Schlossbrauerei Herrngiersdorf - Hallertauer Hopfen-Cuvée

It has been a hot and sunny, which means that I took the opportunity to smuggle a couple of new beers home form the supermarket to try. One of them is the Hallertauer Hopfen-Cuvée , by Schlossbrauerei Herrngiersdorf. I must admit to some nerves seeing "hopfen cuvee" on the bottle. But I thought that anything from the Hallertau area can't be that bad.

The brewery has advertised the beer with images such as this:

My own photo on the Balcony, complete with fingermarks on the glass came out like this:

This "helles" style beer is very pale yellow. It has a kind of glistening sheen to it and a light head. With the sun shining though it, I was reminded of those yellow-glass panels that people used to put next to their front door in the 1970s...

The nose is also light. It smells of an imaginary "summer dryness" if summer dryness had a smell.
To taste, this one is crisp and sweet at the same time. Perfectly balanced. The length gets drier and bitter, and fortunately there is none of that metallic aftertaste you often get from lager and pils style beers.

I smashed this bottle back pretty quick.There was, in fact, not as single problem I could find with this beer. Each mouthful was a pleasant treat. In the end, I have decided that this is probably as close to the Epitome of what I think a Helles should be like. For that reason, I am forced to award this a full 7 out of 7!

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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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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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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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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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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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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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