Zoigl
Gänstaller Braumanufaktur

Pours a hazy light amber with soapy head.

Smell is malty and bready and a bit yeasty. Notes of biscuits, citrus peel and caramel with some spicy hints.

Taste is malty, bready and herbal. Slightly yesty with a solid bitterness. Notes of citrus and a bit spicy with a slight smokiness in the background.

Mouthfeel is medium, smooth and well carbonated.

Overall, a great Zoigl, subtle but straight forward at the same time.

 

Blind-tasted except for the beer's name and brewery/country, zero reviews below read (yet!)...
L- Quite dark copper-brown, pours essentially clear (though perhaps not mega-filtered), with a 2mm white head
S- Quite bready, mild overall though.
T- Typical Zwickelbier, meaty malts but also a decent dry-hop lick over the palate into the finish. I also get a nice sub-note that's slightly nutty? So subtle I can't pin it down further but it adds a nice additional aspect.
F- That distinctive combo, quite meaty-malty, notably hoppy-dry too. Nothing stands out too much, very sessionable if you could buy this at a decent price. Carbonation is good and right for a beer brewed/matured in an open top unpressured vessel - ie similar to an Engligh 'real ale', clearly there but not fizzing away on your palate.
O- Very drinkable and I'd happily drink it again. Not aligning the stars or doing enough for me to pay to buy it again though. What I realise with Kellerbier/Zwickelbier is you get (or 'I experience'!) meaty-malts + punchy dry hops into the finish but often not a lot of detail in between. This additionally has a nutty aspect which works well.
Review/scoring all done, now the reveal, I get to read the lables to see what I missed! --> Unfiltered. Nothing else of note there.
440ml can BB: 20/10/2021 £4.10 Bought from TremblingMadness, York/UK as part of a large pick-your own consignment to London.

Medium copper, unfiltered body. Caramel, crackery, fruity esters, a bit of mild citrus and lemon, moderate floral and pine bitterness; fairly bitter with the sweetness coming from the yeast esters. Good carbonation, lingering bitter floral/herbal finish

Pours a clear, deep golden coloration with a medium, foamy head and visible carbonation, as well as some tiny floaters suspended in the glass. Smells of doughy, bready, slightly grainy malt and grassy, herbal hops. Taste is an excellent balance of doughy, bready, rather grainy and slighty caramelly malt and bitter, grassy, herbal hops, with some light floral and spicy accents. Finishes with a medium bitterness and some grainy malt and herbal hops lingering in the aftertaste. Full mouthfeel with a medium body and carbonation.

This is a really well-balanced Zoigl that's easy-drinking yet rather flavourful, with a firm, multi-layered malt base and expressive noble hops, creating a great harmony of sweet, grainy and bitter, herbal notes that work together very well here, making for a rather refreshing brew with lots of character and a great, full mouthfeel as well.

Yields a clouded amber color with a bigger, froth head.

Smells of toasted grains, lighter caramel and matured, dried garden herbs among fresh baked rye bread.

Has a soft mouthfeel to it, coating the light body easily, while turning effervescent during the beer‘s finish. Refreshing and perfectly balanced, this goes down instantly.

Tastes of almost smoky, sweeter malts, gently balanced by prominent toasted grains, leading to a very intriguing, powerful first impression. The hops add in then, creating a perfectly coating, crisp dryness, which brings out the intense rusticness in this even more. Finishes with a perfect balance between lusciously sweet, caramel forward malts, wooden, smoky grains and an ongoing, dry hoppiness, which almost coats the tongue.

The beer drinks with an incredible intensity, while the mouthfeel is world class smooth and the beer itself remains refreshing throughout. This is a fantastic example of a Zoigl, true to its root but with an unforseen, smoky twist on the malts, while the hops are just uncompromisingly bitter. This is great.

Yellow orange, hazy, a veil of foam, quickly falling down.
At the nose a delicate and fresh maltiness, some hint of honey, and a light but persistent herbal note.
In the mouth quite strong taste, some biscuit, less fresh. Low carbonation. Raw.
Light finishing bitterness, for a good drinkability.

 

Slightly hazy dark golden color with a bit of off-white head. Aroma is quite yeasty, slightly buttery and sweet. Taste follows with the sweet, buttery note, quite grainy, malty, more bitter on the finish but no real hop flavor. Medium body with low carbonation. Overall it's an interesting beer style, like an ale/lager hybrid.

Not to believe that a simple beer style like this can be so complex in flavor. It is not the delicate interplay of spicy hops and bready malt that play the lead guitar, it is the creamy yeast that delivers all the complex goodness that takes you to unexpected places like grandma's cake, banana and even vanilla. Fantastic, I still cannot believe it.

 

 

 

 

Gänstaller-Bräu "Zoigl"
on tap @ Mission Delores, Brooklyn, NY on 6 March 2016
$7/10 oz.

Notes: Very hazy deep golden body as expected beneath a short head of 'frothy-settling-into-creamy' white. Average head retention, but very good lacing. Spicy/herbal and grainy but also floral in a way that appears to be a bit overboard... old woman's bathwater, perfumey/soapy. Can that be from the hops? If so, wow. Beautifully balanced. Fresh tasting. Nice.

 

 

The colour is yellow (6 EBC), the liquid is clear. The two finger head sinks slowly to a thick lid leaving some lacing.

The smell is malty with notes of sourdough and sweet herbs. Some earthy-yeasty notes, hints of almonds and alcohol.

The taste is smooth and sweet with some semi-bitter hay hops. Yeasty notes of fresh bread, hints of apples and plums. Medium body. The aftertaste brings some alcohol, wheat flour, sourdough and a touch of vanilla. The finish is smooth whit French loaf and dried flowers.

The carbonation is smooth, yet the many small bubbles are fresh. The liquid is smooth and a bit sticky.

I had very high expectations of this beer, it is as smooth and gulpable as I expected, but there something… I don’t really like. Perhaps it is a bit too sweet?

 

Oh my.

A modern yet historically respectful interpretation of a kellerbier that does just about everything right.

Peach, apricot, deliciously crackery malts and a bready yeast meets with an impeccably crafted tang of bitterness that just seems come out of nowhere to seal the deal.

Gänstaller has created a beer of rare beauty and almost infinite drinkability.