Whilst in Bamberg recently, one of the bottled beers I managed to get my hands on was the delightfully named "Gänstaller Bräu XL4 (experimental lager series) Smoked Imperial India Pale Ale - bottle fermented".
This little mouthful comes from the Gänstaller brewery in Hallerndorf, Oberfranken. The brewery is only 4 years old, so this beer is quite new to the world.
Quite wonderfully, when searching for a "marketing image" of this beer I found the following poster. The fact that the New Zealand flag is proudly crossed with the German one in this image convinced my to stop my search and provide a copy of this little image here. Unless perhaps one of the brewers is a Kiwi, I suspect the flag is a reference to the New Zealand (my country-of-origin) sourced hops which are used in this beer.
The poster gives us a few key facts too, identifying our ABV at 8.2% and conveniently pointing out the bitterness by way of 76 IBUs. As usual, I have taken my own amateur photo of this beer, sitting once again on a porcelain dish, beneath some kitchen lighting.
The beer is a deep orange yellow. Much too dark for a typical lager or even IPA, yet not quite the burnt colours you'd expect from an "ale" ale. No doubt the smoke has had something to do with this.
The nose then, is noticeably smokey. But it isn't overpowering. There is still enough hops and sweeteness coming through. The smokiness seems to be more of a homage to the Rauchbier than a full blown dive off the deep end.
The "smoked IPA" concept is a great idea. I'm generally a fan of experimentation when it comes to beer. There are enough pilseners and lagers in the world. Smoking and IPA is new to me, and I was quite excited to taste this one. In terms of flavour, obviously we have smoke. It's a tiny bit sea-foody too, as one might expect from certain Belgain beers. The combination is excellent. The hops are dancing a merry dance in there too, and not your typical "no holds barred" IPA dance either. These hops are the girl who knows how to dance, but she doesn't make a big fuss about it. This dance is restrained, yet it is not lost in the smokey haze. The balance of these difficult elements is, for me, impeccable.
If this beer is an "experiment" then my advice is to stop the test right now. This little gem needs to be taken out of the lab and released into the wild.
I give this one a 6 out of 7, and I wonder if maybe it deserves a 7.
This little mouthful comes from the Gänstaller brewery in Hallerndorf, Oberfranken. The brewery is only 4 years old, so this beer is quite new to the world.
Quite wonderfully, when searching for a "marketing image" of this beer I found the following poster. The fact that the New Zealand flag is proudly crossed with the German one in this image convinced my to stop my search and provide a copy of this little image here. Unless perhaps one of the brewers is a Kiwi, I suspect the flag is a reference to the New Zealand (my country-of-origin) sourced hops which are used in this beer.
The poster gives us a few key facts too, identifying our ABV at 8.2% and conveniently pointing out the bitterness by way of 76 IBUs. As usual, I have taken my own amateur photo of this beer, sitting once again on a porcelain dish, beneath some kitchen lighting.
The nose then, is noticeably smokey. But it isn't overpowering. There is still enough hops and sweeteness coming through. The smokiness seems to be more of a homage to the Rauchbier than a full blown dive off the deep end.
The "smoked IPA" concept is a great idea. I'm generally a fan of experimentation when it comes to beer. There are enough pilseners and lagers in the world. Smoking and IPA is new to me, and I was quite excited to taste this one. In terms of flavour, obviously we have smoke. It's a tiny bit sea-foody too, as one might expect from certain Belgain beers. The combination is excellent. The hops are dancing a merry dance in there too, and not your typical "no holds barred" IPA dance either. These hops are the girl who knows how to dance, but she doesn't make a big fuss about it. This dance is restrained, yet it is not lost in the smokey haze. The balance of these difficult elements is, for me, impeccable.
If this beer is an "experiment" then my advice is to stop the test right now. This little gem needs to be taken out of the lab and released into the wild.
I give this one a 6 out of 7, and I wonder if maybe it deserves a 7.
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