German craft beer

Last Friday, I had a birthday, and I got to choose the place to eat/drink. Actually, I usually choose the place, but that's only because we almost always go to the same places within 200 yards from our apartment.

The place is called Naïv, and it's a pretty new bar/restaurant on the Main river, directly across the river from Sachsenhausen. Here is a pic of both sides of their Bierdeckel, which is real cool, especially the ï ❤️ffm.

It's a pretty chic, relatively small place, doesn't look like it could serve more than 40 or 50 people inside, but in summer I expect them to use the area outside the restaurant in front for tables, too. You can see pics of the place on their linked site above, and here's a link to their beer menu, and that's why I came here. I saw on BrauKunstKeller's website that this is the only place to find their beer in FfM. Here's a pic of a page from the menu:

Here's the first page, but it wasn't as interesting for me:

The only beers I really want to try are the 2 beers they have on tap that are proprietary, the nïav Kellerbier and the naïve Bio Landbier. Though we didn't have time to try them this time, don't worry, I'm going back and get around to trying and reporting on them.

I focused on the BrauKunstKeller beers, and unfortunately they had only 2 of the 4 on hand when we were there, so we tried what they did have, the Laguna IPA and the Mandarina IPA, and the Bayrische Nizza Clubbier, which I'd wanted to try before and saw at BrauKunstLive.

First, the food... and it was good. I had a sandwich, and it tasted as good as it looks here:

Those are homemade potato chips on the bottom... crispy and delicious.

First beer we had was the Laguna IPA. Actually, I wanted the Amarsi IPA, but I was told it would be delivered later that evening, which I found hard to believe, but in truth, it was delivered later, and here's the proof, a pic I took as we were leaving around 9:30 pm:


Laguna IPA:
Aroma - a little bitterness in nose, some citrus smell, but not a lot. Kinda disappointing.
Taste: (66 IBUs on bottle) front: very bitter, a little grassy; mid: citrus, biting bitterness; back: malty, not too much caramel, just a hint, bitter in back a little, citrus too, but overall not great. Ok, for Germany, it was good, in fact, for a German company and beer, it wasn't bad. But don't forget, I'd just drunk a La Cumbre and some great IPAs at BKL, so with that still in my mind, it was very middling result. I found it too bitter, not much malt, and basically, an "ABI."


Mandarina IPA:
Aroma: citrus, mandarin oranges.
Taste: a little better than Laguna. Front: orange, citrus, not much bitterness (55 IBUs); mid: rounder, less bitter more orange and citrus, grapefruit; back: bitterness in back, and not much malt flavors. It was better than the Laguna IPA, and I really enjoyed the mandarin orange aspect of the flavor, but again, it was for American IPA middling, but for Germany not bad. It's not a beer I want to grab and drink with uninhibited joy, like Pax Bräu's Cissy IPA. Here are the pics:


Finally I tried the Bayrische Nizza Clubbier.

Almost no aroma, just a little pils malts. Taste light Weizen with some orange flavor with a spritzy citrus dryness. Thankfully there was no bubblegum, no cloves, nor spiciness. More like a cocktail or wine spritzer, but maltier and wheatier. From their web page:

I didn't get much of the C-hops when I tasted it, but like I said, overall it was like a wheaty, malty wine spritzer.

 

Ah, I see "The Man' delivers his beer himself!

Amarsi is is my favorite of the bunch, and the one I recommend to folks new to this brand with Mandrina a second choice. Both his Laguna and Pale Ale do not have the flavor profile I enjoy most.

 

This is my first one of these and I poured it without any expectations - WOW! What a tasty surprise! This is a good one. A really good one. Delicious.

 

Yeah, I heard about it and stopped at the brewery to pick up a few and I had the same reaction, if only it was cheaper than Westmalle it'd be my go to Triple.

 

Another great pic! Love the bullet bottle opener, too!

Prosit!!

 

I wonder why Bitburger doesn't sell those beers in regular shops. They have a national distribution network, all major supermarkets and bottle shops carry their regular beers and mixed stuffs, and others distribute their "craft brand" quite well (Maisel & Friends e.g.). If I saw those anywhere I'd probably give it a try, but I couldn't yet be compelled to order from their website.

 

And another report about the new German wave of "craft brewing", this time in the Mobil-Magazin of Deutsche Bahn which is available at every seat in every IC/EC/ICE that is running in Germany.

 

It's funny, I had a few of their beers at BrauKunstLive 2013, and reported on it here.

When talking to them last year, no one mentioned the American guy working there, though I mentioned I'm from the States. Interesting only now it's coming out.

<oh... that reminds me, I better get around to writing up the 2nd half of my review of beers drunk at BKL 2014... maybe tomorrow.

These folks must be relatively new. I thought I knew every website selling beer online. Looking at their lineup, it's not terribly different from Bierzwerg, Bierkompass, and Biershop-bayern, and a few others.

The one thing that rally sets Bier-delux apart is that their approach to selling their Sortiment (product range) is more towards a craft beer crowd. And that's a good thing, for they use such things as food pairings, glassware, & Ratebeer's ratings as a filters, which is a fresh approach. The others I mentioned, especially Biershop-bayern and Bierzwerg, approach selling beer as if it's still a traditional product who just happen to have some craft beer products.

 

I might be mistaking him for someone else, but I *think* he worked at Augustiner for a while.

 

To see where a decent chunk/part of that start-up money went, click on the link to the Google search of bier online shop and they are the middle of the 3 paid averts on the top of the search. I wish them well... and maybe the others will have to step up their game.

 

I've finally made it to try the Auswandererbier 1849 by Brauhaus Faust. I paid € 12 for a .75l-bottle, so it's surely not going to be an every-day-beer.
It has a brown color with a hint of amber and red in there. The smell is rather sweet, honey is my first impression, mixed with caramel. The taste: for a (Double) IPA with 80 IBUs and a whole bunch of hops (Perle, Tettnanger, Chinook, Citra, Columbus, Cascade) it is surprisingly sweet. Caramel- and toffee-tastes, a little honey again. Reminds me a bit of a Belgian strong ale. The hops however give a good blend of bitterness and fruity and spicy aromas.
What I really like about this beer is that the typical strength of the hops stand against a full and very tasty body (18.9°P) of maltiness. A kind of balance I haven't experienced much yet with IPAs.
Once again, Faust didn't disappoint me. They just know what they're doing with every beer they make.

 

I had this same beer in spring 2011, and it didn't taste the way you described. It was a full-bore American-style DIPA, tasted full of C-hops. Matt Riggs from Faust me at BraukunstLive last month that someone at the brewery screwed up and messed up the hop schedule, and thus the C-hops weren't as strong as they should be.... @Matt--- please give a clearer explanation... so he said this year's version isn't as good as before. Nonetheless, I'm almost certain (Matt, please verify) the malt bill was full of Münchner malt (the orange color and sweet/caramel flavors being tell-tale signs) and other German malts, so that's what you tasted most. I bet their malt bill here is relatively (again... Matt?) similar to their other beers, so what you ended up with was a more malt-forward rather than the planned hop-forward beer. That doesn't make a bad beer, just less of what it was meant to be.

 

I was able to taste this year's Auswandererbier throughout its production. I have to say, at the end of its dry hopping phase, it was possibly the best DIPA I've ever tasted. In my opinion, however, the beer lost a portion of its hop aroma when we transferred the beer to another tank for cold conditioning. Many brewers, including John Kimmich from The Alchemist, have talked about the negative effects of moving beer around post-dry hopping. Check out this video where he discusses all things brewing:

After seeing this beer change post dry hopping, I also believe that in the later stages production you've got to handle these types of beers very carefully.

If you look up style 14C in the BJCP guidelines, it'll tell you that an Imperial IPA should have less malt and body than an American Barleywine. In that regard, this rendition of Auswanderer strays from the guidelines (it's body and malt profile are more Barleywinish). But, as danfue pointed out, it makes for a nice beer. Maybe we just invented a new beer style, Session American Barleywine..... <sarcasm>

For those of you who are coming on the Faust Tour/BA Meetup, I look forward to discussing the finer points of this beer with you over a couple of full glasses.

 

Can't wait.

 

Errr...I can't figure out how to quote from multiple posts here anymore.
Anyway, it seems I have to revise my last sentence from my review of Faust's Auswandererbier 1849. Even if they don't know what they're doing, it still results in a pretty good beer!

 

Maybe thes comments might be better in the Homebrewer's forum. Hehehe. Nonetheless, Homebrewing in Germany kinda pushed me to using more German malts, like Weyermann's Carafa 2, Sauer (Acid) malz, Melanoiden malt, and especially Münchnermalz, and even subbing Pilsmalz for 2-row Pale malts. These malts add complexity not only n flavor, but are partially what gives German beer it's thicker mouthfeel. I think Jack will especially remember me ranting about my disdain for the American's penchant for producing thin (read also "light") beers in the craft beer scene. I also, in attempts to assure a heavenly thick mouthfeel, add extra Brewbody, which is a form of dextrose or a non-sweet complex, unfermentable sugar. And these are all to beers I brew such as IPAs and other non-German styles. The point here is that American craft brewers can learn from Germans in the malts they choose for their grain bill, and simply using Crystal & Two-row are to me now a pretty boring idea, no matter what super-tasting hops are used. Germans can learn from the American craft scene on the hops side, but to make truly interesting beer that's complex enough to hold my interst beyond the initial hops-wow, I strongly feel German malts are needed in American craft brews.

Also, I've gotten away from using American yeasts and use either Irish Ale or other English Ale yeasts in an IPA. The American yeasts leave the beer too dry. Anyway, sorry about this post for those who don't homebrew, but I hope it gave some insight into a) my reviews b) why German beers are the way they you like them and c) that this is truly a two-way street for learning between American & German brewers.