German craft beer

With the new Americanized German beers, I have a question. Are breweries using German brewing techniques & equipment with American recipes ? I.e. thin mash, pumping the mash, spunding, even lager yeasts ? That would put a definite German stamp on the styles. Would love to see an indian pale lager with Saphir, Spalt, etc. Or a Doppelbock with dry hopping.

 

I'm in Muenchen with the wife and baby in late Aug for 10 days of R&R, which will include many lazy biergarten lunches. While we will get out a fair bit in the daytime, most nights will be spent in the accommodation given we have a 6 month old daughter. I'm staying near Prinzregentstraße U bahn - anybody recommend any good Getranke shops within a shortish bahn ride that I could get some quality beers from wider Bavaria ?

 

The Münchner BierInseln webpage might be a good start for you.

 

Danke!

 

I haven't been to either Biervana or Getränke Oase, but both could be hit via U-Bahn, with a change and a short walk. Or head down to the Ostbahnhof and get on the S-Bahn to Harthaus, wher Liebick is located. I have been there, and it has shit-loads....

Also, from Prinzregentstraße you would be 1 U-Bahn stop (Max-Weber) from the Hofbräukeller.... a real nice place with a Biergarten...

Prosit!!

 

Look through this thread and the Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk threads, and you'll find lots of examples of beers I and others have reported on that are Germanized versions of American beers. They mix the use of either German hops and malts with American ones and have done a fabulous job. And yes, they've developed beers I'd call German IPAs.

The brewers that come to mind:

• BrauKunstKeller
• Pax Bräu
• Camba Bavaria
• Reigele
• Brauerei Faust
• Braustil (in FFM only)
• Maxbrauerie

I've never had these, so I'm not sure they're any good or what ingredients they use.

• Hoppebräu
• Crew Ale
• Propellor
• Auxburg City Brewery
  
• Holy Cowl
• Brauerei Sander
  
• Fritz Ale
• Brauartium (Just saw them listed on Bierzwerg website... from a small town between Osnabrück and the Dutch border.)
  
• Gruthaus (produce a Pumpernickel Porter and other beers I'm dieing to try.)

Here's a link to Biershop Bayern's IPA page, too.

 

Last weekend I spent a few hours at Braustil here in FfM and got to try and review their Frankfurt Pale Ale. I have to say first that I'd tried it 3 weeks before while it was at the tail end of it's fermentation, and though it hadn't been released on the city, Sascha, the Braumeister, let me try a glass and I was impressed. I didn't write down anything, and I can't remember a thing of what it tasted like. I remember liking it, though. Fast forward to now, and I got to sit down and properly review the Frankfurt Pale Ale finally.


Looks pretty in their "biergarten," doesn't it?

Aroma: Not a lot here, some pils malt, sweetness from München malt, but no hop aroma

Flavor:
Up front: some spice and c-hop bitterness, sweet malty flavor, a good amount of toast and pale malt. Quite complex. Also come citrus and other fruitiness, more like grapefruit.

Mid: Much more bitterness here, not much Noble hop floweriness- and even more sweetness of pale ale maltiess, almost toasted but more into biscuit flavors. Here is where you taste it's a pale ale.

Back: More roasted malts, quite sweet, some into caramel, into hot alcohol notes, which sounds bad but really it's good b/c it gives it a warm spiciness. You can also taste fruitiness from the hops, though it's hard to place exactly which fruit, but it's a savory flavor.

Aftertaste: Lots of sweet malts and bitterness linger, with the bitterness being what's mostly left in the back of the throat.

Mouthfeel: Thick creamy like a German beer should be. Gemütlich in the mouth.

Overall: An excellent beer! The aroma was really the only disappointment, here. I love the complexity of the flavors, sharp bitterness, not too much, just right in the Goldilocks zone. It's got lots of pale and pils malt flavots, and even Münchener malt caramel. There's just enough fruitiness mixed in to give it a wonderful mysterious flavor.


I also took pics of their fridge windows in order for y'all to see their prices.








Notice the difference between the Helles [2.5€ for 0.33L & 4€ for 0.75L] & the FFM Pale Ale [4€ for 0.33L & 7€ for 0.75L]?

 

Yesterday, I had a few hours free time, and Lucky and I got to go to Naïv for lunch, a restaurant/bar in FfM I reported about earlier in this thread, and where I'd had a few German Craft brews, especially from BrauKusntKeller.



Click on the arrow below to read the entire post and the reviews of the beers again, if you wish. Last time, I had and reviewed the BrauKusntKeller Mandarina IPA and Laguna IPA, and I was only mildly impressed. Look at the pics of the menu from back then. 2 pages long.

,
Now let's look at the beer menu on 2014/07/23... twice as long! And if you can't see the small print, I'll give you some of the highlights: they now have BrewDog, Wulle Hell, Brauerei Rittmayer's Kellerbier, a couple more by Hans Müller Sommelierbier, such as IPAs, Crew Republic's beers, 2 from Sierra Nevada & Kona Brewery, Mascaret (don't know anything about them) and a few more.









Unfortunately, I only had enough time and money for 1 little ol' beer, so I had the only beer I hadn't tried from BrauKusntKeller, the Amarsi IPA.


Here's a nice pic of it in the glass:


Aroma; Lots of c-hops, grapefruit, melons...the usual, and it's strong, wonderful with a nice bit of caramel lurking behind, and a hint of alcohol wafting over it.

Flavor:
Front: Nice bite of bitterness, not Noble but US Amarillo bitterness. Sweet fruity mango, melons, grapefruit, tartness and a layer of super sweet sugar flavor. Yum! Wow.

Mid: More mangos, melon, grapefruit, again, heavy but not overbearing bitterness if Amarillo, and here comes the caramel malts, a decent heavy sweetness of Münchner malts combined with crystals, and then an undertone of yeastiness to show off its bottle conditioned aspect and freshness. Best Buy Date is Feb 9, 2015. IBUS - 66 & 7.1% abv.

Back: Lots more bitterness here but again at a comfy level, & even more caramel malt sweetness. Some tartness also present, and los of mango, etc. too.

Aftertaste: Bittersweet, the hops linger as does a sweetness.

Mouthfeel: thick and creamy like a Münchner beer or Märzen with a dry finish.

Overall: Wow beer. Really, it's got C-hop fruitiness galor, above average bitterness that lets you know it's there bit doesn't move in and overstay its welcome. But what I like the most is the balance of malts, caramel is strong enough to almost be a Märzen but not full slap your face and drown in it. It's an incredibly malt/hop balance that not enough American IPAs reach. This gives it a delicious complexity, and no flavor range overpowers any other… that keeps you coming back for more and more. A WOW WOW beer. Outside of Cissy IPA (how can one compete, Rauchmalz & Märzen, C & NZ hops!), the best German IPA I've had.


Finally, they also gave Lucky his own drink, on the house, without me even having to ask (that's how ubiquitous dogs are in German restaurants):

 

Hoppe Bräu's Vogel Wuid IPA is one of the best IPA's I've ever tried, German or otherwise. I'm not sure if you'd like it - I wonder - it is not very bitter. For me, it was perfect.

 

I'd like second Camba Bavaria's IPA, by the way. I didn't like it at first (I drank it immediately after the Vogel Wuid), but it grew on me a lot by the end of the bottle - always a good sign.

 

That was one of the better articles I read about "craft beer" in Germany. Some big newspapers and online magazines have been keeping embarassing themselves when writing about the topic. Still, what I'm missing about the movement here, is a stronger emphasis on domestic styles. They need to be improved and offered at reasonable prices to gain more beer drinkers. It's not like we had not enough styles at hand.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Ales and Stouts, etc., they're just not the tradition here and seeing the lineup of some of the German "craft beer" breweries that only consist of a number of Pale Ales and India Pale Ales makes me sick. Those beers may be excellent, but introducing "craft beer" to Germany doesn't equal introducing Anglo-American styles IMO.

 

I understand your statements.

Isn’t it up to the German breweries (including German craft breweries) to decide which beers they want to brew? Aren’t they formulating business plans based upon what they think beer consumers want to drink?

Cheers!

 

I've been pointing out and posting about dozens of such examples for years now. Where have you been?

 

Wrong. From Bamberg, Berlin, Koeln, Muenchen, Quedlinburg, Goslar, etc.