Drinking a beer right now from a semi-local brewery (Pour Man's Brewing - Ephrata, PA) that is labeled as a Braunbier. This has a nice toasted malt flavor similar to an amber Marzen, but has an earthy hop presence, and a nice dry finish. Brewed as a lager. I don't find much here on BA on beers using this style name. Anyone see any other American breweries labeling any beer as such? Looks like maybe the most popular German beer using that term is by Klosterbrau in Bamberg. https://klosterbraeu.de/unsere-biere/ Via Google's translation: Bamberg brown beer According to a historical monastery recipe Committed to the more than 480-year-old tradition of the Prince-Bishop's Brown Beer House, this amber-colored, malty delicacy, our popular Bamberg Brown Beer, is brewed according to old monastery recipes and long-standing tradition! Shiny, amber-colored and with a fine-pored, creamy head, the brown beer makes you want to take the first sip. Strong caramel notes dominate, paired with roasted hazelnut and slightly fruity hop aromas. The rich and full body surprises with refreshing effervescence and a well-integrated hop bitterness, which leads to a pronounced finale with sweet toffee notes. A characterful beer in the traditional style. Product information: Taste: spicy and tasty | Color: 20 EBC (shiny amber) | Bitterness level: 25 BE | Hops: Hallertauer Perle, Hallertauer Tradition | Malt: Pilsner malt, Munich malt, caramel malt | Yeast: bottom-fermenting yeast strain from Bavaria | Aromas: a hint of malt, delicate nutty aromas | Ingredients: water, barley malt, hops Original wort content: 12.5 °P Alcohol content: 5.5%
As someone who's from that area (my parents live 15 minutes from Ephrata and we get lunch at the brewery often) I can't comment on the style, but I would assume Pour Man's has a good interpretation of it. Their lagers and German styles never disappoint, and they usually are great about doing their research into historical styles.
Well, mid-70s, Schaefer, sixth largest brewer in the US, had one. Apparently short-lived (at least under that branding), draught-only. Many US breweries still offered a "dark" kegged beer at the time. Schaefer's own promo material at the time noted: Sorry for the brief nostalgic interlude. Now back to the 21st century...
Yeah, no reason to spell Braun that way. But at least vowels can have an umlaut, so it's not a "Spın̈al Tap" situation.
"FOR DISPLAY PURPOSES ONLY" ? (Frederick and Maximilian Schaefer left Europe in 1838 & 1840 respectively, before there even was a unified "Germany", so the family and corporate memory of proper language usage might have been rusty by the 1970s... Or, more likely, the marketing guys just thought it looked cool, or, should I write: coöl.)
There are two basic styles that have historically been referred to as Braunbier. One is basically the ancestor of today's Dunkel, brewed from kilned malt and bottom-fermented. The other, found in northern Germany, was very weak, about 2% and top-fermented.
Not much help, but I've sucked down brews at Klosterbrau (When they bother to be open) and I don't recall any "Braunbier" on the Bierkarte.
I've had the one from Klosterbräu quite a few times. It's good, but like most of their beers, wildly inconsistent. The first couple times I had it, the beer was boldly hoppy and it reminded me a lot of an altbier or the hoppy American takes on amber lager. Maybe even a little like Sam Adams Boston Lager. More recently it's been really sweet and somewhat one-note. Again, a bit like an altbier...but the underhopped mass produced ones like Schlösser.
Yes, last time I was there I picked up a mixed case that was mostly flavorful lagers, and they were all solid.
Wow. Thanks for reminding me about this style. Your thread made me recall a Braunbier I had years ago. Ulmer Braun from New Ulm Brewing. It wasn't very good and was kind of weak and thin. I dunno when it was retired. It's under the Munich Dunkle style here.
I found a good three part blog post about this https://www.beeretseq.com/hamburg-braunbier-1911-part-i/ https://www.beeretseq.com/hamburg-braunbier-part-ii/ https://www.beeretseq.com/hamburg-braunbier-part-iii/
I've had Braunbier at Klosterbräu Bamberg, Metzgerbrau Ützing, and Kathibrau Heckenhof. It doesn't resemble Dunkel other than the color. Not as much Munich malt character, and a little more bitter.
The ones around Bamberg are definitely lagers around 5% strength. At Metzgerbrau we walked through the small brewing area. Sacks of grain were Pilsner, Vienna, Munich, and a half bag of Carafa malt (used for color).
So, to sum it up, it's Germany's version of a Brown Ale, but not an Altbier because: "The word alt literally translates to 'old' in German, and traditionally Altbiers are conditioned for longer than normal periods of time"?
