Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

To my knowledge they stopped brewing it about 15-20 years ago. Maybe since I left Germany in 2008 they have reintroduced it, not sure. During the pilsner/export-only phase in and around Frankfurt it was a great beer that showed that the nondescript styles like that were on the decline. I guess in the whole discussion about "craft beer" in Germany it's beers like this that are "no-brainers" which combine the desire for keeping tradition but still want something other than pilsner, helles, hefeweizen & Munich dunkel.

 

I had it in the late 1990s, so 15 may be the max number of years since they "retired" it. Maisel always said that they tested a number of beers back in the day, and the Dampf was the one the brewers liked best. Guess brewers are no longer the taste-makers these days....

 

Interestingly in a trade with Erzengel, I got a bottle of an India pale ale one of batch brewed by Maisel's

Review to follow!

 

Im sure it will be much better than the Dampfbier (ya know, because of the hops).

 

Two different Kellerbiere from Schlossbrauerei Haimhausen north of Munich.

The Kellerbier Dunkel is a good thing. Not quite sure about the Kellerbier aspect, but it's a nice dark beer with pleasant roasted malts-taste. What I like best though, is that it's not sweet at all. Rather dry and crisp.



The Kellerbier Hell is new in their lineup. Also, not quite sure about the Kellerbier thing. It's a bit cloudy, but relatively clear for a Kellerbier. The taste reminds of those Helle or Pilsners you can get at some Gasthofbrauereien. Not much hops, rather sweetish and malty, low carbonation. Not convincing, but at some point you are just spoiled by some Franconian Kellerbiere.

 

“Not quite sure about the Kellerbier aspect” Does that statement mean that you are unsure if these beers are genuinely Kellerbiers (unfiltered beers)?

I have consumed a number of Kellerbiers that are not very cloudy but to my palate I believe that they are indeed unfiltered beers. My personal preference is to drink unfiltered beers because I am of the opinion that filtering strips out flavors; the flavors that are stripped out result in a less flavorful and therefore a lesser quality beer.

For example, Sierra Nevada Brewing no longer filters their beers:

“When Steve Dressler of Sierra Nevada spoke at Hop Union’s Hop School he said they had stepped away from filtering that it tends to strip flavors.”

Cheers!

 

I think that the term Kellerbier is quite wishy washy, almost a catch-all phrase. It can be an ale or a lager, color is non-attributive and alcohol is also not defined.

 

When I see a beer described as being a Kellerbier (or Zwickel) my expectations is that it is an unfiltered lager (I personally have never had a Kellerbier that was an ale).

I have no specific expectations as regards color but I have had a few Kellerbiers that were light in color like a Pilsner (and hopped like a Pilsner); some of those beers were labeled as Keller Pils. Brooklyn brews a beer called Gold Standard Export Kellerbier which is a higher gravity Keller Pils at 6.2% ABV. Urban Chestnut Brewing brews a Zwickel that looks like a Keller Pils to me; maybe it might be more appropriate to describe that beer as a Keller Helles.

The majority of the Kellerbiers that I have tasted are amber in color, very moderately hopped and of moderate gravity (e.g., around 5% ABV). Examples of that ‘type’ of Kellerbier would be Mahr's Ungespundet-hefetrüb, Weissenohe Kellerbier, Triumph Aldstadt Lager, etc.

The common denominator for a Kellerbier is that it be unfiltered and a lager based upon my experiences to date.

Cheers!

 

I'm currently drinking a Spaten München and when I look at the back label I notice that the Swedish list of ingredients lists them as: water, wheat malt, barley malt, hops and hop extract. The curious thing is that wheat malt isn't mentioned in the other languages of which there are several on the label, only barley malt is mentioned. The placement of wheat malt ahead of barley malt would imply that the beer contains more wheat malt than barley malt, since ingredients have to be listed in order of importance according to Swedish law (and also EU law?). The importer, Carlsberg Sweden notes on their website of Spaten München that "the secret is supposed to be a handful of wheat added to the brew". I suppose the combination of a weissbier brewery and a lager brewery might explain the use of wheat in the beer, but when did wheat overtake barley as the primary ingredient in Spaten Helles? Has this always been so or is it a recent change I wonder.

 

The Kellerbier Dunkel at least just appeared to be a proper Dunkles to me - for sure unfiltered, but does that make a Kellerbier already? As einhorn said, it's one of those wishy washy styles, and these two examples here differ a bit from what is mostly sold as Kellerbier by other breweries.

 

That would be interesting. One of the many useless German beer laws requires that beers containing grains other than barley must not be brewed bottom-fermented. Meaning, as soon as wheat is involved and the resulting brew is meant to be called "Bier", it has to be top-fermented. Maybe the law doesn't apply to beers that are exclusively brewed for export. Or maybe it wasn't even brewed in Munich, but in Copenhagen?!

 

The Export clause might be a pertinent one, since I've read that German breweries used to be able to use adjuncts in beers meant for export (I'm not sure if it even is necessary nowadays). The beer was brewed and bottled in München at the Spaten-Franziskanerbräu brewery as per the label though (That's one good thing about clear labeling laws I guess.

Sweden doesn't have much in the way of laws concerning beer making other than requiring that the majority of the extract is from barley malt, but wheat beers are obviously sold here so that law, or description found in the law, isn't really applicable either.

 

“ …for sure unfiltered, but does that make a Kellerbier already?”

I see your point. The best response that I have is that I am comfortable with the term Kellerbier just meaning an unfiltered lager. I have only had two ‘variants’ of a Kellerbier that I describe as: Keller Pils and Franconian Kellerbier (i.e., an amber colored, moderately hopped lager).

“As einhorn said, it's one of those wishy washy styles, …” Yup!

Prost!

 

Kellerbier can range from pale yellow with very little haze to cloudy amber to opaque chestnut brown. Many Kellerbiers are served so "young" that the yeast hasn't even finished its work. So depending upon where you drink them, they can range from very yeasty (from the wooden keg at the brewery taproom) to completely clear (from the bottle where the yeast has settled to the bottom and not decanted).

In other words, Einhorn is right: Kellerbier can mean literally 100+ different things depending upon circumstances.

 

My brother lived in Munich, now he's back to the Frankfurt-area, but a friend from Munich gave him some of this and he gave it to me.

 

That's really interesting -- even crazy-odd. Can you taste the wheat? If you're not familiar, it will be more grainy, less bready -- not sure what I could compare it to in Sweden, do you have saltine crackers?

The last Spaten Premium (as they label the Helles in the USA) I drank had no wheat character to it.

 

It tastes like a clean German lager as far as I'm concerned, I didn't react when I drank it and I've had this beer numerous times over the course of the last few years, but only now did I notice the wheat malt in the ingredients list. I tend to check the ingredients list since European beers tend to give away more than non-European beers, and this time I noticed the wheat malt and it having been placed ahead of the barley malt (just as hop extract is now placed ahead of hops in the ingredients list for Jever Pilsener).

 

Logical conclusion: it's an error, there is no wheat malt in there!

 

Next installment of Bayern bier is from Moosbacher Privat Landbrauerei in the lovely town of Moosbach in the Oberpfalz (No idea if its actually lovely).

Thanks to Erzengel for this one!
Sampling their Zoigl today , abv 5.4%



Appearance - Cloudy pale amber body. Thick creamy 3 finger head giving superb retention/lacing.

Aroma - Green apple, orval-like acidic sourness, grassy/outdoorsy in the fields quality (obviously struggling for descriptives here)

Taste - Acidic bitterness up front, not in an in your face assertive way like a really tart gueuze, more subtle becoming sweeter as biscuity malts come through in the full bodied yet delicate finish. Very refreshing.

Mouthfeel - It's perfect. A light burst of carbonation that mellows to a wonderful delicateness with a full yet light body that coats the tongue. It's trully superb.

Enjoyed this immensely. Superb refreshing flavours with a subtle nod of malt sweetness with a mouthfeel that nearly had it gone in 2 swigs!

Prost!