Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

As promised, here's Mahr's Kellerbier Ungespundes Hefetrüb.

Appearance: Nice dirty white head that dissipates relatively quickly. The color is as you see above, only a little more golden. I see absolutely no Trübheit (cloudiness) to se at all... I can see a decent amount protein haze at the end of the bottle, but not much Hefetrüb as my home-brews can be.

Aroma: Very aromatic with lots of Pils malts, but it became less and less over a 10 minute period. At first impressive but strange that it waned.

Flavor: The first taste in front is a little bitter but a also a decent amount of tartness. It's not sour but tart the way a lemon is, but without the lemon flavors and sourness. The middle has more bitterness. On the sides you get the first bit of sweetness of malts. It's very bready but tart at the same time. In the back it's the same, lots of bready, mainly caramel Münchner malt. If it weren't for the ever present tartness, which is even present in the aftertaste. It's a lot like a Märzen with sweet caramel, but there's also lots of bready Pils flavor, but what makes this beer unique is the overarching tartness that follows your taste buds from beginning to finish of your mouth. It's a wonderful complexity of flavor that no Pils, Märzen nor most Kellerbier has. The background also has a distinct yeastiness and perhaps a little dactyl. Is the tartness may come from leaving the bung off, allowing wild yeast to finish off the beer? That would also explain the dryness.

Mouthfeel: Pretty thick, a little above average creamy thickness. It's not the thickest I've had but it's pretty close. Also, it's quite dry,... so thick and dry at the same time makes its feel like an even thicker mouthfeel.

Overall, a very unique beer. a 4.8/5

 

I doubt I'll drink it on cask unless I go to Bamberg, which isn't in our plans for quite some time (been there, done that for the g/f). I didn't get any "soft" texture. It felt like any other Fränkische beer but drier and not as spritzig ("bubbly") as most Pils, which is where you might get a softer feel from. Nonetheless, the flavor is unique and complex, which makes it a wonderful beer.

I thought about it that way at first, too. But like I said, it had a definite protein haze in the bottom of the bottle that didn't dissipate. In Germany, save Hefeweizen, beers that aren't totally clear as a bell are really rare and I think the "Hefetrüb" moniker connotes it's being unfiltered. My home-brews are also clear as a bell, though there is yeast-cake on the bottom of my bottles, for which I found zero evidence on the Mahr's Ungespundet. Hasn't Scott contact with the Mahrs family? Maybe he can clear this up.

 

Finally getting around to reviewing Kneitinger's Dunkel. I started with 6 bottles, now down to my last one, and damn they were great. Here's the beer in the bottle and glass:


I think I've had their entire lineup now, so here's to them: Prost Neujahr!

Appearance: A vanilla, almost tan head of fine bubbles under a beer that's dark chestnut with some maroon, a hint of red and brown, not black - after all this is a Dunkel, not a Schwarzbier. Just looking at it, I imagine I'm viewing a liquid chocolate cake with white icing on top.

Aroma: Lots and lots of roasted malts, licorice, dark candy sugar, some hint of sugared plums... altogether, wow.

Flavor: Basically, similar to the aroma, but not as complex in the first sip.

But on further intimate inspection, it reveals itself to be incredibly complex. In the front, you get a little tartness and faint bitterness but more a burnt flavor, yet not unpleasant; rather, it's more like the umami of blackened Cajun chicken with some sweet caramel thrown in.

In the middle, here's the bitterness, finally, but again, not much. It's got that umami thing again, but less on the sides. The middle is the first tastes of a dab of licorice, and wow...roasted malts! It tastes like their main ingredients were geröstes Malz (roasted malt), Caramünchen III and/or Carafa III from Weyermann, and Chocolate malt, but I'm guessing that was a small percentage compared to the geröstes or the Cara malts.

In the back, basically the same flavors, but here it's utterly dominated by the geröstes and cara malts. It's also got lost of caramel from a München malt, but only about half compared to a Märzen or other highly caramelized beers from Bayern. In the back, I get more, very strong burnt flavors, again in line with blackened chicken notes, very earthy but this gives the beer a bitter-sweet mix unlike a hoppy beer; rather, again, it gives it a complexity of roasted meat, without the meat flavors, and nothing at all like rauchmalz. I'm not sure any of you can imagine what I'm talking about, can you? Again, in the back, you get a hint of tartness, almost sour but not quite, so you get bittersweet and sweet and sour together.

Aftertaste is all roasted and caramel malts,..lovely.

Mouthfeel: thick, warm, typical Bayern feeling in beer. Wonderful and gemütlich.

Overall: A WOW beer. It's not only got the roasted and caramel malts of other beers, its both bittersweet and sweet-and-sour, tart actually, not sour, all mixed together. The sweet, roasted malt are the core and predominate with a small surface of caramel. Yet they don't overwhelm due to the bitterness of the roasted and umami/burnt flavors weaving within them, giving them a structure to hang on. The bold flavors draw you to it, and make you sit up and notice this beer. The individual complexity is, however, what brings you back and back to see what else is inside, allowing this beer to keep it's interest over the full part of the mouth, and depending on where you guide the beer in on your tongue, you can experience different beers and at least aspects of it. Simply, as spartan1979 mentioned in his report on his trip in the fall of 2013, a WOW beer. One the best in the land.

 

Tell them what you told us, and then ask for the recipe, at least in %, then you can convert it, or at least I could do it for you in BrewSmith to whatever size you wish. I'm pretty sure if make them aware that you can't get this beer AT ALL in the states, you might have some luck. Since their website's bilingual, I'm sure there's someone who can read and translate an email you into English. If I wrote them, being that I'm in Germany, they might be less likely to spit out their trade secrets. Whaddya y'all think?

OR we can get Stahlsturm to go around and convince them.