Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

I don't know.

 

I had to share this here, just run across it, a short video about the Hebendanz brewery in Forchheim..

It seems so relaxed and down to earth, yet at the same time passionate.
True,almost spiritual, beer love.

 

Don't frequent BA a ton these days, but I dropped in on a week that happened to coincide with some fresh - at least for imports - Bavarian treats' arrival to town, so I had to report back here!

We haven't seen fresh Andechs in probably 3+ years, so it was with huge delight that I came upon some Weissbier Hell and Doppelbock Dunkel. Broke into the Weissbier tonight and, oh, what joy. Gorgeous in the glass (though the pics on Andechs's site promised as much!), delightful hefe nose, fruity but by no means a banana bomb (the site noted honeydew, which I thought apt), with the clove really growing in presence as you guys. Lovely palate, some great wheat malt notes amidst the fruit + spice, and I'd swear there's almost something woody, dare I even say very lightly smoky, in there, though perhaps this just all that clover goodness reminding me of pipe tobacco and the like. Anyway, a wonderful beer from a wonderful brewery. The price is steep at almost $5 a bottle, but I'll likely need to splurge for another, though not until I've broke into my Doppelbock and another new treat, Weihenstephaner's recently released Kristallweizenbock. Will report back on those in short order.

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Kristallweizenbock...interesting! At this point Weihenstephaner makes just about every possible style native to the region.

 

And pretty much always really well. Class outfit, to be sure.

 

Thanks for sharing. Gorgeous images, juicy Fränkisch dialect.
Can't wait to visit in a few weeks.

(+ Kudos to Sony and Zeiss, worthy of their sponsoring this mystical experience).

 

Enjoyed an Irseer Klosterbrau Dunkel tonight. Very nice indeed. I find it interesting that their 3 drinks are all the same 5.6% strength. Like their hell too but their weisse, although being very drinkable, isn't like a weisse should be in my opinion.

 

Can you expound on your opinion? Is it flavor, body?

 

Not that I drank a ton of them, but I was rarely happy with the weissbiers in Bamberg. Mahr's is/was world class but the rest were kind of bland. I tried the ones at Faessla and Klosterbrau and they were similarly "meh." Not quite Erdinger or Dusseldorf weizen, but a far cry from most Munich-area ones. The esters just weren't there. Actually, Augustiner's is a fair comparison. Not a big fan of that one either. I've gotten one nearly every time I've been in Munich (usually to avoid a 2nd 1L of Edelstoff) and I've always been disappointed.

 

I stumbled on a six-pack sale of Augustiner Edelstoff: $12 a sixer. That's a $5 savings for around here. I couldn't find a dating code on the bottle or six-pack, or anyone at the store with time to answer a question (big favorite retailer in these parts that always seems to disappoint me with their CS), so I rolled the dice.

FWIW -- the bottles and labels are very clean and new looking. Love the marketing push on the labels: SINCE 1328 AD. Anyone know if Global Village Imports has always imported Augustiner to the U.S?

The malt character isn't as big in melanoidin character as the Helles (as in all breweries) I remember in Munich, but this has been Pasteurized and traveled an ocean -- the Augustiner I had in Munich traveled a few blocks.

To me, this beer isn't much better than the fresh HB Original I find at almost half the price (not counting a sale) here in the U.S. But that is not to say it isn't a very good beer.

Someday I'll update my reviews from Munich proper.

 

Mahr's to stop producing Weissbier. Gutmann will supply in future

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1903471423236555

 

My wife really liked the Gutmann Weissbier when she had it a festival in Nürnberg.

 

Very interesting. Thanks for the news herrburgess. At first I was concerned by the headline, but then I read that all is well:

"Mahrs Bräu kann sich damit mehr auf die Produktion der Lagerbiere konzentrieren: die Nachfrage steigt ständig, vor allem nach dem „U“, dem Spezialbier der Traditions-Privatbrauerei aus der Wunderburg. Lediglich die Weissbiere wie Die Festtags Weisse und Der Weisse Bock werden weiterhin in Bamberg produziert."

 

The Mahr's weisse was my favorite wheat beer by far. I'll trust that this is for the best, but it's disappointing.

Related - a friend of mine in in Munich right now and he mentions that Franziskaner Royal might be his favorite beer of the trip. Anyone had it and have any opinions?

 

Never tried it and never seen it here -- what are his impressions? By the BA listing, it looks to be a bigger Hefeweizen at 6.0%. Competition to other Weizenbocks?

 

Still waiting on more info. He just sent me a photo of it and said it was his favorite beer so far. He's into beer enough that I trust that it's really good. It does seem like it's heading into weizenbock territory. Per their website it won gold at the 2016 WBC as a weissbier.

...also of note on the Franziskaner website - they also now have a kellerbier. http://www.franziskaner-weissbier.de/unsere-biere/kellerbier. I would have assumed this would be under the Spaten brand. Both the German and US Spaten websites look neglected at best. Makes me wonder if dissolving the brand is back on the table again.

 

I saw that a little while ago and wondered the same, but I think it's only available in Germany.

The web sites (along with the Spaten Facebook page) have been untouched for many years -- and I'm not sure why. It seems like Spaten is showing more life around my area these days, although Franziskaner has me confused. I've seen stacks of 12 packs at different stores, but the package dates look like the old, pre Import Brands Alliance importation (reminds me, I should have looked for that). They also appear to be showing 2016 bottling dates. Very confusing.

 

Had it at a Franziskaner place in zentral Hamburg a couple of years ago. It was pretty good and loved the idea of a bigger Franzi, not yet totally into Weizenbock territory but more like sitting in the middle ground ala Kuchlbauer Turmweisse. I remember getting excited about the find and really enjoying it, but can´t help much with descriptions as i got to chat with a local photographer, it was just one sample and obviously took no notes. If my memories are correct i asked for it inside the restaurant and the beer came from a tap. It came down fine, but even as a fan of the brand since my early 20´s i couldn´t pay enough attention here, and i would love to have it again. At least i have the pic, which was quite hard to find in the other hand.



This happened at Gustav´s no less.

 

In other words it was a good beer but not remarkable in my experience, and didn´t even make a top five from those days between Hamburg and Berlin. But again the sample was minimal and the setting/timing/mood probably not the best. I still trust your friend, in spite of my experience, and as a lover of regular Franziskaner i want my Royal back for a fair chance!

 

Here it is.



I never liked Photobucket in the first place, so bye bye.