Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk (2020)

Also drank this beer. I was able to buy it at a local kiosk that has beers from Franken and other places. I thought the Vollbier Hell was quite good, but the Rotbier was better.


I wish I had taken notes on these 2, but it was my 3rd Hellbier that evening and I gave up in trying to takes notes. I'll try them again and report back, but I remember being impressed.

 

As y'all can see above, near where I live, actually almost across the street from my former former apartment, a new kiosk opened up specializing in beer, and a lot of them are from Franken or from the FFM region. But before I get into the beers, I'd like to regal you with some schnitzel ****. This is a Bauernschnitzel, a "Farmer's Schnitzel," and it always comes with a fried egg or 2 on top. And there was BACON(!), a rarity in Germany. Usually, you get Speck, which has a completely different flavor. This is the "medium" size, and I still wasn't able to eat more than 60%. Luckily, we were able to pack it up to take with us. My wife and her family all had the "small" and I noticed that there wasn't an option for "large" on the menu.

Now to the beers that I didn't notes on because they were Meh... they were all ok but not wow beers. Actually they were somewhat boring.

 

Now let's get to the good beers for which I took notes.
1. First up Brauerei Simon - Spezial Altfränkisches Vollbier. They're from Lauf a. d. Pegnitz, which Google tells me is east of Nürnberg

It was dark amber in color with bright white foam on top. It had a little bitterness up front, and then some more in the back & as aftertaste... very much Noble hops. It was, however, mostly a very malty beer with sweetness of caramel and bready flavors. It was quite full bodied. Overall, it tasted like a cross between a Helles and Mårze, but leaning closer to a Märzen. I liked it a lot and want to buy more bottles to confirm. this.

2. Urfränkisches Landbier Hell from Brauerei Kesselring in Marktsteft, Bayern. It's east of Würzburg and Bamberg on the Main River.



You can buy their beers in Biershop Bayern, though I got them at the same kiosk as I mentioned above.
It had a Super Pils-like flavor. Not much bitterness except in the back, which makes it more like a Helles. It had wonderful bready, sweet flavors which balanced the bitterness... almost perfectly. I really liked this beer and I look forward to trying more from this brewery.

 

3. Urhahn Helles Alt - Obergärige Spezialität from Vogelsberger Landbrauerei in Lauterbach, Hessen. The Vogelsberg is a region northeast of Frankfurt in the direction of Fulda. They have 2 brands: the Lauterbacher Bürgerbrau and the Auerhahn-Bräu. On the website, it says the Auerhahn-Bräu used to be brewed elsewhere and only since 1998 were they brewed on the Lauterbacher brewery. Obergärig means top fermented, and on the website it says it's brewed by the "Kölscher" Brauart, or Kölsch brewing process.



So... how did it taste?
Super delicious! A wow beer for me. It had a rich caramelly malt flavor, more in the melanoiden malt direction. Lots of Münchner mal with light Noble hops in the back and a bit of fruit aroma in the nose. It had a lovely balance of rich sweetness but not overly so, with some flavor leaning into brown sugar territory. Overall, a wow beer and I'd love to taste the Bütten Alt, which looks like a Düsseldorfer Altbier on the website.
WOW. Will be buying more of this from the kiosk.

 

4. Not from Franken but still Bayern. The next 2 were given to me by a neighbor who lives in the same apartment building to whom I've given my homebrew. Her family lives in Bayern, so I hope this isn't the only time I get these beers.
Bruckmüller Hell from Brauerei Bruckmüller in Amberg, which is between Nürnberg and the Czech border. They say on the bottle that it was a former cloister brewery form 1490, and they Bruckmüller family continued the brewery from 1803 in now the 7th generation.


It has a stong aroma of Noble hops with a slight citrus undertone. The flavor is delicous - smooth as silk, almost creamy in mouthfeel. This beer just feels wonderful in your mouth. Noble hop bitterness is up front, in the middle and then a hard bitterness in the back. This is all covered with a sweet, smooth Pils malt flavor. It was very good and sad I only had one bottle.

5. Zwickl from Brauerei Meister, from Pretzfeld, actually in the village of Unterzaunsbach, in Bayern. Google maps says in east of Forchheim in the Veldensteiner Wald. Brauerei Nikl, which I had heard of and had a beer from is also from Pretzfeld.


This was a weird beer. The aroma was dark malts, caramel, but almost none of that was in the flavor. It had a decent bitterness in the middle/front, but a boring bitterness, as if they simply used Magnum or Herkules hops, which are all bitter and virtually no flavors. It was like they used those hops as cost saving measures. And then there wasn't any bitterness in the back. Again, weird. It had a light amount of sweetness, but just a little caramel. The color and aroma didn't match the flavor of this beer. It's really hard to describe that flavor, which felt like a hard flavor, kind of like a whisky when it hits your mouth initially. Basically, I was very disappointed, thinking that a "real" Zwickl should have more going for it.

 

That's the name of the region and the nearest town. The name of the eponymous beer in the USA had to come from somewhere, didn't it?

 

So, who wants to fund a week tour of Franken? Any takers? I promise I'll report on "everything" I eat and drink. Also... on Imgur, a few commented that the schnitzel looks like an outline of the USA. Now I hope you also can't unsee it.

 

The restaurant is here, between Menden & Schwerte in Sauerland, nearisch to Dortmund. Schnitzel is almost the only thing on the menu.