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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Schneider Weisse TAP7 Original

Back in July I posted that I was going to review some of the schneider series. Well, I finally got around to typing this one up, the Tap7 Original Weizen.

This wheat beer has a deep and slightly turbid reddish brown colour. The head is very solid, and it hangs around for quite some time. A classic weizen, as far as appearances go. As per usual, here is my photographical representation.

The nose is yeasty like sweet bread and there is a small amount of a vegetable aroma, reminiscent of a small fruit and veg shop.

The flavour is springy, well hopped, with a tart/ sour element. It leans ever so slightly in the direction of a lembic beer. After this zesty start there is some sweetenss, and then tropical fruit. Then, right at the end it goes on to matching the aroma from the nose, a yeasty sweet bread. This one could almost pass for a winter beer in that respect.

I was quite content with this flavoursome, if not oustanding beer.

4 out of 7

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KuchlBauer Helles

The Kuchlbauer Helles is a mildly-yellow coloured Helles. Kuchlbauer is a reallz superb brewery with much of the site's architecture influenced by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. See here for some images.

Here is my photo of this Helles, in glass, on balcony.

The beer gives a wide-bubbled head from its moderate carbonation.

The nose on this one is slightly grassy with a touch of what I am going to call "tannin" - a sort of metallic astringency.

The taste is sweet, as you'd expect from a Helles with a mellow hoppiness, which is then tempered by a medium dry toffee flavour - not sugary but caramel nonetheless. This beer is mild enough to allow fast drinking whilst still carrying flavour for savoring. I'd say this is a good option as a post-lawn-mowing beer (if you mow lawns...).

I give this beer a very solid 4 out of 7

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Braumeister Edition No. 3: „Bockiger Bazi“

It's rare that I taste a beer from one of the large breweries in Munich, but this weekend I spotted a limited edition brew from Paulaner, and I was sufficiently curious to give it a whirl.

The style of this beer is "Bock", Google it if you don't know it. The advertising people have put out this little image of the beer, and glass:

I, on the other hand, am "putting out" this little image of the beer, and glass, and balcony table in-the-sun:

As you can see, the beer is a muddy reddish-brown. It's not very transparent, evidence of non-filtration. The head carries a little of the colour, just leaning towards a lighter shade of caramel.

The aroma is inviting. It has some sweetened coffee tones mingled with a touch of floral (there's that word again) hops. The long end of the aroma has the slightest toe-tap of sweet fresh lake water to it. Not in a clammy weedy sense, but like an alpine stream fed lake.

The flavours are at first tropical almost. Perhaps pineapple and passion-fruit. There's almost no bitterness at all. Then you get a nice waft of late-season apple or ripe banana.

This is a fruity beer, one of the fruitiest I have tasted in a long while. It could pass as a sweet Weizen without too much tinkering. I would say it is let down by the lack of bitterness, something a little more "herb" would give it a full and rounded finish.

I award 4 out of 7.

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Erlbräu Erlkönig

"Dem Vater grauset's, er reitet geschwind,

Er hält in Armen das ächzende Kind,

Erreicht den Hof mit Müh' und Not;

In seinen Armen das Kind war tot."

The above text is from a poem by Goethe,  after which this beer appears to be named. The beer is brewed by Erlbräu,  in Niederbayern.  

Served from a 500 ml bottle, this is a lightly coloured pale yellow Helles. 5% of the volume of this beer is alcohol, and marketing people have decided that it looks like this;

When opened and poured into a glass at a turkish Döner-kebab diner in Laaber,  it looks like this; 

This is a well balanced beer in terms of flavour. Sweet, a touch bitter and with some gentle nuttiness for good measure. The overall mellow nature of this one means that it will struggle for memorability. However,  it is a very competent beer.

I willingly award this one 4 out of 7.

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Hacker-Pschorr Superior

The "Superior" by Hacker-Pschorr is a seasonal fest-bier. This particular festival being Christmas, hence the snowy picture on the label. Basically it is a Helles (lager) but it is stronger in flavour and in ABV when compared to the usual garden varieties of Helles.

From the city of Munich (Oberbayern), Hacker-Pschorr claims to have been around since 1417. Now that we've got the boring bits out of the way...

Here's how the marketing types want you to see this beer; note the blurry chap in the background, no doubt enjoying himself:

And here is how the Bottle&Glass combo looks when I take a photo of it. With a crappy camera. In bad lighting. Next to a pot plant.

The pour is a rich yellowish-hay colour. My girlfriend advises me that hay is green. I beg to differ. Hay, is a sort of pale yellowish brown. On second thought, hay is probably too pale. Let's go with "rich yellow"...

It didn't detect much in the way of smell from this one. It is, shall we say, "clean" in that department. In light of the aroma I was not expecting a bitter beer. True to form, it isn't bitter. It sits on the sweeter side of Lagers. I could almost imagine peaches in there.. but let's not allow the imagination to run too wild. I must confess that I started this beer after a hot chilli meal. It was a rather good accompaniment. However I finished the bottle sometime later, after the chilli had worn off. By that point the slightly-sweet-but-clean finish left me slightly wanting. Wanting hops.

Overall a solid strong lager. Probably best for folks who don't drink darker beers, but still want a little extra ABV in the winter months.

I rate this one a weak 4 out of 7.

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Weißenoher bonifatius

This evening I put The Weißenhoher Bonifatius to the test.
This beer is a monastery brew (Klosterbier) from Oberfranken, in the north of Bavaria.

Here is what the beer looks like in advertising material:

The bottle is standard half Liter, sporting 5.1% ABV of "Dunkles" (dark) Beer.
I would add that the beer itself is tilted towards the Reddish side of Dunkles. It doesn't take much lighting to turn her into a glowing red ale, at least as far as appearances are concerned. Here's how a poured bottle looks, on a window-sill, in the evening with a dirty window behind it:

Flavour-wise I get some nice messages from this little number between the receptors on my tongue and the part of my brain that does the processing. The beer is mild and mellow. I get the feeling that it has one shoulder leaning on a sack of nuts, whilst staring longingly at a stick of slightly burnt toffee. The only slight downside is a tinge of something metallic at the long end of the taste. But this is easily remedied by putting another mouthful down the hatch before it can materialise.

The Bonifatius is a good drop. I could happily down a couple of these, and if I drank Islay whisky, I suspect this beer would make an excellent accompaniment.

On the "what's it like" scale, I'd give this beer a 4 out of 7. But it is pushing firmly towards the 5 mark.

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