German craft beer

wait you think 15€ 750ml beers in Germany are overpriced? I find this trend disturbing in Germany... There are many making craft beer at very affordable prices, but some are jumping on the craft/rare trend for money it seems. I personally will pass on 18€ 200ml stouts

 

Stefan Raab has improved things somewhat...and things like Joko and Klaas are pretty entertaining. But generally it's still pretty true.

Still, the "exclusive tasting on the northern tip of Sylt" should have tipped readers off that the Koestritzer PA was a joke. But then I assume the geeks got all "excite" (as the kids say) at just the thought of new "craft" beers and didn't really read the article(s) at all.

Kinda funny in some way, I suppose.

 

Fan of Joko and Klaas, actually. Not a huge fan of Schlag Den Raab though. German TV is weird in ways that are difficult to explain.

 

I just don't get it. So many great, easy to find beers at €1,00 or less per 500ml that I just don't know how that pricing is justified. I think in part the brewers are trying to sell "craft" as a gourmet experience and hoping people will buy into that idea. On a related note, I bought 4 bottles of St. Georgenbräu's Kellerbier today at €0,90 per bottle.

 

I recently found a sixpack of Faust's Doppelbock (one of the best Doppelbocks I have ever tried!) for € 2 + deposit. When I asked at the counter why it was so cheap, she pointed at the best before date which was "only" about 3 months away. As if a Doppelbock had a best before...

 

You should have seen things before Raab came around. Ever heard of Thomas Koschwitz? Ugh...

 

As you know, it's very similar here. While I quite like the beer, COAST Brewing's Koelsch is $6.99 for 22 oz. That's $23 per 6-pack. Not going to pay it (beyond the first curiosity-fueled purchase). Pretty much 50%+ of the current "craft" industry in the U.S. is built on business models that include such pricing. (By contrast, Gaffel is $11 per sixer and SN averages around $6.99 hereabouts.)

Enjoy that Kellerbier (grumble, grumble...)

 

I'm happy to say I haven't. On the plus side to German humor, though...

 

How is Koschwitz related to comedy? I only know him as a radio host. He's retired now, but he sometimes (maybe once or twice a year) does special shows about "the olde time music" of the 60s and 70s on HR1.

Raab is very, very plain. His show has been running for more than 15 years now and sometimes when I see him, it seems he's just doing his job. Most of the jokes that are written for him are so poor that you see it in his face. But it seems to work, the show is still running.

As for Joko and Klaas: I never got them. Is that comedy? Both of them just appear quite unappealing to me, but maybe I just don't get what's written for the teens and twens.

In the comedy sector, just as in the beer sector, once again Bavaria is prevailing. There are some top cabaret-shows from Bavaria and Franconia at least once or twice a week on BR.

 

Would also like to nominate Loriot for a German Comedy Award.

Both "Das Interview" and "Der Sprechende Hund" are pretty funny. Here is Das Interview:

 

For a brief time in the 90s they had him on a rival station in Gottschalk's time slot for a late night show. Not surprised you missed it....

Another one that was funny -- if a bit (very) predictable -- for a while was Bodo Bach. Maybe @boddhitree knows him, being the Hessen guy.

 

When I lived in Deutschland, it was know as Mainhatten or Crankfurt. The first was about the banks and skyscrapers, the second had to do with the drugs that were abundant.

Indy and SLC are as much as a stretch as is Denver.

Just saying...

 

Bodo Bach is still active, but if you're looking for real Hessen-comedy, go for Badesalz! They've been around for more than 30 years now and are starting a new programme this year. It's quite common among us people in Hessen here to quote them from time to time and people will understand that you were just cracking a joke referring to them without explicably having to explain what that was all about. People just know these things.
I've been to a solo show of Henni Nachtsheim (one of them two guys) last year and it was hilarious!

 

Until a majority of Germans no longer crack up at "Dinner for One," I will maintain that their sense of humor is lacking.

 

If everything works out as planned this weekend, I will have a post that will make you even more jealous. Stay tuned!

 

Will that post be signed JackH!?!

Cheers!

 

[part 1]

It's been a while since i posted this review of Braustil, and felt a major update was due. Click on the upward-pointing arrow above to read it again.
I've been hanging out there, and even been pictured on their Facebook page:

That's me showing off the then new Oak Wheat: Weizenrauchbier in front of their place.
I've gotten to know the Braumeister Sasha and the business partner Georg.

You see them here allowing me to showcase my Lebkuchen Braun Ale, a bottle of which I had given them as a present, and we all shared it. They were very impressed, thank you, but what for me was most interesting is that we also shared it with some of the customers that were sitting around that evening, almost all of whom asked when and where they could buy it.

I mention this because I've gotten to know these guys, go there at least once a week, even once watched a little as Sasha was brewing a Dinkel beer, and would like to pass on my re-evaluation of this place.

First, I mentioned that the crowd who showed up on the first day were older types. Now, there are some that go there that are older, but from what I've observed, they get all types, all ages, from hip-20 somethings to grandmotherly to the business man and woman. Now, this place isn't located in a unhip part of FfM, no, it's on one of the hipper local shopping streets. Oederweg has got more a local shops but all mid to upscale, so most of their clientele will be educated, have good office jobs, and can afford to live in this pretty upscale, but not upper crust, neighbourhood. Now, I live about a 10 to 15 minute walk away, depending on how hard Lucky the Independent-minded Aussie Terrier is pulling on his leash or how often he decider to sniff every 4 feet. For me that's in the usual range of our dog walk, so you can imagine many Saturday afternoons my walks with lucky become excursions to drink and talk beer.

Lucky lying on his favorite place.

Lucky and I posing for our Braustil

Second, I've come to appreciate their beers for what they are and have been slowly pushing them to brew more "adventurous" beers. After talking to Sasha, the brewmaster, I realised he knew only what a normal German brewer whose brewed only Pils, Märzen, Weizen, Dunkles, knows, and that's how to brew those beers on not much else. Basically, he didn't know about brewing software like Brewsmith, which I showed him on my laptop, and when I astoundedly asked him why not, he said, it wasn't hard to remember just 3 or 4 recipes that German brewers brew over and over. He also asked me for advice on how to dry hop, and had almost never heard of any hops that were't your traditional Noble hop variety. He's interested to expand, but they are first trying to build out a clientele of Germans who are very conservative, which I completely understand.

So far, he brewed a couple very interesting beers, the Frankfurt Dark Ale,


which was supposed to be a darker IPA, but he realised he couldn't dry hop because their tap lines go directly from the lager tanks, which means the hops may be sitting in the beer for weeks, and for him there's no way to remove them except to empty the entire tank. So, that beer became a darker, hoppier version minus dry hopping of a Pale Ale. Another beer was the Smoked Wheat: weizenrauchbier, which may have been from a discussion we had about Pax Bräu's beer. Both beers were really well received and their 500 L batches were sold out within 2+ weeks.

Nonetheless, despite my penchant for trying to see how adventurous they'll go, one of my favorite beers is the Helles, which I mistakenly called a Pils in my original review of this place. I like it because it tastes like a real Bayrische Helles, unfiltered, fresh as hell, more like a Kellerbier, one I keep coming back to again and again.

Another thing I like is so far, they've not just made the same beer again and again. The only mainstay seems to be the Helles, but all the rest have been an ever-changing line up. And since they brew only 500 L batches, and bottle only about ⅓ or more of that, once it's gone, you've gotta except it and move on to whatever's on tap or left in bottles. It makes you want to go there more often, or lobby for your favourite to return, as I see many customers doing. or, there's always some suspense on what you'll find when you show up.

Also, they don't serve any food. It's a small place, an next door is a gourmet foodie shop that sells wild-game meat and higher end wines, and have a long established clientele of most older folk who mix with the beer folk, sitting in the outdoor, covered seating area when it's warm enough to do so.

In part 2 I'll post some reviews I wrote about their beers.

 

[Part 2]

Reviews of some of Braustil's beers.

20/2/14
Nordend Lager
Aroma: pils malt only when I take deep breathes thru my nose, otherwise not much.
Flavor: like a pils, up front noble hops, a little peppery bite with a hint of of grass, but only a small amount of bitterness.
Middle: more bitterness than up front still a slight pepper bite. On sides a little caramel, some pils malt. Back: not too much going on, almost citric, a liltle bitterness, too.
Overall: a hop-forward beer full of peppery punches with some bitter and citric notes, the pils malt sweetness comes mostly on the sides.
[sorry, no pic]

March 4, 2014
Oak Wheat (Weizenrauchbier)
Aroma: typical Weizen, BBG, banana, wheat & yeast, quite strong all together. Nice!
Taste: Front - slightly bitter, some Noble hop flavor, a little grass taste
Mid - some malt, not much, but more wheat flavor, and a light touch of smoke, some bitter, too. This is where the smoke comes and settles on the tongue, nice!
Back - lots of Pils and wheat malt flavors, a little caramel, sweetness of Pils, bready, toastiness of a Helles.
Aftertaste - all wheat malt, a little spiciness from hops.
Overall, a very tasty beer! A mix of wheat, smoke, and luckily no BBG, banana or cloves flavor, though its teased in the aroma. Very good!

Georg holding/serving me the Oak Wheat.


Märzen. 2014/03/29 15:47

Aroma: lots of caramel, Münchenermalz, very much like a Märzen, toasty.
Flavor:
Front: roasted and toasted flavors, a nice amount of bitterness up front, like a Noble hop, maybe Tettnanger?
Middle: lots of roasted, caramel, quite sweet but not overly so. Delicious.
Back: again same as middle, very caramelly, roasted flavor, burnt umami taste of blackened Cajun chicken, a very deep flavor to enjoy.
Aftertaste: more burnt, blackened and roasted malt, lingering like blackened pan-fried meat. On top of that, you get a hop bitterness bite that stays with you.
Overall: At first, when I heard Bayrisches Märzen, I expected more a caramel-forward beer, sweet; however, this beer is better because it's far more complex than that. It's a roasted BBQ-ers dream, full of umami and sharp burnt flavors which mix wonderfully with the sweet caramelly under and overtones, and... a nice bitterness up front and in the aftertaste. A really well balanced mix of flavors.

Frankfurt Dark Ale
Review on Facebook:
Passend zum Start unseres FRANKFURT DARK ALE besuchte uns Tim aus Milwaukee, Wisconsin, von der Brauerei MKE Brewing Co.
www.mkebrewing.com

Schon in Amerika hatte er von BrauStil gehört und steuerte uns somit zielsicher an.
Alle unsere Biere begeisterten ihn, hier seine Notiz zum Franfurt Dark Ale:

"An incredibly unique dark ale. The strong flavour of German hops was both surprising and exciting. It´s great to see and taste real German Craft Beer. The flavour experimentation reminds me of American Craft Beer."

Tim, thank you for visiting us and enjoy your trip to Germany and Belgium.