Good German lagers the world doesn't hear about

This is an association of some of the small family owned places. We have used this for trip planning.
www.braugasthoefe.de

Click the EN in the upper right if you don't speak German.

Here is where the map is.
http://www.braugasthoefe.de/en/guesthouses/

 

Me too.

Interesting to see the new countries involved now.

 

Brauerei Roppelt Kellerbier
Keesmann Herren Pils
Alpirsbacher Pils
Alpirsbacher Zwickl
St. Georgen Pils
St. Georgen Buttenheimer Hopfenzupfer
Waldhaus Diplom Pils
Waldhaus ohne Filter

 

We actually get this one and the Spezial, both quite good.

 

Hölzlein Helles Vollbier and Pilsner from Lohndorf.

 

brauerei hoenig ungespundetes lagerbier. love that stuff so much.

 

Really?Are we talking about Brauerei Hönig, Tiefenellern?
I never was there myself, only hat bottled stuff from a Getränkemarkt, and they were my least favorite brewery in franconia....
I even disliked their Rauchbier "Posthörnla".
Maybe some day I should give those beers another chance at the source.

 

That's the place. The lager is so low in carbonation that it just goes down extremely easy. Very rustic and extremely drinkable IMO

 

Had one of their biers at Sandkerwa, very nice.

 

Depends a lot on your taste for pils- northern,southern,franconian, malty....?
I personally love the franconian style of Pils when a good, firm hop presence and aroma goes together with a strong, slightly sweetish, malty backbone. You will not really find something like that outside of franconia.
As for best city, um.......with Herren Pils, Fässla Gold Pils and Mahr's Pilsner, ironically enough my vote would have to go to Bamberg I believe, though you will find excellent Pilsners in towns like Kronach or Lichtenfels as well.
Speaking of underrated Pilsners, I think many lesser-known eastern german Pilsners from Thüringen are pretty good, yet no-one really seems to notice.

 

My absolute favorite pils is from Brauerei Schmitt in Singen (Thuringia).

 

I'm very happy to oblige
The basic distinction always made is: Nothern german Pils, which is more hoppy than the others and dry, and southern german, which is more malty and less hoppy.
I personally always thought this was a bit simplistic. Yeah, you have very hoppy northern german Pilsners. Jever is off course the prime example. And in general, northern german Pils tends to be dry and thin-bodied.
But then you have, for instance, a lot of famous, big Pils breweries kind of more in the middle (NRW) like Veltins, Warsteiner, Krombacher, which are all not very hoppy, not very malty and are often called Fernsehpils.
Then you have eastern-german Pilsners, which often remind me of czech Pale Lagers and are often even marketed as "Böhmisch" or "Echt-Böhmisch".
And well, with soutern germany, I fear it is also more complicated than the famous "it's less hoppy than the northern ones". Sure, you will find not very hoppy Pils in Bayern (which is still always hoppier than Helles from the same brewery..) BUT you will find hoppy Pilsners. In franconia in particular: Gampertbräu Försterpils.St. Georgenbräu Buttenheim Pilsner and so on. Those combine malty, full bodies with strong hop bittneress and aroma.
I could go into more detail, but I hope this helps and does not confuse things even more.

 

Thanks for the additional distinctions/observations.

BTW, the North Germany-South Germany distinction may seem simplistic, but it is a helpful generalization in many ways so long as we keep in mind that the line isn't an either-or type of thing but rather seems like a topographical map showing the tree lines on mountains. On the ground there are exceptions to be found but the line can still be helpful even though it is fuzzy. You've helped make things a bit clearer for those of us not on the ground.

 

Thanks for reading through my ramblings

I hope I made clear that one problem I have with this distinction is that it kind of implies a gradual progression: The more north you go, the hoppier the Pilsners get.
Which simply is not true when you put a Herrenpils or Försterpils besides a Krombacher or Warsteiner "Pils"...
Plus, I would not call hoppier franconian Pilsners the exception, but the rule in that region.
To me, it seems more like someone took the most well-known examples from the north, like Jever, and put them aiganst some average bavarian Pilsners, but even then it kind of fails cause also outside of franconia you have kinda hoppy stuff like Augsburger Herren Pils..
Thinking about, I'd go as far as to say that the unhoppy, southern german Pilsner is kind of a myth.
There are way more northern- or middle german unhoppy Pilsners than southern...

 

Based on a few things I've read I'd speculate that the distinction, which may indeed no longer hold true, may have developed in the days before breweries were able to treat their water supply to "tune" it to have the character they wanted for their beer.

Unfortunately to decide for sure if your thoughts about todays pattern through out Germany of hoppy and unhoppy German style Pils beers we'd need to do a bit more on site testing. :-)

 

German Brewers are limited to "water" in the RHG. If it is a naturally occurring water, they can reproduce it. Yes they can adjust, as you say.

When yo get down in the Munich area, the Breweries tend to have deep wells, that pull up pretty pure water from the Alps. The one at Ayinger is >600 meters deep, and is from below an impervious hard rock strata. They have an other well that is not as deep, and has some alkalinity, so that is blended in when they are making the Dunkel.

 

i had a lovely pils from apoldaer i think the brewery was called and im sure it was from thuringen