight drawback of this combination is that there is a touch of the old used-dishwater tone about the aroma.

To taste, the bitterness is prominent, skewed with the acidic note that is detectable in the nose. There are the classic nutty flavours in there too, with some of the dark-beer coffee bean piercing the darkness also. However, this is not a "coffee beer", far from it.

The later parts of the flavour linger mostly on the citrus elements. This beer would cut through a mountain cheese perfectly. Based on my own observation above, I promptly opened the fridge and sliced myself some smokey northern Italian cheese. Combined on the taste buds with this beer, I found what can only be described as a win situation.

Overall a nice craft beer. Let down by the aroma somewhat, but made up for by the cheese combo.

4 out of 7.

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