Bavarian Benchmark
Short's Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 ounce bottle into lager glass, bottled on 1/2/2018. Pours slightly hazy pale golden yellow color with a 1 finger dense and rocky white head with great retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings down the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of big cracker, white bread dough, lightly toasted biscuit, light honey/pepper, and herbal/grassy earthiness. Damn nice aromas with balanced bready malt and light-moderate earthy hop notes; with great strength. Taste of big cracker, white bread dough, lightly toasted biscuit, light honey/pepper, and herbal/grassy earthiness. Light-moderate herbal, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of cracker, white bread dough, lightly toasted biscuit, light honey/pepper, and herbal/grassy earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Awesome robustness and balance of bready malt and light-moderate earthy hop flavors; with an awesome malt/bitterness balance, and zero cloying/astringent flavors after the finish. Fairly crisp/clean finishing. Perfectly clean on lager flavors, with zero yeast notes present. Light-moderate increasing dryness from lingering bitterness. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/bready/grainy, and fairly sticky mouthfeel that is great. Zero warming alcohol as expected of 5.3%. Overall this is an awesome Munich helles! All around great robustness and balance of bready malt and light-moderate earthy hop flavors; very smooth, crisp, clean, and refreshing to drink. Very flavorful for the low ABV. Awesome clean Pils/Munich malt showcase, with solid noble hop presence/balance. A really enjoyable offering, and perfect style example.

Clear and clean. Smell Is doughy. Really tasty, with a creamy mouthfeel, yet dry finish. I really enjoyed this one. Please put it in cans and 12 packs.

 

Quite fantastic! Poured from bottle to nonic glass. Color is straw and crystal-clear, wothba finger of soapy foam stop. Nice aromas of doughy bread, yeasty esters, and floral, grassy hops. Flavors of biscuit, cracker, white bread, grass, and floral notes with a slight peppery/bittery zip at the end with a remarkably clean finish. Deserves its own release outside of a variety pack.

 

I picked up a bottle of Short's Bavarian Benchmark in their newest variety pack at Meijers. It's been a while since I've had this style and I'm interested to see what Shorts can do with it, so lets see how it goes. 2018 Vintage. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a imperial pint glass.

A- The label looks nice, it's got a nice look to it and it's a little eye catching. It poured a nice golden color that took on a slightly pale yellow color with a fingers worth of bubbly off white head that died down to a thin ring that stayed till the end and it left some spotty lacing behind. This is a pretty nice looking beer, but I wish it had a little more head and head retention.

S- The aroma starts off with a medium amount of sweetness with the malts being the first to show up and they impart some pale malt, cracker, bready. light wheat and sweet malt aromas with some grainy aromas showing up in the background. Up next comes some slightly estery yeast and that leads into the hops which impart a light herbal hop aroma. This beer has a nice aroma, but it's a little on the lighter side for the style.

T- the taste seems to be similar to the aroma, but stronger and it starts off with a lower amount of higher sweetness with the malts still being the first to show up and they impart all the same aspects that they did in the aroma with the bready, grainy and sweet malt flavors sticking out the most. Up next comes the yeast which imparts all the same aspects that it did in the aroma and this time it shows up a little more and it's followed by the herbal hops which also impart the same aspects, but they are a little stronger this time. On the finish there's a slightly higher amount of medium bitterness with a little more sweetness and it had yeasty, malty and herbal hop like aftertaste. This is a pretty nice beer, it's just what I would expect for the style.

M- Fairly smooth, a little crisp, a little creamy, on the thicker side of being medium bodied with a slightly higher amount of medium carbonation. The mouthfeel is pretty nice and it works well with this beer.

Overall I thought this was a pretty nice beer and it's true to style, it had pretty much all the aspects that I look for in the style, but there was a couple aspects that made it a little rough around the edges. This beer had decent drinkability, I think one or two is the perfect amount for me, the taste might start to ware on me after more than that. What I like the most about this beer is the how to true to style it is, it's got pretty much all the main aspects that I look for in the style. What I like the least about this beer is the aroma and body, I wish it had more of an aroma with a little more a lighter and cirsper body. I would buy this beer again when in the mood for the style, but it isn't something I would stock up on and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a solid example of the style. All in all I liked this beer and even though it was a little rough around the edges it still had all the main aspects that I look for in the style. IT's not a favorite Short's beer and it's a nice example of the style. Nice job guys, this is a tasty and true to style beer, keep it up.