Fauerbach Export Beer
Fauerbach Brewing Company

12 oz bottle poured into an American Tumbler pint glass. No date or info.

A - Lightly hazy golden yellow with an off-white head and moderate retention with sticky lace.

S - Very plain aroma with husky corn and pale malts with grass clippings. Not much good going on here.

T - Grassy pale malts and a dry biscuity finish with a hint of yeast and fruit but something just doesn't seem right here.

M - Medium-bodied, soft, and medium carbonation gives the body and average feel.

D - Nothing is very good about this beer save for the appearance. Pretty plain, boring, and unimpressively crafted.

Appearance: Pours a clear, yellow-orange body with a wispy, white head.

Smell: Mild aroma of spice and damp grain. What a snoozer!

Taste: Pale malts with a touch of sourish grain and a handful of biscuit crumbs. Big pop of Noble hops and bitterness. Lightly sour finish.

Mouthfeel: Thin-bodied. Medium carbonation.

Drinkability: Oh, I wanted to love this one, really I did! But I did not. Pass!

Pours light orange/yellow with a slight 1/8 inch head and below average lacing. Lightly carbonated. Fairly strong hop smell with average malts. Light to mild flavor with a without much backbone. This is very light.

Purchased from Steve's Liquors in Madison, WI.

I really enjoy this beer, but as a word of warning to the BAs reading this review who do not appreciate the niceties of Wisconsin export brews, I am also a devotee of Special Export…On the other hand, I have been to Dortmund and am down with the German variety, which hopefully gets a little more respect.

Faurerbach’s version of the wonderfully drinkable style pours darker then expected. It’s almost an amber but not quite, more of a butterscotch I suppose. The carbonation streams are brilliant and the thin white head is lasting. Looks dead on for the style.

Aroma consists mostly of noble hops. It could be cleaner but it doesn’t have any nasty chemical smells to it and that’s a plus. Pale malts come into play a little.

Tastes great. Perfectly balanced sweet biscuity pale malts and grassy noble hops. More hops would have make this beer a real winner with beer enthusiasts but it’s fine just the way it is. Very drinkable. Wodnerful carbonation. This is a good beer for no craft people and craft folks alike.

Butternut gold with a lively interior due to multiple, rapidly rising bubble streams. The aged ivory cap is frothily creamy, like vigorously-beaten egg whites, and gives the beer a quality appearance. From top to bottom, this is an impressive looking Dortmunder.

The nose could use quite a bit more pizzazz. It's mineral-like without being metallic, and smells primarily of musky noble hops. I like beer of this style to be clean, bright and hoppy (see Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold). This one isn't. Thankfully, it improves with warming.

I'm more impressed with the way it tastes. Export Beer leans more heavily toward sweet, biscuity malt than most and is a tad more grainy besides. The former helps to make the latter more palatable. More hops would have helped even more, but there are enough to get the job done. As far as flavor, the hops are sweetgrassy and lightly spicy with almost no citrusiness.

I shouldn't be surprised at how nice the mouthfeel is considering how much malt is present. It's medium-full for the style and has a silky smooth, expansive creaminess that is always the mark of a well-brewed lager. An adequate amount of soft carbonation helps as well.

I wasn't too impressed with Fauerbach Export Beer when it first made contact with my taste buds. I feel much better about it now that I have only a few swallows left. Although it isn't a complex beer, Dortmunder isn't a complex style. I love the abundance of sweet, fresh cereal grain flavor. This is a tremendous all-rounder that deserves wider distribution.