Hieronymus
Schlossbrauerei zu Schmieheim

 

Decent blonde, with a bitter taste that suits it well and a full, round body almost reminiscent of potatoes. Nothing fancy, but a slighlt ybetter option than your classic commercial beers.

Poured from bottle into snifter glass.

Appearance - large, attractive head with less than average retention time. This beer is unfiltered, which gives it a wonderful hazy goldenrod coloring.

Smell - Stinky. Reminds me of hay in a barn. EDIT: after reading further reviews, I have to sadly agree that this beer does smell like a bar urinal.

Taste - One-dimensional, indistinguishable grainy taste dominated by bitterness (but not in a good way). Nothing complex about this beer, had to try it 2 times before fully determining that it's uninteresting.

Mouthfeel - Well balanced, normally carbonated for a pilsner.

Drinkability - Bought 2 bottles, took me two nights to finish 'em. I'd sooner drink Beck's, and that's saying something for German pilsners...

Beer bottle (33 cl), tasted in 2005.

Appearance: golden color, with a nice white foamy head.
Smell: citrus and hoppy aromas.
Taste and mouthfeel : malty and hoppy flavour, bitterness aftertaste.
Dinkability: a very good pilsener unfiltered on yeast (style Keller bier). See another ex. Christoffel Blond.

Presentation: Comes in a brown, 33 cl bottle with a metal lever cap. Beautifully designed label with no born on date, but "Tag 7" and "Jahr 4" brewery codes. Poured into a pint glass.

Appearance: Pours a cloudy, dark honey color with a big, two finger head. Head is very fluffy, leaving behind thick, unpatterened lacing as it disappears. Hazy clouds of yeast linger at the bottom of the glass, as this is an unfiltered beer.

Smell: Very difficult to describe smell. Extremely spicy aroma, with almost pine-like notes. A little bit overpowering, certainly unlike anything else I've ever sampled. One friend likened this to a urinal, which, sadly, is the best I can come up with.

Taste: First sip seems watery, with an overwhelming vegetal/raw grain punch. Spicy, lingering vegetal taste with more dry grass flavors. Some lemon notes, but not enough to balance the main flavor. Finish is sour hop bitterness, very dry and almost peppery.

Mouthfeel: Thin and watery. There's a perceptible lag between taking a sip of this beer and perceiving any sort of definable flavor. Strange.

Drinkability: This beer has a very definite, almost one dimensional flavor which is hard to take. I couldn't make it through one of these; even someone who loved the flavor would find the lack of complexity boring over a few of these.

Picked this one up while browsing at the Bootlegger in Paris. While I'm always happy to try unfiltered, regional beers, this one is dominated by an unpleasant, one-dimensional flavor. Not something I'm ever going to buy again, and not something I would really recommend to anyone else.