Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

sry i just read this right now........dunkles and helles can be sooooo good. i could go hours on end to recommend franconian beers with a very limited distribution area. in my opinion, most bavarian beers like the ones you mentioned or stuff recommend here is vastly overrated in comparison to some franconian gems. while not directly bad,they just seem so bland and liveless to me compared to their franconian counterparts. esp. with dunkles, the varities are endless. I always say, compare something like Nothelfer Trunk to Leupser Dunkel to Held Dunkel- 3 Beers, all from the same region, yet vastly different. Some brewers even put a bit of Rauchmalz in their Dunkles, some dunkles are more dark brown reddish in color- I think a trip to the Fränkische Schweiz with a Stop in Bamberg and Bayreuth maybe inevitable to fully experience it.........you sometimes can get Krug Bräu Lager and Bayreuther Aktien Landbier nation wide in bigger,better sorted Getränke Märkte, and though these are not creme de la creme, they might be a good Introduction, esp. the first.

The better known bavarian dunkles are mostly kind of similar- a bit sweet,nutty,chwey. Not bad,mind, but different in their variety to franconian ones.

Similar things can be said about Hellles and Pislner, while the franconian ones are in general more hoppy and spicy than their bavarian cousins.

What i myself find fascinating is that most of the smaller breweries in franconica make beers that defy normal naming conventions. They are more often than not red, brown, anything in between pale and dark, and are simply called Vollbier or sometimes Landbier. You can not classify them easily, but they are all damn tasty.

 

^^^ This is great. One of my favorite things about Franconian beer and beer culture is how it absolutely defies easy classification. No amount of "book learning" about it is going to get you anywhere close to truly understanding it. You just have to go and see for yourself. And what you see in one (or two or three) villages is nothing like what you'll see in the one-, two-, or.three hundred others that surround them.

 

I was lucky enough to live there for seven years.....and I think I exactly know what you mean.
And I think after 3 or 4 years I truly understood the greatness of going to a nice shady Biergarten in the countryisde , saying" Ein Bier bitte" and getting something properly served,properly made, in a proper mug. For maybe 2 Euros or less.
No extensive beer menue with millions of DIPAs and barrel aged whatnots comes close to the wonder of those experiences for me.

 

^^ Genau! Auch für mich! I look forward to spending my Christmas-new year hols in Germany every year.

This was around one pm and the place was packed with regulars. Just one Holzfaß at Neder. Sometimes one well made, good beer is all I need.

 

I'll start with an actual Bayernbiere, so that the rest of my post, about non-Bayernbiere, doesn't get nuked Last night a bunch of World of Beer locations were offering unfiltered, unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell. More on that in a moment. They were also offering Weihenstephaner Pils at my location, which was pretty sweet since I've never seen it in bottles around here.

The word I'd use to describe the Weihenstephaner Pils is clean. Really, really clean. Perhaps I made a mistake by ordering it after the Urquell, because it was almost too clean, much lighter and delicate feeling than the Urquell. It had a really nice malty finish, quiet but still present, preceded by a much lighter maltiness and some faintly floral hops. The nose took quite a while to open up, but when it did, I didn't get a hint of DMS, which I've picked up in some other bottled pils lately. Overall, it was enjoyable, but I really wish I could find it in bottles to see if it came across as meekly as I perceived it last night.



I had shown up for the unfiltered, unpasteurized Urquell, though, and it was, indeed, a very nice drink. Tons of malt goodness, though I'm still struggling to accurately describe it. I always see the term bready, and I suppose it's somewhat reminiscent of breadyness, but that doesn't fully capture it. I'd dare say it comes across almost like toasted corn to me, but any mention of corn gets the adjunct hawks in a tizzy. It reminded me of a similar character I'd picked up in a Krombacher Pils recently. Perhaps this is the elusive melanoidan character that gets described around here. I'd use that word...but I also don't entirely know what it means In any case, decent little bit of spicy hops too, though that whatever-you-want-to-call-it malt character is the dominant player for sure. Really nice texture with a gloriously foamy head. Of course, with the keg purportedly as utterly fresh as can be, I suppose you'd sort of expect some of this -- really makes your mourn the decidedly older stuff you tend to have to choose from at the grocery store. Overall, a fine treat indeed.

 

This looks like the standard pour. Did you try the Hladinka (or "smooth"/"aromatic") pour, too? I found it to be the best of the serving methods -- this after I was pretty skeptical that it would make any difference; but it did, bringing out the Saaz hop aromas a lot more fully. Here's my pic (cross-posted from WBAYDN). Oh, and I suspect some of what you're picking up on in the malt comes from Urquell having their own, house floor-maltings; that will give the malt a rustic sort of character, which IMO is perfectly balanced by the soft mouthfeel and spicy hops. It really is delicious stuff.

 

Great pic -- didn't try any of the alternative pours, just the standard. I know that my particular WoB location has been pouring the regular Pilsner Urquell in all three pouring methods for a month+ now, though, so I may have to circle back and give it a shot. Really was a nice brew either way though -- hearty and satisfying.

 

I say... yes.

Knowing both those beers the way I do, I know the Urquell would stunt my palate to the more delicate Weihenstephaner. Definitely give it a fresh try sometime.

 

See, I'd gone back and forth in my head over which to choose first, and for some reason I thought the Weihenstephaner might be a bit hoppier, so I figured I'd save it for last. Beer order can make one a bit neurotic

 

Unfiltered (and I assume unpasteurized?) PU sounds fantastic, many have lauded this beer, which I still have not tried.

 

Never made it to the Czech Republic during your time in Germany?

 

I was in the Czech republic a few times, once directly after the fall of the wall (when everything was silly inexpensive), but at that time, I wasn't really into beer that much, so I didn't seek it out. Another time we went hunting and didn't make it anywhere near a place that would serve this beer.

I read recently that some was sent stateside - or did I dream that?

 

I ordered a second box of beer from Biershop Bayern, this time I went with the Bamberg package. The Beck Bräu was substituted with St. Georgenbräu Kellerbier which was a bit of a surprise but a welcome one at that. I've had the kellerbier once before but it will be nice to revisit it.

 

Man, I wish I could order a package like that here in the U.S.

 

...for $20.00...

 

No pics, as I was feeling lazy, but I took down Konig Ludwig's Weisse bier this weekend, as well as Schlenkerla's Weizen. I thought the former a tasty weisse, not overdone with the yeast and banana/fruit/clove esters. What I really enjoyed about it, and even more so about the Weihenstephaner I had recently, is the mouthfeel. There's just this great richness of feel with a total lightness and drinkability -- it sounds paradoxical, but somehow they make it happen.

The Schlenkerla...I'm almost inclined to not say much, as there's the pesky issue of not knowing how old the beer was/how it was cared for/etc., but I have to be honest -- it was straight Lay's barbeque potato chip. It literally smelled like salty smoke. I was hoping the typical weizen notes would filter through, but I didn't get almost anything -- it just felt super muddled. Palate was similar, and try though I might, I ultimately had to abandon the last 1/4 of the glass. This puts me at 1-3 on the Schlenkerla stuff I've had so far, with the Eiche and Weizen not working out so well, but the Marzen rather tasty and something I'd happily revisit. Sadly, I have never once seen them on tap, so I'm afraid I'm confined to the bottles for the time being. Would love to see if my perception changes having it on tap.

 

“…it was straight Lay's barbeque potato chip”

@breadwinner, that is hands down the most colorful beer descriptor that I have ever read/heard!!

I am fortunate that I am able to get draft Schlenkerla in my area. One local beer bar near me seems to always get fresh German beers from the German breweries.

Cheers!

 

Schlenkerla Weizen is only bottled. Flaschengärung.
I had it often, and it always had the typical banana-flavour we all know and love from Hefeweizen, and even a bit sweetness, combined with a hefty dose of Rauch in the aftertaste. So, no, it is not supposed to taste like a bbq potatoe chip, it usually is more of a banana bread topped with smoked ham.
Sadly, the bottle you had must have been off.No salt should be there-

 

I agree with this. While I expected to hate it (and even grumbled when they introduced it in the mid 1990s as their first non-Maerzen/Bock offering in over 100 years), I have to admit that the flavors work quite well together. In fact, the bottle conditioning really tends to led itself to longevity. Of all the bottled versions of Schlenkerla's beers, the Weizen holds up best in my experience.

 

Yeah, whenever I get a "bad" bottle of something imported, I try to take it with a grain of, er, salt Just too hard to know bottle age, how/when it was shipped/stored (I live in a VERY warm part of the country, so proper storage is a huge issue), etc. Banana bread with smoked ham, though...may have to give that a try sometime, just to approximate the effect, you know?