Märican Biere Bought and Drunk...

Jabby Brau is pretty good, but I found the malts to be a bit lacking. Once the carbonation starts fizzling out a bit, the whole beer just seemed to be pretty weak. There's just one thing a lot of US craft brewers seem unable to nail in lagers, and that's the malts.

 

That's been an ongoing discussion around here and other beer forums going into its second decade.

 

Have you tried it recently? More so on tap than the bottle (the last bottle I had was very fresh, and it echoes your sentiments above, but I may have been experiencing palate fatigue from other beers).

At first it was very inconsistent, but until the last bottle I had, it was delightful, particularly because of the malts in the beer, reminded me of a Helles.

 

Interesting that MJ started out this thread with a review of the Jabby Brau...

 

Life comes full circle!?!

"Jabby Brau. This one encapsulated the "Germany vs. USA" debate more or less in it's entirety. While I thought it tasted fine, I was put off because it was not "to-style" as I have come to define it in my own way. Whereas die Frau didn't care that it wasn't to some idea of a style, she thought it tasted great. In fact, she was mad that Germany would never brew this sort of beer. We were completely divided on this beer."

My palate is similar to Matt's wife's palate.

Cheers!

 

No I haven't had it recently. I read on their website that they were changing the way they were carbonating their bottles or something so as to facilitate more of a "cask" style straight from the bottle, so maybe you got one of the new 'formats' (for lack of a better term). I could imagine the tighter carbonation in a cask-style beer to help lend the beer some backbone.

I'll have to try it again though! I definitely liked it last time, but felt myself just wanting that little bit extra that the Europeans seem to have down pat. I think the closest I've gotten to the European lightly-colored-beer-but-good-malt-body is Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold. That one surprised me a bit by being as 'big' as it was, but even though thinned out a bit once the carbonation fizzled off a bit.

 

Well, I should clarify. I like Jabby Brau a lot, but it's no way near as excellent as say, Schlenkerla Helles or Andech's Vollbier Hell.

I have one more bottle in my fridge, I plan on having it tomororw night (before another Rothaus), I'll try to pay attention the level of carbonation. As I said before, I wasn't keen on last week's bottle, but my palate may have been fried.

 

I thought this picture and accompanying info on Schell's facebook page was rather interesting, exciting even (for something I will never get to try myself). As per one of the comments, which now seems to be gone, the beer that they are making will be a Märzenbier stored over the summer in the ice-cooled cave (I wonder if they will be using whiskey barrels or pitched barrels to store the beer in, the latter would be pretty amazing).

 

Ok, I had this one last night thx to a fellow BA. Sure it's not from 'murka but it was a tasty brew none the less

PS: sorry for neglecting my beer photo shoots lately. I'm on a bit of a fitness kick and my wife has limited my beer intake to 'help out.'

 

Patrik, maybe Dave (@bergbrew) can share more details.

It sounds like a novel idea!!

Cheers!

 

"Novel" strikes me as an odd choice of words for a practice that has been around for centuries, but I agree it is a "cool" thing Schell's is doing.



http://www.nordbayern.de/region/eis-aus-dem-ludwigskanal-fur-ein-kuhles-bier-1.2608208

 

It struck me as a bit gimmicky, but I wonder when was the last time a brewery actually used river/lake-cut ice in their lagering caves.

 

But "cool" gimmicky, right?

Cheers!

 

Yea, I hope they have actually tested this and had good results with it, and are not just foisting it onto consumers who will act as guinea pigs (though I suspect some folks like that kind of thing). Seems like it could be a very temperamental process. Most German places abandoned it long ago -- even replacing river ice with ice from man-made wooden structures that produce large icicles, like this:

 

I'm guessing they'll keep a close eye on temperatures. The barrels will be in the caves that they used to use so I'm assuming the temperature will stay appropriately cool. I also doubt that they'd sell a product that had turned.

Either way, I will be one of those guinea pigs. It's a great brewery producing some really good American-made German-style beers.

 

Totally agree about Schell's being a great brewery doing great things. Just reading about how seriously they took the production of their Berliner Weisse gave me great faith in them. I don't doubt they know what they are doing here, and I trust they wouldn't release any "failed" experiments. If you try it, be sure to report back.

 

For those BAs that are US based: next month Troegs will be releasing their seasonal beer of Cultivator Helles Bock. Last year’s version was very good. The ‘bonus’ this year is that they will be available in cans. Woo-Hoo!

Cheers!

 

I think they'll be fine as long as they remember to use alot of preservatives like in the old days .

 

If they load it up with hops, the beer geeks will start lining up in March, demanding it get tapped within hours of filling the kegs lest the hops fade.

 

Touché .