Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

The ingredients show both Gerstenmalz and Weizenmalz, but the wheat presence here was fairly strong for me. It's good. In my opinion it was better than last year's version. However, that probably needs to be taken with a grain of salt: reading over my notes from the 2013 version, my main complaint wasn't with the flavors, rather that it just didn't come together for me. It just didn't work. Individual tastes obviously will vary.

What impresses me, though, as you noted in your review as well, is that Welde actually is trying something different, new and decidedly "non-German" (notwithstanding the RHG reference this year). I wouldn't necessarily go so far as to say that it's a sign of a coming wave of German "changes" or a "movement", but it does seem to be a small piece of evidence that brewers here are stepping out of their traditional categories a bit more, and testing the waters to see what works and what they can profitably market.

 

A new style for me last night - Steinbier! Big thank you to Erzengel for this one!

Brauerei Leikeim - Original Steinbier, abv 5.8%



Appearance - Amber body with excellent clarity. Creamy white head producing excellent lacing and retention

Aroma - Lots of caramel, toasted malts. Perhaps some cinder toffee, hint of vanilla.

Taste - Very malt dominant as expected. Sweeter notes of caramel in the beginning and becoming more toasty/treacle like with a touch of hop bitterness in the full finish.

Mouthfeel - Medium carbonation, medium/full body. Sits well on the tongue

Overall a pleasant surprise! I definitely prefer bier in the malty end of the spectrum and this let me have my fix. Nice complexity with a solid mouthfeel. If rocks tasted this good, I would eat my house!

 

A new brewery for me today:

Dampfbierbrauerei Zwiesel - from the town of Zwiesel in Niederbayern

Sampling of their Kellerbier - Zwickl Naturbier abv 5.5%



Appearance - Unfiltered/cloudy pale amber body with a rocky head - produces a good lace with a sustainable head retention.

Aroma - I'm getting a touch of honey sweetness up front, some pepperiness and a bit of herbal hoppiness.

Taste - A bit of a rough grainy quality with honey sweetness coming through which is a bit too dominant. Touch of pepperiness in a clumsy sticky finish. It reminds me more of a poor maibock due to the sweetness/malt quality.

Mouthfeel - a low medium natural carbonation. It's very sticky and coats the palate.

Overall, didn't enjoy this one much. Too sweet with a poor mouthfeel. Lacked the dry finish/refreshing quality of a classic kellerbier.

Will review a few more biers from this brewery soon, hopefully better things to come!

Prost!

 

Bier for today is the Steinhauer Weisse by Brauerei Göller which is located in Ziel am Main in Unterfranken!

According to the website this Hefeweizen has been awarded Gold status for 2004/2005/2006 by the Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft.

The rauchbier by Göller is one of my favourites, so I'm expecting good things!



Appearance - Cloudy medium amber body, bit of chill haze as you can see in the picture (wasn't served in any way too cold). Creamy head producing average retention/lacing.

Aroma - Banana very much in the foreground, hint of peppery spice coming through.

Taste - Biscuity sweet malt hint up front, fruity esters coming in - touch of banana with a hint of apple zestiness afterwards. Apple is a nice quality, not in a young underdeveloped way, more refreshing kellerbier like. Clean finish.

Mouthfeel - Medium to high carbonation with good body (not light, not meaty, just solid). If nitpicking, compared to a world class weizen (Weihenstephaner), I'd say the carbonation is a touch too aggressive but I'm being really fussy here.

Overall it's a great Weizen. Nice refreshing flavour complexity with a great mouthfeel making it sehr süffig! As we say in Scotland, it didn't touch the sides.

Prost!

 

Here is a German language question!

Perhaps Boddhitree can give me an answer!

Why is Lower Bavaria - Niederbayern and Lower Franconia - Unterfranken?

What's the Nieder/Unter difference?

 

There's no difference really. The upper/lower-prefix is applied to a lot of place names in German. "Lower" sometimes is Nieder-... and sometimes it's Unter-... The meaning is the same.

 

Thanks for that

 

I was at a local beer bar this past weekend and to my delight there was a firkin on the bar: it was a cask of Weissenohe Kellerbier. I ordered one and it was a very tasty brew. It had a nice golden amber color and the nose and flavor was dominated by doughy malt. The hops were very much in the background on this beer. A very pleasant beer to drink!

They also had Mahrs Pilsner on tap so I ordered one of those. It was served in a 0.4 liter ceramic mug with “Mahrs Brau” embossed on it. This beer was all about the Pilsner malt, very low hopping. This beer had a sweetish aspect to it. Another enjoyable beer.

And the pièce de résistance (is there a German equivalent to this expression?) was Pliny the Elder on tap. That beer was fresh and I could almost smell the hop aroma when it was still in the bartender’s hand. That beer was wow, wow, wow!

A very good night of beer drinking!

Prost!

 

We are planning on going to Weißenohe when we are there in three weeks. I'll have try the Kellerbier!

 

Don't be too fooled by the DLG medals - these are a type of paid-for marketing awards that many food and beverage purveyors receive.

 

Thanks for the info, that's good to know

 

One of the Bavarian breweries I regularly buy beer from, is Zötler from Rettenberg in the Allgäu region. It's a family run business and they claim to be the oldest family business still operating in Germany. Their "1447 Naturtrüb" alludes to the founding year of the brewery!
It's really one of my favorite beers of the Kellerbier-category. Very spicy, somewhat floral, with a notable touch of hops, but a broad yeast aroma. After having sampled some German (I)PAs this year, it occured to me now that this kind of Kellerbier (if done in this way) comes quite close to the idea of a Pale Ale. It only has 22 IBUs, but still the mentioned spicyness and aroma really remind me strongly of a Pale Ale. Another Kellerbier that also reminded me of this, was the one by Riegele. Both are highly recommended!

 

I've seen Zötler around from time to time and always pass it by because I'm unsure. If I see this, I will definitely pick it up. Thanks for the review!

 

My review for today is from Titting in Oberbayern.

Brauerei Gutmann's Hefeweizen abv 5.2%



Appearance - Cloudy apple juice blonde with a creamy white heading producing excellent retention/lacing.

Aroma - Banana heavy but with a very noticeable underlying wheaty/biscuity malt aroma. Vanilla kicking in as it warms up a bit. One of the nicest aroma's from a weizen I can remember.

Taste - Sweet wheaty biscuity malts dominating up front which just slowly fade away into the background of the clean finish. Simple and makes its mark

Mouthfeel - Carbonation is bang on, not too aggressive but lively enough to be refreshing. Body is an excellent thickness, I don't want to say meaty lol, its more delicate than that but certainly not wimpy!

Overall, it's a delight to drink. A lovely wheaty malt profile that lingers on and on complimented by excellent mouthfeel. It transports me back to a long summer, longing for a bier like this to drink under the shade of a chestnut tree.

Prost!

 

Gutmann is one of my favorites.

 

DLG gold medals show up on the packaging of some Swedish macro beers, for some reason they seem to appear on the worst examples that Swedish macro beer has to offer.

 

I believe this was the gold medal that Sam Adams Light referred to when they claimed to have won gold in a German "competition" a few years back.

 

My second bier from the Dampfbierbrauerei Zwiesel.

Arber Spezial, 5.5% abv

I couldn't find a lot of info on the style this is supposed to be, drinking it I would have said it's somewhere between a Kellerbier and a Helles.



Appearance - Apple juice gold with a slight hue. Creamy white head producing average head retention and lacing.

Aroma - Cloudy fresh apple juice first, a grainy quality with hints of manuka honey (Reason i say Manuka is i had some yesterday and it reminded me of that)

Taste - Applely sweetness with the honey hint coming through, with a hint of biscuity malt coming through to a semi dry finish with minimal hop character if any. Refreshing. Perhaps a tea like tannin quality is lingering on as it warms.

Mouthfeel - Soft carbonation with a creamy medium body, sits well in the stomach.

Had the dry fruity quality of a kellerbier in a subtle way with a soft creamy mouthfeel and flavour profile of a helles, maybe perhaps even reminiscent of a soft czech pils? Can't say im an expert in that style, but the biers i had in Prague certainly all retained this soft creamy texture.

Overall, enjoyed it a lot, pick a bottle up if you see it. Definitely tastier than the Zwick'l i had earlier.

Prost!

 

Had this one when I was in the region of Zwiesel two years ago. As for its style, I would classify it as an Export. Many Bavarian breweries brew Exports, but just don't name them as such, but rather as "Spezial", "Gold", etc.