Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

I agree. That's why I posted it.

 

I agree with you. However, don't forget all the Bundesliga teams with black/red/white: Eintracht Frankfurt, SC Freiburg, Bayer Leverkusen, 1. FC Nürnburg, and that's just in the 1st division. The colors are not the problem; rather, it's the symbolism of images used in conjunction with them. However, the logo does look like it hasn't been updated since the pre-war, though, which is a good thing.

 

Now that all of the Regensburg beers are out of the way, I can get to my own beer to review, which I'd been holding back on until I finished the beers Stahlsturm gave me.

The only one's I have on hand is from Pax Bräu, their Märzen, mainly to compare Andreas Seufert's version to all the others I'd tried before. Surprisingly, there are already 2 reviews of Rate Beer. His official website has been neglected for months, but to keep up with him, here's his Facebook page so you can like and follow him.



I love the image here on the label.

The beer is cloudy, & the bottom of the bottle has yeast deposits, so... bottle conditioning and it also means it's unfiltered and got live yeast down there. Its color is burnt orange with some brown in it.

The aroma is typical Märzen - lots of sweet Münchener or Vienna malts with some... wait for it... Rauchmalz (smoked malt) and a hint of lemon underlying the aroma.

The flavor is... mmmm... at first typical Märzen with lots of sweet malts of Münchener variety, but then you taste what I think now is Pax's signature, a small but noticeable Rauchmalz. In the front is a hint of lemon, and middle you get roasted/toasted malts and smoke, and in the back, a light sourness again the sweetness of München malts.
Ok, it's NOT as great as his other beers, but it's still a WOW beer. The more I drink, the more I get lemony flavors. Typical Märzen flavors dominate, but filtered through a light smoke and some lemony/citrusy flavors from the hops.

Altogether, a wonderful mix of flavors, again, kinda like a cocktail. You still know it's a Märzen, but this is more wonderful. Yes, it's head and shoulders above all the Märzens I've had before. Damn... too bad the 2 liters are now gone and I'll have to wait until next year to get some more.

 

Thanks, I have one more Pax Bräu, then I might have to order more. I hope others realize how much effort and time I take to do these, as well as doing the online research, too. So... can I beg for MANY more LIKES?

 

Never had Schlenkerla's Märzen, only their Rauchbier, so today, I still stand by what I said, but that doesn't mean I don't want to try it.

Do you think Schlenkerla's Märzen is like how I described Pax's?

 

Today I present you Pax Bräu's February offering from the Bier Calender Edition: Fasenöchter Doppelbock Hell.
Fasenöchter is dialect (don't ask me which one) for Fasnacht, another name for Fasching or Carnival or Mardi Gras.

First, you gotta love the artwork by a comic artist on the label.

And a close up below of the ingredients listed on the bottle. How many kinds of hops can you count? Wow?


The color is amber with bright orange tints, slightly hazy from being unfiltered and bottle conditioned, under a bright dirty-white head, though that dissipated quickly.

The aroma is a heady mix of citrus and sweet München or Vienna malts, which I hope will be matched by it's flavor.
This is a 8.5% but you wouldn't know it from tasting it. The alcohol is so well hidden, at first I thought I was drinking a lower, say 5%, alcohol beer. The mouthfeel is thick like a normal Märzen.

The initial thing when you take your first sip is smoked malt. It's up front on the tongue and stays smokey all the way down towards the throat. The front of the tongue has a light tartness and bitterness at first mixed with a touch of malts, then the middle you get lots of smoke, not overpowering but enough to assert itself. Here's also where you get some strong bitterness from the hops, not super bitter but also discernible. The middle of the tongue also registers high amounts of München or Vienna malts, giving this beer more a push flavor-wise in the direction of a Märzen rather than a Bockbier. In fact, without the label telling me it was a Bock, I would've put in the Märzen neighborhood. The aftertaste is sweetened lemons and sweet München malts, both flavors that linger in maltiness like the reverberation of a bell. Again, this beer is like a cocktail, or maybe like hearing a chord played on a guitar, many different flavor notes all blending easily into one wallop of taste. After a few long sips, I begin to notice the alcohol as a small sherry-like feeling towards the back of the mouth. I guess that's the Bock part of this beer, and... after half a liter of it, I can feel the kick of the alcohol swimming in my head.

Overall, WOW, although it does seem quite similar to Pax's Märzen, just all the flavors are "Bocked" up, more intense. This beer is a souped up Märzen-IPA-Doppelbock concoction where all those flavors mix wonderfully. It's incredibly süffig and I would sip this for hours in bliss if I could lay my hands on more of it.

In a few days, I should be receiving the next beer on the Bier Kalender: a Maibock!

 

Another month, another beer from Pax Bräu's Bier Abonnement. Since this is May in the Bierkalender Edition, it's natural that this is Maibock. Again, I like the label and the pics of hops, a goat, a church (maybe for the plethora of Catholic national holidays in Germany in May?) and beer are all images that soothe the beer lovers soul.

The color of the beer is almost orange with hints of brown and yellow, under a vanilla, dirty white head that dissipates quickly. There's a cloudiness to the beer and also yeast deposits on the bottom of the bottle, so it's also bottle conditioned, unfiltered and fresh as can be. Finally, the ABV = 6.6%.

The initial aroma is almost all Rauchmalz (smoked malt) and some sweet notes of Münchner malts. If there are any hop aromas, it's hard to find them from that powerful smokiness overpowers them, yet there must be some hop aroma, because I get something else other than smoke and malts, but I can't put my finger on it. It's thick and lovely going over the tongue...mmm...it blankets the mouth.

The first flavor you get is Rauchmalz. The second flavor you get is Rauchmalz, but it's not overpowering. In the front, you get a little smoke, then a little sweetness, but a lot of hop bitterness, which is definitely a Noble hop, maybe Hallertauer. In the middle, you get more smokiness, yet not so much in a bacon-way; rather, in the middle, I'm getting a Rauch flavor that borders more on the blackened in Cajun Blackened Chicken.

Here's a pic to fire your imagination:

Yes, it tastes like umami, the black, semi-charred meat on the bottom of the frying pan, which is savory and here süffig. In the middle you also get a some slight bitterness, too. In the back, you get more bacon flavors mixed in with sweet Münchner maltiness. The aftertaste is sweet malts with bacon-smokiness and again a little bitterness.

Overall, this is like drinking a "blackened" Rauchbier/Märzen with a kick of alcohol. It's easy to forget it's 6.6%, you don't notice the alcohol until you've had 1/2 a liter, and then you're feeling fine!) I've mentioned before that I'm not a Rauchbier fan, per se, but I like this beer. However, of all of Pax's offerings, this may be my least favorite, and that's because it leans almost too heavily in the Rauchbier direction. I still really like how the sweet maltiness and blackened flavors mix with smoke and Noble hop bitterness, so it's still a wonderful beer; however, this seems the most conventional of all the beers I've had from Pax, and though it's maybe the best Rauchbier I've had, it's NOT WOW. Nevertheless, the quality is outstanding. What makes this still a great beer is it's still so süffig despite the smoke.