Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

This is correct. The "style guidelines" like we have in the US simply don't apply in Franconia; this is what I have been saying for some time. Ungespundet simply means the tanks are unbunged during fermentation, resulting in lower (but natural) CO2 levels. I guess you could call it a Kellerbier if you like -- and I'm sure some people may order it this way. But doing so in no way means it will be cloudy like Mahr's version. Similarly, there are 100s of other such examples throughout the region, ranging from very pale to amber to brown to black to bright clear to slightly hazy to cloudy. Some are called U(ngespundet), some Kellerbier, some simply Lagerbier, some Urstoff, some Landbier, and some are named after their brewery or owner (like Kathibrau).

 

Hmmm….

Below is what Michael Jackson stated:

“The beers made in and around Bamberg are especially individualistic. The best-known style of the area is Rauchbier, made with smoked malt, but there are also other local specialities. One is the unfiltered style of lager that is variously known as Zwickelbier, Kellerbier or Ungespundet beer.”

http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-000275.html

I suppose that a beer could be ‘unbunged’ (ungespundet) and still filtered?

Cheers!

 

You can keep trying (with the help of any number of secondary sources) to categorize them if you like. Nothing you come up with will likely come anywhere close to the reality, though.

 

Patrik,

Triumph Brewery, a brewpub near me, brews their version of Wagner-Brau Lagerbier ungespundet. Triumph calls their beer Aldstadt Lager.

A description of this beer:

“Our brewer trekked through the treacherous Hartz mountains of Germany in search of the best beers in the world. What he found was a style of beer known as Ungespundet Lagerbier at Wagner-Brau in Franconia. Our Aldstadt Lager is a tribute to the greatest beer in the world. 5.5% ABV.”

Aldstadt Lager is a slight hazy golden color with a very pleasing balance of bready malt flavor with just enough noble hop bitterness/flavor to provide some balance. A very süffig beer for my palate.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the German beers you recently received. I can’t wait to hear about your next beer!!

Cheers!

Jack

 

Ungespundet is a relic of the old days I guess when brewers could either let the lager beer remain unbunged during the entire lagering period (after being fermented in open vats), in contrast to bunging it towards the end of the lagering period and let the slow secondary fermentation generate more dissolved co2. Do you know if some breweries nowadays leave the beer unbunged during both the fermentation and lagering phase, or is it just during the fermentation phase?

 

I admire these guys for their praise of Wagner. The marketing speak here is pretty funny, though. The Harz (no "t") are a mountain range in Lower Saxony/Saxony-Anhalt and are about 200 km north of Franconia (and separated by a number of other mountain ranges). So to say you trekked through them and "found" Wagner is pretty silly. Reminds me of the old J. Peterman catalogues Also, the Harz are about as "treacherous" as the Appalacian foothills....

(And, yes, I know you were talking to Patrik and not to me...)

 

I think it varies from brewery to brewery (and even beer to beer). As you probably know, the CO2 levels can vary wildly in these beers. Something like a St Georgenbrau can be slightly spritzy, while a Mahr's U is lightly but noticably carbonated; and then you have beers like the Lager from Brauerei Hoenig in Tiefenellern that is as "flat" as a UK cask ale. I have seen places that fill their kegs with very low carbonated beer and then "Krausen" it by dumping some fresh beer (sometimes from a green plastic watering can) into the keg to create carbonation. As for Mahr's, I think it's only during primary that the tanks are ungespundet, but I'm not 100% sure.

 

I don't think the beer in the picture is the same one that Triumph is referring to. There is a Wagner Bräu in Oberhaid and a Wagner-Bräu in Kemmen, both in Franconia. The one above is Brauerei Wagner.

 

Patrik,

Here is a video from Shelton Brothers which has some discussion about bunging & unbunging beer in casks; this specific discussion starts around the 5:30 mark.

Cheers!

Jack

 

With all this talk about kellerbier and zwickl I thought I'd go with a beer which puts both terms on the same label. Ellertaler Zwickl, naturtrübes kellerbier. I kind of like the unassuming label, you have no idea what kind of beer it will be, will it be generic or will it be noteworthy and tasty. I lean towards the latter. It's definitely towards the dry and hoppy end of the spectrum. It's really dry actually. The bitterness is good, but not a stand out flavor. It matches the hop flavor quite nicely. I wouldn't mind a stronger bitterness in a beer of a similar type, but it seems just right in this case, if it was softer it would detract from the taste instead I think. I would describe this beer as being taylored to my own taste preferences, dry and noticably hoppy with a good bitterness. The kellerbier/zwickl aspect makes itself known by the haze I suppose, but I find that it's really a clean beer, just as clean as Keesmann Herrenpils. The hop flavor reminds me of the Kellerbier from Nya Carnegiebryggeriet, which in turn reminds me of a Swedish craft pilsner which uses Saazer hops as its late boil hop addition, which makes me wonder if this beer uses Saaz hops instead of Hallertauer hops, it would be interesting if it did.

 

Jerry,

You are correct that there are multiple breweries with the name Wagner associated with it.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/5959/33075/

vs.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/6231/82168/

Is Wagner a common German brewing name?

Since the ‘advertising’ from the brewpub screwed up the Harz Mountain part I wonder if the dude who generated the write-up got the correct brewery name?

Makes no nevermind to me; Aldstadt Lager ist gut!!

Cheers!

 

This is from Reh in Lohndorf, one town over from Tiefenellern. Again, just goes to show how different these beers are from one village to the next.

 

I had read an interview (or some other piece, can't recall exactly) with the Triumph folks before and believe that they mentioned Wagner in Kemmern.

 

Another kellerbier in my glass. I've had this beer once before but it's obviously been a long time since I had it because I don't recall it being this dark nor do I recall the flavor. The flavor I would describe as being prominently herbal hoppy, bitter and slightly roasted, like some darker malt, along with Munich (and pilsner) malt is used. It's rather full bodied but still very much dry. The Wagner Lagerbier had some definite sweetness, but the Reh-bier Zwickl and this one are definitely dry. This is a really full flavored beer, that's the description I would use for it.

Or as herrburgess puts it:

This is very much what I'm finding also, in bottled versions no less. If one considers the line up of beers which each brewery produces (I'm making a bold prediction here that the quality will be pretty even across the board), would one really need outside breweries? I would have to answer that question with a negative, especially when one considers the humane price level of German beers.

 

Some of those beers cost 1.70 EUR (or on average, around 2 EUR) per half liter -- and that's in the tavern or Bierkeller/garten. In the crate/bottle, they are usually less than 0.75 EUR per half liter. So as much as I would like to try something like a Pax-Brau (or a Berlin-brewed Stone beer), I'd have a very hard time justifying the purchase.

I lived in the area for around 7 years and only managed to drink less than 1/3 of what's out there. I will say -- as Matt Riggs did above -- that the greenness can vary depending upon the season. But for me this just adds to the culture.

Does this culture "need" American-style (or outside) beers? Absolutely not. Rather the much greater need IMO is for American-style brewers need to explore this culture. That said, if brewing U.S. "craft" clones leads younger folks to discover the treasures in their own backyard, then bring them on.

 

Last call for tonight. Reckendorfer Lagerbier Hell. Pale colored lager beer. It tastes and smells alot like the lager beers brewed by another Swedish brewery, Åbro bryggeri. That particular brewery brews alot of their beers with Spalter Select, Hallertau Taurus and Perle hops, and their beers have a very distinct aroma and flavor profile (with IBU values for their Export lager beers around 24-25 and for their extra strong lager beers around 30IBUs). This beer is on the dry and bitter side, with a good herbal hoppiness that is distinct from any of the previously tasted beers, yet it's very similar to Åbro's beers. I've always thought that Åbro has had their own unique flavor profile, but this brewery seems to share alot in common with them.

 

Patrik (@Crusader) I enjoyed watching the video of Åbro brewery!

Cheers!

 

Got a nice little haul of German/German-style stuff at the bottle shop yesterday and promptly broke into a Franziskaner Weissbier over some takeout Thai last night (a fine pairing, if I might say so). Bottled in late October, so not super fresh, but I did find it in the cooler, so maybe that helped preserve a little life on it...because it was downright delicious.

Franziskaner was one of the few weissbiers I'd had in my lesser beer nerd days, and I remember enjoying it. In fact, I remember being surprised at enjoying it, because most of my other exposure to wheat beers were of the American pale wheat variety, with their bitter lemonyness, and I wasn't (and still often am not) a fan of those at all. At any rate, I was once again taken with yesterday's Franziskaner, of which I get that trademark banana/clove combo in spades. The nose is yeasty but mostly sweet with banana. The palate delivers a bit more balance with the yeast/clove spice, and the body of the beer is very nice indeed, fluffy carbonation offsetting any heft that might've come with the wheat. Though I have many more weissbiers to explore, this one could easily be a staple in my fridge, no doubt partly due to its ubiquity -- I can as easily find it on a supermarket shelf as the local, craft-centric bottle shop. Looking forward to trying more weissbiers, but if this and Weihenstephaner were the only ones available to me, I wouldn't be too displeased.

 

And on to Hofbrau's Hefe Weizen. This was really interesting and very different than most of the German hefeweizens I've tried. It didn't have any banana/clove action going on, nor was it particularly spicy. It was soft and subtle. I actually picked up some bready barley-oriented malt on the backend, quite the surprise from a wheat beer. The nose threatened with a bit of skunk (bottled in mid-November in those infamous green bottles), but it backed off with a little time. There was sort of a general fruitiness to the taste, though, again, quite soft and subdued, with some wheat malt in there as well and a delicately measured yeast note. I enjoyed this brew and would drink it again as an alternative to the more potent examples of the style. Really appreciated its unique spin on it, though.

 

They are safe now. That wasn't always the case though and I'm sure they were referring to the "good old times" 200 years ago.