July 7th, 2010 by Nate

YET Another Weiss bier from me. I know, I know, I really can’t help myself. I honestly have to force myself to buy and try other biers!

Today’s Weiss comes from Kuchlbauer“Der Weissbier Spezialist” as they say. This is the first time I’ve actually come across Kuchlbauer and am surprised that a weissbier fan such as myself had not tried any of their biers previously. It could be that by being a Bavarian Brewery I may have overlooked them thanks to the hundreds of other Bavarian Weissbier breweries. None the less, these guys ONLY brew wheat beer and from the looks of it they’ve managed to brew a few variations of the weiss too.

The above is their “Alte Liebe” (Old Love), dunkel weiss. I was actually drinking it whilst cooking some Lamb on the BBQ. Summer time cooking and eating of meat all while enjoying a bier is such a fantastic experience.

So to the bier. Well those who’ve been here before know, I like my dunkel weissbiers, so I was quite excited to try this. Unfortunately this just wasn’t up to par with others that I have tried. The one key thing that got to me was that it was just too bitter for a Dunkel Weiss. I did expect more and that could also be why I was disappointed, so maybe I’ve got to hold back on setting expectations, especially for those biers from regions where you’d expect nothing but perfection.

In the end it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE
It turns out that the folks at Kuchlbauer not only brew beer but they have a beer theme park as well. From the looks of things it’s not up there with Duff Gardens, but it could be interesting. So if any of you out there have visited Bier Welt (beer world), please let the community know about it.

Otherwise the next time I’m in Bavaria and get a chance, I’ll be making the visit.

Bavaria, Bayern, Beer world, Bier, bierwelt, dunkel, German Bier, Kuchlbauer, Weißbier, Weiss, weissbier

July 5th, 2010 by Nate

I posted recently about the Edel Pils from Hebendanz and today I am reviewing the above Festbier from the same establishment.

First allow me a little explanation. Festbier is quite literally “Festival or party beer”. It’s a special beer brewed for a special event. This type of bier is sometimes a Märzen or sometimes it’s more of a unique style brewed for the event, such as Oktoberfest. As I mention in my previous Festbier post, there has been quite a discussion about this over at The Brew Club on the merits of festbiers “>festbiers (namely Oktoberfest) and Märzens.

Märzens generally have stronger malt flavours than a regular Pils or other biers. They also have a higher alcohol content and personally I find Märzens to be more on the ‘chewable’ side of bier, that is a bier that has more texture in the mouth.

So how about the Hebendanz Jubiläums Festbier? Which mind you is the brauerei’s anniversary brew. Well this was a pleasure to drink. It had all of the qualities you’d expect from a good festbier and was quite enjoyable to drink, as well as taste.

Oh and one little factoid that I feel I MUST share with you. The Brauerei Hebendanz is located in the town of Forchheim. An atypical German town with it’s cobblestone streets, old city square and lovely architecture. What is even more interesting is that Forchheim is part of a region called Fränkische Schweiz. In English the region is called “little Switzerland”, not because of any association with Switzerland, rather it is simply resembles the rolling hills of Switzerland and was named as such by the Romantic Period artists.

All this is well and good, but the fact I think most of you are interested in is that the Fränkische Schweiz is the little place in the world that happens to hold the title of having the highest density of private breweries in the world.

Some food for thought eh? Keep an eye out for more information on this topic. I’m going to certainly have more to say on this.

Festbier, German Bier, Hebendanz, Hebendanz Jubiläums Festbier, Märzen, N, Nürnberg/Franconia Adventure

July 1st, 2010 by Nate

Summer is good.
I love stating the obvious, ha! No seriously the reason I’ve not been posting so often is that I’ve been out enjoying a few drops of the good stuff whilst enjoying some Sun.

But I have been tasting some new beers that I’m keen to share. Above it the Edel Pils from the Brauerei Hebendanz, who’s been doing their things since 1579 . So I hope they know what they are doing.

For those non-German speakers, “Edel” is a similar word to that of the English “Noble”. An interesting name for a Pils, none the less this Forchheim located Brauerei has quite a range of beers from the obvious Pils through Weiss and even Radler bier (I’ll cover this one day.. one day).

So to the beer itself, it was great drinking this on my balcony in the summer sun and normally this would allow me to have a ‘higher’ rating for the bier. But to be honest, in the end this was just a mid-range Pils. Maybe not so noble in the end, but enjoyable on a HOT day.

Bavarian bier, German Bier, N, Nürnberg/Franconia Adventure, Pils

June 3rd, 2010 by Nate

43%

Yeap you read that right.. 43 freaking %. Now I’ve not actually come across this bier until today. I was reading the article in Business Week about the competition for the worlds strongest beer. Now I was aware of Brewdog‘s efforts, but had NO idea about Schorschbräu.

The best thing for me is that they are a Fraconian based Brewery and I’m back Germany next weekend, so guess what I’m going to hunt down?

Still I wonder how much is too much?

Bier, Franconia, German Bier, World Strongest Bier

May 27th, 2010 by Nate

For those of you out there who are familiar with the move Downfall, or even the parody skits that have been splattered all over youtube, Oh and you like beer you will thoroughly enjoy this one.

Let me say that if taken in the appropriate manner, tongue-in-cheek that is, you will have a good laugh at this

Beer, Downfall, German Bier, Oktoberfest, Video

May 26th, 2010 by Nate

Well my collection of biers from in and around the Nürnberg region of Franconia has come to an end. Above it the final bier from my current collection. However, fear not! I am returning to the region in 4 weeks time and will be certain to pack the car up with enough ‘new’ and great biers for drinking and review.

The above Dunkel bier is from the tiny town (1000 people) of Weissenohe. It is kind of your small German towns, old city buildings, cobblestone streets, ugly new concrete buildings, etc, etc, etc. But most importantly, at least for this website, is that they have their own brewery.

The Brewery has been doing it’s ‘thing’, on and off, since 1050 when it was a Benedictine monasteries means of brewing it’s supplies for Lent. No I’m serious, the monk of this region would brew liquid food to allow them to survive during the Lent. Some stories that I’ve been privy too is that the monks were ‘rationed’ 8 liters a day (yes you read that right).

So besides the cool history, I probably should overview the bier itself. This is a wonderful and enjoyable bier. It has great caramel and malty characteristics. Which seems to be beautifully contrasted with an earthy quality that I just couldn’t put my finger on….. maybe as I’d had a couple. Still this is a great bier from another tiny, historic brewery who survives thanks to the interest of the Franconian locals.

PROST!

dunkel, Franconia, German Bier, Nürnberg, Nürnberg/Franconia Adventure, Weißenoher Bonifatius Dunkel, Weissenohe

May 5th, 2010 by Nate

Back at the beginning of this Adventure, I tested the Kellerbier from the Pyraser brauerei. If you recall I was interested to find the brewery actually bottling bier in screw-top bottle. Nothing changes with their Weizen, which too comes packaged in a unique screw-top bottle.

So I’ll keep this one quick, here we have a fairly mid-range Weizen. It’s not up there with the likes of Schneider, however one thing is for sure, it is miles ahead of the Tucher bier range. Drinkable, yes, but nothing surprising.

German Bier, hefeweizen, Nürnberg/Franconia Adventure, Pyraser, Pyraser brauerei, Weißbier, weissbier

April 26th, 2010 by Nate

Following my previous taste test of the smokey Märzen from Aecht Schlenkerla (remember that “Schlenkerla” is actually derived from the Frankish word “schlenkern” which essentially is an expression for ‘not walking straight’), it was time to review their Weizen.

Exactly like their Märzen, the Weizen has a very predominate aroma of smoke, which to be honest can be a little off putting. However like a good Fromages Français, the initial trepidation leads to an experience of pure tasting pleasure.

I am a fan of Weizen/Weiss Biers. There are no shortage of them on this site. So when I come across something that completely challenges my perspective and interpretation of what a bier can be, I’m always interested. However beyond the simple of interest of trying this bier, this bier rocked my thoughts towards what can be done with wheat biers.

I will say no more than, I really liked this bier and I think that like it’s Märzen cousin, I would very much like to spend more time getting to know it. So I guess it’s off to Bamberg.

Do you have any experience with Aecht Biers? Then please share your thoughts, stories or adventures!

Aecht, Aecht Schlenkerla, Bier, Fanconia, German Bier, Nürnberg, Nürnberg/Franconia Adventure, Rauchbier, Schlenkerla, Smoked Bier, Weißbier, Weiss, weissbier, Weizen

April 24th, 2010 by Nate

No BS’ing around today. I’ve already outlined the brewery details in a previous review of their pils (here), so we can skip that. Plus no deep and meaningful diatribe about quality and texture. Simply I was given this bier by a family friend and oooooh how good it is.

As you might know, I’m a fan of Weißbier and this one is up there as one of my favourites. If you can get your hands on it, I highly recommend it and in fact insist that everyone tries this bier!

Altenmünster, Altenmünster Weißbier, Bier, German Bier, hefeweizen, Weißbier, weissbier

April 23rd, 2010 by Nate

On this day in 1516 the a small town (at the time) of Ingolstadt (incidentally now also the home of Audi) a law proposed that would shape not only the food consumption of the surrounding duchy of Bavaria but, almost 500 years later, shape the modern bier industry.

Most readers of this site will know about this law. However you can read all about the Reinheitsgebot here.

This law has had a large impact on my drinking adventures and today I will raise a glass (maybe a few more) in salute of this monumental set of rules.

So in the spirit of the day, what is your favourite Reinheitsgebot bier?

PROST!

German Bier, Prost, Reinheitsgebots