Giesinger Doppel Alt

Today I tried the Doppel-Alt from Giesinger Brewery in Munich. This brew is one of 8 craft beers I bought from Getränke Fleischmann in Ergolding, which has an outstanding rage of Craft beers, many from Bavaria.

So, Vorwärts, Männer, to the beer!

The Doppel-Alt has a deep muddy brown hue. The head is smooth and light, reminiscent of the crema on a well made espresso. 

The nose is floral, with a complex mix of coffee and citrus. The full hop notes are matched by toffee or honey at the end. Overall the nose promises much.

The flavour is light with enough room for malt to come through. There is a mild bready, toastiness to it. The above average 7% alcohol does not overpower the mouth, masked by the readily apparent smoothness. That said, the flavour does not quite live up tot he expectations aroused by the nose.  Despite that moderate contradiction, there is enough bitterness at the long-end of the flavour to balance things off.

Overall, a quality craft ale that could do with just a touch more punch in the mouth.

I hand the 5 out of 7 award to this one.

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Kaiser Heirich Urstoff

Well, well, well, the beer reviews have been neglected fro a wee while, but don't let that fool you into thinking I ain't been drinking! And, the fruits of my labours are to be laid before you know!

Behold! the Kaiser Heinrich Urstoff.

This is an amber coloured "Helles". The nose on this is nutty and dry. When I tasted this one, I wrote "autumn grass & a tad dusty" in my notes referring to the aroma. For flavour, I scribbled down "light honey & toffee", a "mid range sweetness, perhaps even banana if you can convince yourself of it". The bitterness is only present at the long end of the flavour and it is not strong. I identify this as a cross-over between a summer and autumn beer, which wasn't ideal when I tasted it in mid-July, and might be much more suitable now!

I hereby grant a 5 out of 7.

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I also noted that this beer had an "English-ale" tone, but without the added dishwater!

Brauerei Reichgold - Hochstahl Lager

Last week I opened and tasted another of the Frankish beers that were given to me for my birthday. This time it was the Reichgold Hochstahl Lager.

The brewery has a nice promo image of this one, which of course I have to copy here:

My own photo of the bottle&glass combo came out like this:

The beer is a deep orange colour. On the nose, this "colour" comes out in a slightly malty and "fresh water" aroma. It's a little bit like the smell you get from a river (a clean one!), with a touch of metal-pipes about it.

The taste is clean, only lightly hopped and malted. There is a touch of sweetness in there, but this is not a sweet beer. At length, there is some toffee flavour, and the length stays around long enough to become savory, just crossing into the next mouthful, which makes it rather moreish. I drank this beer after work, in 30 degree sun, and it was a very pleasant experience indeed.

Overall a tasty beverage. I award this beer a 5 our of 7.

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Kloster Plakstetten (Riedenburger) Naturtrüb Dunkles

Today we try the Kloster Plakstetten Naturtrüb Dunkles. this beer is brewed for the Benedictine Abbey at Plankstetten in the Oberpfalz. This is an abbey that I have visited a number of times and thus the beer is not a new one for me. This beer is brewed by the Riedenburger brewery, but it bears the name of the Monastery for which it is made.

The advertising people have produced this image of the bottle.

My dodgy photographic skills, in the lounge at 7pm on a Friday night, have produced this image, which also includes the beer in a glass. Ripper.

This Dunkles is quite dark. It is closer to the Stout end of the colour scale I would say. If you shine a light behind it or hold it up to the sun, there is plenty of rich red in there though, depending on how bright your light is or how close to the sun you go (a journey during which I am led to believe it gets very cold for a while, and then extremely hot again). The pour has a quickly flattening head. I don't know if this is noteworthy.. but I noted it. In my notebook.

The nose is lightly astringent with some toasted smells. There's a tiny bit of grassiness in there too, perhaps something floral, but not nearly as floral as Euan Roger's glasses.

The taste backs up the nose, almost 1:1. This is what I have cleverly named "WYSIWYG" (What you smell is what you get). This is an entirely new concept that bears no creative relationships to "WYSIWYG" (What you see is what you get). The taste is relatively long, revealing a bitter biscuity finish (as opposed to a buttery biscuit base). The aforementioned toastiness is well done without being smokey and I expect this beer would make an excellent accompaniment to a plate of Surf'n'turff.

Solid drinking. I award this one a 5 out of 7.

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St Erhard Kellerbier

A week or so ago I opened and tasted the St. Erhard Kellerbier. This brew comes from the town of Hallendorf, near Bamberg in Oberfranken. The brewery itself is new, and still describes itself as a "young start-up".

The Kellerbier itself is a wonder to behold. The bottle design and labeling are exquisite. This excellent visual stimulation has been recognised by their inclusion within the 2014 German Design Awards. Their obviously talented marketing people present the beer like this:

When I put the bottle and glass in front of my window, and left the exposure open on my camera, the combo came out looking like this.

Both the bottle and the contents are visually stunning. The beer is a rich orange/ amber tone. It pours a marvelous white head and the bottle is so cool, I just had to leave some sitting in there to stare at whilst drinking the first pour. The only problem I can see with this kind of attention to packaging, is that it sets up a very high expectation. Would the same level of quality be found in the beer? Because at first glace it promises a lot...

The nose is light, balanced, but light. There is some malt in there, but it is not a heavy roast and the nose provides the first clue.  It is lightly carbonated, which is good. If the carbonation cat were calling, it would do so with one whisker.

The flavour is grainy and touched by the honey-caramel angel. There's a nice creamy texture too. However, and here's where I felt a slight disappointment, the flavour is not bold. It's a subtle beer in an unsubtle bottle. When drinking this, I couldn't help feeling that there just needed to be a touch more hops in there. A little kick, jut to let you know that she's not all about the bottle, but she likes a little bass.

Overall, a very nice Kellerbier, better than most, but perhaps hamstrung by its own appearance.

I give this one a very solid 5 out of 7.

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Ayinger Celebrator

So, I kick of this blog with the Beer that made me think I ought to write something down about Bavarian beers.

Introducing, the Ayinger Celebrator, from Oberbayern.
This is what the beer looks like in an advertising photo.

The bottle is a 330ml, smaller that the usual 500ml for Bayern. However, the beer itself is 6.7% ABV, so it makes up for the smaller size by punching a little harder. I took my own photo of this little treat with a rather old mobile phone. So, this is how the Bottle&Glass partnership looks like when you put it on a table, in a bar, on a February evening:

Note that that bottle has a nice wee plastic horse of some description dangling from it. I was tempted to take this with me, but I figured I had no real use for it, so I left it hanging on the bottle's neck.

OK, enough small-talk; on to the tasting and smelling bit!

The beer has a confident, rounded and toffee-like aroma. I guess this is what one would expect from a Dopple-Bock. It was probably served to me a little bit cold (it was chilled) and I expect that with a little warming up to the 15 - 18 degrees range the smell of the beer would also be warmed.

The flavour was less obvious than the smell. I was expecting quite a wallop of heady hops and malt. But, in light of the aroma, the flavour of this one is rather mild. For the lager drinker, this beer would make a nice transition into the stronger-and-darker range. For me personally the experience would not have suffered in any way from a injection of more sticky (malty) and botanical (hoppy) mouth-phenomena. That said, this isn't an IPA. You don't necessarily want to be thrown off that little white horse, over-hopping a beer like this could result in ruin. So, perhaps the balance is just about right. In any event, the aroma could be described as deceptive, or perhaps one could also describe it as inviting.

All told though, this is certainly a tasty beverage. I would not hesitate to order this little pocket-rocket again. An excellent late winter drinker.

Using the "scoring system" that I just invented; I'm giving this beer a 5 out of a possible 7.

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