German craft beer

Uhm Weyermann had one long,long before it was cool, sure, But it was english inspired, and..well you couldn't exactly get it anywhere besides the store itself, for a high price..
Otherwise- are we talking larger Bamberg area or Bamberg itself?
If we are talking about the region, Weihrer has been along for a few years now I think. Among the first ones was Werneckers Fränkischer Hopfenfluch. And well, a few are here and there,like from Staffelberg Bräu..
But Bamberg itself, besides Weyermann and Erlkönig- No idea.

 

I didn't try the Weyermann IPA when I did the tour -- and honestly don't remember it being on offer -- so I couldn't say there. However, the other beers we bought at the gift shop were shockingly bad...and I say that as a huge Weyermann fanboy as regards their traditional malts.

 

I had several Weyermann beers, some from the gift shop, some from Cafe Abseits..
They were kind of a mixed bag. I really liked the IPA though, the Weizenbock was kinda decent, but there was pretty mediocre and bad stuff. And when you are at Cafe Abseits for instance, there is usually a lot of way better cheaper stuff on offer.
As for franconian IPAs: Despite one or two overpriced examples at the start of the "new craft beer" idea in germany, all of them I had were at least decent. Weiherers for instance is good. A good bet for widely aviable ones would be Maisel's Bayreuth. Their "Stefan's India Ale" has been around for a long time now. Though I personally prefer their cheaper Pale Ale, which, as far as I can tell, is a relatively authentic take on an APA. Plus, with Maisel's you usually NEVER have bad bottles. Although I've never been a huge fan of their traditional lager lineup which is marketed as "Aktien" or in some cases "Bayreuther Brauhaus"...
Most small village brewers that make american Ales though often just call it "Pale Ale" or "American Pale Ale" and don't bother too much with what makes the difference between an IPA and an APA. I guess it's the same approach they apply to their regular Lagers
All in all, I would rate the average quality of franconian IPAs still a lot higher than efforts from the rest of germany, and way more consistent inmost cases.

 

You can usually find several fairly local IPAs and PAs at Abseits. Even now I see one hopped with Galaxy out of Nuernberg.

http://www.abseits-bamberg.de/

NBG Hopburst Interstellar IPA, 0,33 l..............4,50
Intensiv gehopft mit Galaxy. 5,6% vol. alc.

 

The Suessholz Porter from Weyermann was pretty decent. The rest -- including their Rauchbier, Schlotfegerla (smoky dark Kellerbier), and Bohemian Pilsner -- all ended up in the drain...and I dont drainpour easily. The Rauchbier had a touch of infection, and the Schlot was thin and messy. I was as surprised as anyone about this, as I couldn't be a bigger fan of their products.

 

When was this?
My first encounter was in 2008 I think,with bottled 0.5l beers and mixed results- awesome IPA, decent Weizenbock, bad "Kölsch",more I don't really remember, would have to check my notes..
But I bet their stuff is pretty incosistent. I mean it's weird to judge it, it's from a pilot brewery, lots of different people experiment on it (I think the IPA was one of the very few beers they make regularly). I remember a smoked Porter being very good, but that was years later,maybe 2011,2012 or so.

As again for Cafe Abseits:
Whatever they have from Gänstaller, try it. Their "traditional" offerings are soetimes mediocre, but their "crafty" stuff... Their Baltic Porter holds a special place in my beer heart.

 

This was 2012. If their Koelsch was based on the recipe they used to have online, I trust is wasnt very good. Brewed that recipe early on using the suggested S-23 yeast and got something that tasted like those orange circus peanut candies you find here in the US. Ugh...

 

Thanks for the overview. In addition to your comments about the beers, the perspective is very helpful in making sense of a few other things.

 

You are very welcome, I'm very happy about anyone who is interested in my beer ramblings. About what other things can you make sense now...? I mean I could go on and on about the situation of craft in franconia. Sadly, I stopped taking notes around 2010, so there are no real in depth descriptions for the most part, I just know what I liked and what not..and of stuff I bought more often, I have a few more memories it tastes and how consistent it was.

Plus, I really admire the coexistence of new- and oldschool styles there... I hope it stays this way.

 

Other things to make sense of? Well it actually involves reinforcement and elaboration on a long held personal belief that everywhere one goes things are typically more complex than simple generalizations may portray, e.g., not all beers from a particular region are outstanding (or bad). Similarly its nice to once again realize that no one area of the world has a monopoly on production of quality beer (or on lesser beers). Beers in one place may differ from other places perhaps but that difference does not make them inherently better than beers that can be found elsewhere.

In someways it's like the first time I read about the wine tasting called The Judgment of Paris when the stereotypical generization that French Wines were inherently superior to all others was effectively shattered in a blind tasting. My reading of the history of the US wine industry was that one effect of that blind tasting was that it encouraged many more people to believe that the skills of the wine maker might be as or more important than the grapes being grown in a particular vineyard in a particular small region of the world. At a personal level it steered me away from obsessing about things like terroir and toward paying much more attention to the enjoyment and quality of the individual wine on the Table in front of me.

Making any sense?

 

Maisel are now doing an IPA and a Weizen IPA in .330ml bottles. I haven't tried the Weizen IPA (not a Weizen fan) but the IPA seemed very similar to Lagunitas IPA which is very easy to find in England these days.

 

Mr. Greg; Are you still in Berlin? The Frau and I are headed up there for the Labor Day weekend and Stone is on our list to visit. I have a couple cans of La Cumbre's Elevated IPA I can bring with for a tasting if interested.

-N8

 

Camba Bavaria Hop Gun.
Supposed to be a Brown Ale, but i'd categorize this as an old school East Coast IPA.
It was pretty good though.

 

Hey man, nice glass!

 

Lol!

 

Having a "Badisch Gose" by Welde...
Good beer in its own right, but no Gose in my opion. Not really sour. Reminds me more of a Witbier...

 

Sooo... does anybody actually have any intel on the Camba Bavaria Milk Stout? I was just wondering because I think it went out of production a few years ago because Bavarian authorities were telling them it might be "misleading for consumers", then I think I read something about them thinking about moving production to Belgium and then shipping the beer back here and now I've heard rumors about them looking into brewing it in Austria (with them having their own RHB where it wouldn't be much of an issue).

But I'd be interested if that came back, I really liked it when I tried it and I haven't seen many German breweries attempt solid milk stouts. And frankly, I don't want to pay 4€ for a bottle of Left Hand.

 

Looking forward to Urbock on Thursday...

 

So, I just tried the Elbe Gose by Kehrwieder and I liked it quite a bit - the sourness was subtle, the body was pretty light and it goes down like water. So far I only had Ale Mania's Gose which was short of exploding in my face (half of it pretty much hit my pants) - I don't entirely remember its taste but I think I liked it. I still have the Ritterguts Gose up for comparison which I don't want to try on my own, though.


Speaking of Kehrwieder, I recently also tried a Jron Grünhopfen which was a collaboration brew by Kehrwieder and Uerige - it was 2 months over the MHD - the hop flavor was in the background (possibly due to the age) and there was a lot of malt coming through. Still a really good brew. Shame I haven't gotten to try more Alt than Ueriege and Gruthaus (I do realize the former is a Düsseldorf and the latter a Münster, I like both though)

I seem to have grown quite fond of certain regional styles in the past year, particularly German sours and Altbier.