Schneider Weisse Aventinus

Given that Lent is almost at a close, I thought it only sensible to taste a Starkbier. Today I sampled the Schneider Weisse Aventinus, which is an "Eisbock" strong beer. This beer is also known locally (very locally) as "killing me softly".

A professional marketing image for this one looks like this, deep ambery glow in a mysteriously frosty glass dripping with condensation:

My own photo of this beer and a glass, perched on top of an old wine box in the sun looks like this:

The colour is a cloudy tar-brown. The pour has yeasty sediments in it and it is low carbonated. It should be left in the glass to settle out before drinking in order to let the sediment drop away. A mouthfull of that can be a bit gritty.

The nose is sweet malts with honey and caramel. The nose is almost hop-free but there is just a touch of fruity high notes in there. Ding!

The flavour goes like this, in fairly rapid succession; Cereals. Honey. Mango. Sweet milk and Toffee. Bitter buttery biscuit base. It is heady heavy and flavoursome. This beer is also strong. It will quickly put you on your arse if you don't pace yourself. Killing me quickly might be more appropriate for a nickname. It is a small-quantity beer and very good for its type. I award it 6 out of 7.

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Brandys Braugarage - Tropical Sun 8-Hop IPA

Introducing the "Tropical Sun" from Brandys Braugarage. Brandys is one of the new breed of smaller (micro) breweries that have sprung up throughout Bayern in the past few years. Slightly behind the rest of the beer-drinking world chronologically, but this has not hurt the development of the product at all.

This particular brew is hard to come by. A managed to get a tasting bottle from the owner of the best pub in Bavaria (location a secret).

The poured "Tropical Sun" has a solid flower which persists for a decent amount of time. The beer is an opaque reddish-amber colour, it's dark for an IPA.

The nose is springy and bright. There's toffee and passion-fruit in there, with a touch of green grass.

Then the flavour. Tangy and sweet all at once. There floral nature of heavy hops is evident, but it is balanced and not overpowered (a temptation for many IPA manufacturers). I had some of this beer with a curry and the compliment was spectacular.

Incidentally this beer has a twin, which I tried over Christmas - The "Outrigger" Pacific Pale Ale by Tuatara Bewing in New Zealand. Half a world away, and I was amazed at how similar the two beers taste.

Overall Brandy's have pulled off a winner with this beer. If I can get my grubby mits on a few more of these I will be set for some hot summer drinking in 2016.

This one easily scores a 6 out fo 7.

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Aufsesser Premium Zwickl

For my recent birthday, I had the pleasure of receiving a carton of Beer from Franken (Franconia). Included in this box was the beer that I am presenting here to you all, (yes, all of you) today.

This is the Premium Zwickl, from Aufsesser.

I'm not sure if this image of the Beer is from the brewer or not. I had a hard time finding a "marketty" image of this one, which is probably a good sign. Anyway, this is how someone else likes the beer to look:

And this is what it looks like when it is perched on the railing of my balcony:

As you can see, this one has a very tidy bottle and label combination. I've always been a fan of the swing-top bottle. the beer is a deep orange-amber. It produced a head with large bubbles which quickly settled. The liquid is slightly cloudy, suggesting less than full filtration.

I was surprised at how hoppy this one was. It is like a lightly-hopped American IPA. There's a touch of dry grass in there which hints at mid-summer consumption, but Spring will do just fine.

The aroma is mild, floral and bitter at once. There are good proportions of hops and malt, balanced by obvious but not overpowering sweetness, my sweet. This beer I found to be an excellent accompaniment to a Pasta-Arrabiata eaten el-fresco.

I give this beer a confident 6 out of 7

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Riegele Bier Manufaktor - Ator 20

Introducing the Riegele Bier Manufaktur Ator 20.
The company that produces this beer, the Riegele Bier Manufaktur, claims to have been in existence since the 1300s. So this is not one of the upstart basement brewed IPA type breweries that we see popping up in every middle class suburban neighborhood these days.

The Ator 20 is one of their range of numbered beers, such as the Simco 3 the Auris 19 the Robustus 6 and the Audi A3 (not the Audi A3).

Ator 20 comes to us in a pint bottle. 660ml  of Dunkles Bier that looks, according to the marketing team, like this:

In my world, where the advertising department probably has greater budgetary constraints, the beer comes out looking like this:

The Ator 20 is a full looking Dunkles. The head takes on a pale brown hue and the beer itself is a deep, rich brown with a touch of amber hiding in its midst.

The nose provides both fresh and roasted grains. There's some coffee in there for those with a broader imagination (or an addiction to coffee.. or who smell coffee everywhere anyways) and on top there is a little space made for the smell of berries and cocoa, depending on how dreamy you want to get with this kind of thing.

Flavour-wise, the Ator 20 is sweet, rich and creamy. The carbonation is markedly light, allowing one to hold this in the mouth for an extended period of time, sans the prickly exaggerations you might get from a less refined beverage. At the onset there is not much bitterness, but this arrives later. You don't have to wait for long. British trains might not run on time. German beers (and pretty much everything else in Germany) do.

Overall the Ator 20 is a very solid Dunkles. Better than most of what your going to find in the Supermarket and well worth getting your hands on . Next time I see this beer for sale, I wil be sure to snap up a couple of bottles. I grant this little number a very solid 6 out of 7.

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Gänstaller Bräu Smoked Imperial India Pale Ale

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.

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Ehrenberger Pilgerstoff

In the last hour I have had the pleasure of enjoying an Ehrenberger Pilgerstoff.  This beer comes from the far northwest of Bayern, namely Oberfranken. When bottled, the beer arrives in 500ml serves. The ABV for this beer is 5.2%.

I was unable, in the 20 seconds that I typically give myself, to find an advertising photo if the beer in a glass. I did however, find this image online;

My own image is somewhat less prepared, but at least I can Boston the nectar itself, glowing in the shared light of a 40w energy saving bulb;

Pilgerstoff is a Märzen/Dunkles beer. It glows red, like many of the dark beers from this part of Bayern. The nose is entirely pleasant.  There us some toffee, fruits an (if you can convince yourself a little) the lightest smokiness.

The flavour is well rounded,  warm  and rich. There are some hops, with their attendant bitterness,  but this is fleeting.  The main contribution is toffee, malt and a squeeze of apple. Overall the beer is sweet and inviting. Happily, I did not find myself wishing that I were drinking this during a different season.

Pilgerstoff is a real goodie. I grant it a 6 out of 7.

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