American Influence

The Hopfen-Weiss mentioned in the article is 100% delicious; I haven't tried his Edel-Weiss yet. Schneider does seem to look outside of Germany (specifically to America) for influence, and I think it's a good thing. I don't think everyone in Germany needs to start making an IIIIIPA, but in the right hands, I think some interesting things can result. Thanks for sharing.

 

To me, the Hopfen-Weiss tasted very close to an IPA. Those C-hops just seem to have that effect wherever they go! Funny you should post this, Steve, as I have been reading the threads about line cutting and truck chasing this morning and thinking, "What if the type of craft beer hysteria that exists in the U.S. were to make it to Germany?" Can't you just imagine all the old ladies elbowing you out of the way for their shot at the latest/greatest Imperial Doppelmaerzen?

 

Good God man, line-cutting here is already at epidemic levels in general! Please no!!!

 

Ah yes. I sure miss standing in line at the bakery on those Saturdays before a Monday holiday!

 

Two of my biggest pet peeves of Germany rolled into one - no Sunday hours and line-cutting!

Re: the original article, I'm surprised it was posted so late...in other words, the beers mentioned have been around for a while now (as mentioned in the article). However, no mention of Schneider's 2012 TapX, the Aventinus/Aventinus Eisbock blend aged in wine barrels.

 

I wish you guys were commenting on the blog--good thoughts here!

It was posted late because I only got to visit Schneider and Sohn in October. I had the luck of good timing, though; they were hosting international importers and did a tasting of their rare and in-development beers while we were there, including a couple of the last bottles of the first barriques of barrel-aged beer. My notes:

Mein Nelson Sauvin. Trappist yeast. Brewed '11 as a one-shot but brought back. Lots of spicy phenolics mixed with soft tropical fruits (papaya, tamarind). Nutty malts, soft palate. The "musky" flavors of Nelsons totally absent.

Mein Cuvee Barrique (Barrel-aged Aventinus and Eisbock blended 50/50). Merlot and pinot noir barrels. Deep and fruity, kissed by brett, which deepens the flavors. Fruitiness is bright berry--blackberry, blueberry. Vinous, with sherry and port notes, deep and fruity. Really spectacular beer.

Mein Eisbock Barrique. Malty beer lightened by vinous character. Very port-like with a bit of chocolate and dark fruit underneath.

Aventinus 2008. Musty, cellar-like. A surprisingly dry beer with a somewhat saisony almost beet-like quality. No oxidation at all (bottle conditioned). Some cloves, but mostly not the spicy, fruity weizen notes. Brewer Hans-Peter Drexler, as we were tasting it: "It's very quiet for three or four years. The Aventinus can wait--without stress."

I am currently writing a book about beer and have traveled throughout Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Italy. I visited Schneider because it's an independently-owned weissbier brewery and the most historically important. I wasn't as familiar with Drexler's range before visiting. Few brewers have the level of skill he has--he can take just about any ingredient or process and produce something incredibly palatable and refined. I would place him among the top handful of brewers I have encountered in my travels. Plus, he's a wonderful guy, to boot.

 

And a good one!

 

In terms of the Hopfen-weisse, I didn't like the original version that was headed by Brooklyn. Something about that heavy phenolic yeast and massive hops reminded me of a Belgian pale or even a Belgian IPA. Not really my cup of tea or what I was hoping for.
However, I had one of the Tap 5 bottles at the Weissesbrauhaus (with a brewing date the week before) and found it to be terrific. It was far closer to what I wanted and expected.
We haven't gotten any of their newer experimental items here in Denver, but I'm holding out hope after that pretty terrific Tap 5.

 

I've only ever had the Tap 5 version. I was not digging it at first - I felt like it wanted to be something in between an IPA and a wheat beer, but was somehow neither one - but by the end of the glass I was trying to figure out where I could get my next one. I need to track down that Edel-Weiss.

Their two Tap X releases (the 2011 and 2012) were pretty limited as far as I can tell. The 2012 I know for sure was sold only at one outlet in Germany (http://www.bierland-hamburg.de/) and only in 750 ml bottles if I remember correctly. Not sure if the same went for the 2011 Tap X, and I don't know about American distribution. I believe they're making the 2011 Tap X (Nelson Sauvin) a regular release now, or in any case they have decided to make it again and have it on site.

They have a Facebook page that they post news to pretty regularly. You should "friend" them, I'm sure if you sent them a message they would respond.

 

ISO: Hopfen-Weiss , I can imagine it tasting delicious.

 

I ordered Pax Bräu from bayern-biere.de and thought you might want to check out his site, though it's only in German.

[my loose translation of the below text]
First, he founded his brewery in Oberfranken in 2007, a maverick too. It's a self-professed one-man-show. He rails agains the conglomerate beers and their "uniform beer," which dominate the market, and he wants a unique taste and proven quality as well as individual accents. That's why Pax Bräu uses traditional production methods, organicly grown ingredients from his region as well as renewable energy.

Gegründet 2007 als Ein-Mann-Betrieb, sieht sich die Pax-Bräu auf einem immer mehr durch Großkonzerne mit Ihrem Einheitsbier dominierten Biermarkt dazu verpflichtet mit unverwechselbarem Geschmack, geprüfter Qualität sowie Individualität Akzente zu setzen. Dabei greift die Pax-Bräu auf ein traditionelles Herstellungsverfahren, biologisch angebaute Rohstoffe aus der Region sowie erneuerbare Energien zurück.​

What I really like about this brewer is his philosophy and ability to think outside the box and innovate while being traditional. Check out his resumé. First he was in Ho Chi Min City, then a few German places, then China, then Russia and finally opened his own place.

I've tried the Vollbier (reviewed soon on another thread) and it is good, traditional and other good flavors. I got a brochure of the brewery with my order I mentioned above, and he has many beers listed, though almost none are showed on his website, so I'll list them here as they are in the brochure for the Bierkalender 2012.

• January: Rhöner Pale Ale, which he describes as a Brit beer which American hopped with Cascade and Centennial.
• February: Pumkin Ale, using 50kg of pumpkin, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and allspice & 3 different hops
• March: Märzen
• April: CISSY IPA. He doesn't state the hops but mentions all the flavors we associate with an American-style IPA.
• May: Maibock
• June: Jubiläums Festbier, whose recipe he developed while brewing in China.
• July: Rhüasch, which is brewed like a Kölsch.
• August: Saphir Pilsner, a single hop beer using Saphir as a dry hop too.
• September: Imperial Honey Stout.
• October: Indian Summer beer, a brown ale using chestnuts.
• November: Basalt Rock, a steinbier using a basalt rock heated to 800C to cook the wort.
• December: Pacifactor, a doppelbock.
• also in December Kaliber 12, a 12% ABV Belgian Quadruppel with abbey-beer brewing process.

The fact that he's doing it in traditional Oberfranken is cool, too. Actually, it's on the Bavarian side near the eastern German state of Thüringen.

 

Hopfenweisse is a good beer, but it tastes like Kirschwasser to me.

 

I used to be in this area very frequently, but I do not know this Dorf. The Wasserkuppe is the former Ost/West border, I am thinking that this is not in Bavaria but rather in Thueringen. Not sure exactly...

 

Honestly, I think if you interviewed any number of Franconian brewers, they would tell you that they, too, pride themselves on not brewing "Einheitsbiere." Thing is, they've been bucking these trends for 100s if not 1000s of years now. Franconians are known to be extremely resistant to change, so even when things in Munich were going the direction of pale clean lagers, Franconians stuck to their traditions, which included, among many others, Ungespundete Kellerbiere, Rauchbiere, Landbiere, Steinbiere, and other extremely diverse regional specialties.

What I'm getting at here is that, while I can appreciate what Pax is doing, it's no different than what 100s of others have been doing for centuries...only difference is the marketing behind it and accommodating many of these long-revered traditions (as well as some trendy U.S. styles) under one roof. My fear is that he will be a Jack of all trades and master of none...precisely the problem with U.S. craft brewers who are producing takes on so many styles.

A local, highly praised brewer here in SC, Westbrook, does myriad styles, including lots of (purportedly) German ones. Everyone goes apeshit to see a Gose, Graetzer, Schwarzbier, Kellerbier, etc. being brewed in "traditonal SC." But there's one problem: the beers are shit. Not that they're technically poorly executed. It's that they just barely manage to succeed in approximating the style -- and ultimately come nowhere close to tasting as good as the originals. While it sounds all good in theory, the reality is something altogether different. But U.S. beer geeks people don't mind; on the contrary, they more highly prize the opportunity to "tick" the "next new thing" than they do to find a beer worthy of drinking every day.

See, this is my big fear about German brewers following in the footsteps of the new generation of U.S. craft brewers. Variety will doubtlessly increase, but quality will greatly suffer. Perhaps an even bigger fear is that a generation of beer geeks will develop over there who will prefer drinking at home (as they do here), and the specialty brewers in "traditional Oberfranken" who worked 100s if not 1000s of years to perfect their respective styles will be ignored in favor of these Jacks of all trades who woo them with fancy bottles, high ABVs, and cheap marketing gimmicks.

 

Scott,

I have no personal experience with the German (Franconian) beer market (since I haven’t won the lottery yet) but permit me to enquire concerning your statement of your fear that: “the specialty brewers who worked 100s if not 1000s of years to perfect their respective styles will be ignored in favor of these Jacks of all trades.”

Since I don’t have a deep understanding of the German (Franconian) beer market my thinking on this matter is via an analogy of the American beer market. The vast majority of the beer sold in the US is the traditional beer of American Adjunct Lager (i.e., BMC type beers). The US craft beer movement has been in existence for 20-30 years and the craft beer segment is small (something like 10% of the market depending on what metric you use to measure market share). In my absolute perfect world, craft beer will have the majority share over the next 20-30 years but realistically I would be happy with craft beer being something like 25% of the beer market. I have absolutely no fear that the traditional AAL will be supplanted by craft beers from a beer market share perspective.

My understanding of the German people (and the German beer culture) is that they are even more resistant to changes like varying beer styles than the American people. It seems to me that the traditional German (Franconian) beer culture is ‘safe’ for many, many years!?!

Prost!

 

I think you're overreacting. You equate a German brewer trying to meld traditional methods with modern versions of styles which are also quite traditional. Look, it could be great or complete crap. Just b/c one guy in SC has folks hyperventilating on over-hyped brews, doesn't mean that someone who's really true to his art can't make some really good brews. Also, that part of Germany deserves some variety in their palate, for they're quite off the beaten path. I was bracing myself for this exact reaction form Stahlsturm, but hey, y'all might be twins of a different mother. I tried the Pax Bräu Vollbier only and it's packed full of flavor, no dull beer at all, and isn't that what we're looking for, beer full of flavor rather than flavorless mass beer? Again, just b/c craft beer in the USA has reached a critical mass that it's now reaching into mainstream and becoming hyped to the gills, doesn't mean that a man in charge of his craft can't pull off great beers of a wide variety. Hell, according to your theory, a brewer should learn 1 or 2 styles and stick with it ad-nauseam. That's the flip side of what you're complaining about.

If beer is crap, it doesn't matter what the style and what others say. If it's good, then ditto.

 

The danger comes not from the Franconians' willingness (or not) to accept or embrace change. It comes, rather, from outside forces. First and foremost, currently, are the EU regulations that require breweries to upgrade equipment, etc., when ownership shifts (from generation to generation) or changes hands, which is exponentially increasing expenses and causing breweries to close. (I admit I don't know much about this beyond what I have read here, so someone who knows more feel free to jump in). Second, there is a generation of young drinkers who don't think the traditional breweries/taverns/beergardens are cool enough to hang out in, so many of these places are languishing while college kids pay $6 for a 12 oz bottle of Corona in a "Mexican" bar when they could have a 0.5 l of Schlenkerla in a 14th century tavern for $2.50 (and WTF happened to wide-eyed Americans who used to enjoy these ancient, beautiful spots?). Third, there is this new influence from U.S. craft brewing that encourages the constant pursuit of the experience of the new -- so that people hardly make it to the traditional pubs and instead split their time between trips to the bottle shop/UPS drop-off point/laptop to acquire/trade/show off. So to answer your question: no. Franconian brewing is under assault. When I lived there, there were 380 breweries within an hour of Bamberg; now there are around 300.