Jack's Abby (2018)

Idle Hands Emelyn is the best local representation that I've had, after JA's pilot keller, but I haven't seen it in distro.

 

Yeah I like Saxony a lot. The wife and I will be crushing a sixer of it during the Super Bowl.

 

Cambridge Brewing Company's zwickel (called "The Zwickel") is also really good.

 

Good to know, I'll definitely keep an eye out for that on their tap menu. Thanks!

ETA: the CBC one too!

 

This is the description on the site:

Kellerbier / Zwickelbier

"A rather old, rare, and unique German beer style, Kellerbiers are unfiltered and unpasteurized lagers that date back to at least the Middle Ages. The beer is matured, unbunged (beer is exposed), in deep vaults. The final product is a smooth, naturally cloudy beer that's rich in vitamins (from the yeast). Hop bitterness can be high and alcohol will vary. Zwickel Bier is similar to a Keller, but not as pronounced".

Since I'm guessing none of these are aged unbunged in a deep vault, I'm also curious what aspect of the process/ingredients the brewers are latching onto

Night Shift's zwickel was indeed very cloudy though. That would seem like a useful attribute to pursue given current trends.

 

I picked up a 6er of the Saxony over the weekend and this is a beer I believe that will continue to grow on me the more I drink it. I thought it was good the first time, liked it more the second, and was really digging it on the third (not on the same day either). The just simple balance of flavors makes this such a great drinking beer. Really happy to have this around.

 

Unless I missed it, I haven't seen JA call this beer a "keller" or "zwickel", only that it's an unfiltered vienna style lager.

Also, for what it's worth, I think I remember reading that JA carbonates their beers via the bunging method.

 

Says "Kellerbier" right at the top of the can...



From their website:

 

Never mind. Oldbean covered it.

 

Woops, completely missed that - I stand corrected!

 

It would be nice if they'd provide a little more in-depth info on their beers. Jack's always seems weirdly opaque in this regard. Think about the videos that the Alchemist has been doing for their new (or newly re-introduced) beers. It's totally clear who's behind the beers, what he wanted to achieve with them, what ingredients and processes were employed to that end, etc. Jack's is the opposite of that. I don't even know who their brewers are or who's actually in charge of what gets brewed. They put out this really fine tuned lager in an obscure (and possibly hybrid?) style, and it's like it just fell out of the sky. It had to someone's baby, but they don't ever seem to want to reveal that kind of info.

 

I think they just don't have the manpower and process to go inside-baseball on every beer. They used to do more in-depth looks via the blog (e.g. this on Excess) but that seems to have fallen by the wayside over the past year or so.

 

I don't know that they need to do it for every beer, but generally speaking I think they're doing their brand a disservice by not doing more of that type of thing. In a crowded marketplace, identity is really important (especially since they're playing the regional shelf beer game), and I think they forfeit too much in that regard.

 

How, if at all, does Saxony compared to Boston Lager? Other than that both are Viennas.

 

I think Boston Lager is more loosely based on the Vienna style. Compared to Soxony, it’s definitely hoppier.

 

Boston Lager is a lot sweeter using a combination of malts. Not even sure if there is any Vienna malt in it.

 

Kellerbier is a very lose term that simply means it is unfiltered and has a small amount of haze. There are not any flavor or style guidelines past that. Because of this, you will often see the term paired with a more defined style, such as keller pils or keller alt. Kellerbier on its own is not a defined style.

Saxony Lager is a Vienna Lager that is the result of several pilot versions that have been available at the Beer Hall in the past few months. Its recipe is almost identical to the last pilot version we served. The main malts used are Vienna and Pilsner malts. The use of Kellerbier is not a reference to it style, it simply refers to the fact that it has a slight haze to it. It is a Vienna Lager. On our cans, we always print the style in large letters at the bottom, the words/phrases at the top are an extra descriptor or a throw-away.

 

Thank you for the clarification. Had my last two during the game last night.....a very nice lager indeed!

 

Saxony was also the name of the ice company in their family, previously they had Saxon Sons pilsner.

 

No sooner had the Red Tape disappeared from my neighborhood packies' shelves, along came Saxony. These are good times for lovers of fresh, well-made, forgivingly priced lagers.