Hacker-Pschorr Weisse Dark

After their last outing at JustBeer, I had high high hopes when I found a half-litre of Hacker-Pschorr Dark Weisse at Malt & Vine this weekend – their Oktoberfest that I picked up back in the Autumn was a rioutous good time in a bottle, and one that I hoped to re-live this weekend. 

Sad to say, those high hopes were dashed. On the initial pour, this looks like an interesting beer. A decent head, a reasonable aroma, a slightly cloudy light-brown body from the bottle conditioning and the expectation of a classic German Weisse set things up nicely at the start – but unfortunately a different story was told when it reached my tongue. With too much malt, way too little carbonation, a funky aftertaste and an overall sense of general unpleasantness meant that this one just didn’t make the grade. A definite shame, for I was expecting better.

JBB6 Rating: Just Not Right

Erdinger Oktoberfest Weizen

From the world’s largest wheat beer brewery comes this crafty little number, a handsome weizen dressed up in Oktoberfest clothes to cash in on America’s favourite beer marketing event. Nice move by Erdinger, and you really can’t blame them for wanting to take part in a little bit of the Munich breweries fun. Quite how well it was going to stack up against the rest of the Oktoberfest’s we’ve been tasting lately I wasn’t sure – but today was the day to find out.

FIrst impressions are good – I like the label, the bottle opens with a satisfying hiss, and soon enough the glass in front of me is full of deep orange beer with a thick, feisty head that sticks around for the better part of the pint. Smells rich and malty at first, and delivers a well-carbonated, refreshing blast of faintly lemon-scented wheaty goodness as you dive into it.

Good stuff, that gets better as it goes down. A second one is equally as enjoyable – and while it’s got nothing to do with Oktoberfest in the strictest sense of the word, I’m not going to hold that against it too much. Welcome to the party, Mr Erdinger…

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Franziskaner Weissbier

My prayers were answered! Although I was really enjoying the Krombacher pils we discovered in the little sausage-restaurant at Dusseldorf airport in Germany on fine summer day, I’d had my heart set on some Franziskaner since we’d walked in, and broken when the waitress told us it wasn’t working. But somewhere, somehow, something changed… and the beer came back. Hurrah!

The Franziskaner brewery has a long and distinguished history – dating back, if you’ll believe their history, to 1363 as the oldest privately-owned brewery in Munich. So by now, they surely do know how to knock out a decent weissbier. I’ve drunk this a lot before so I’m happy to report that it survives the journey pretty well from Bavaria to the north.

A typical cloudy amber-orange weissbier pour with a thick, suddsy head (not as thick as I’d like, but good enough) covers up a well-carbonated, refreshingly tart brew. High in wheat and yeast flavour and aroma, this beer is one that just keeps on giving. Super-tasty, incredibly refreshing, and a fine fine beer to say goodbye to Germany with, I’ll keep the memory of this fresh on draft with me a for a while to come. While it’s good in bottles, it’s pretty much unbeatable from the pump – if we’d only been in a Munich biergarten, this probably would have gotten our highest accolade, but as it is…

JBB6 Rating: For the Win

Krombacher pils

Decent 0,4 of a litre of Pils with sausage at the Loreley airport cafe/bar at Dusseldorf airport after an hour and a half driving – yet again - across northern Germany. Not a bad way to spend your lunchtime, I must say, but I don’t really have a huge amount to say about it… if the Franziskaner weissbeer machine had been working I’d have chosen that forst off (and I’m still hoping it’ll come on…)

But anyway, this Krombacher beer was all that was on offer, and it provided a cheerfully refreshing pilsner to complent my plate of sausage, bread and mustard. Nothing outstanding, nothing to really write home about, but above average for an airpot joint, and something I’d drink again if I had the opportunity…

As there’s  at least another hour-and-a-half before the plane leaves, I’m sure this rating’s gonna come true:

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Radeberger pilsner

Desperate for something to cut through the pollution of the abominable Banana-flavoured Weizen I’d just consumed, my eye turned it’s eager gaze once more upon the Kruse Baimken biergarten’s menu, and settled rapidly on the name of Radeberger.

A fine pilsner would ease my troubled tongue, I hoped, and summoning the courage to place another order, I hoped the Radeberger wouldn’t let me down.

Served in a beautiful glass with a thick, creamy dollop of foam on top, this bright and lively golden liquid brought forth a resurgence of beer-love, with the hoppy fragrance twining round a boquet of floral notes and a finely-tuned hop-strong finish to leave me refreshed, re-energised, and definitely wanting more. Luckily I was in a biergarten, and help was but a salutation away…

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Unfortunately, this is where I ran into “camera operator issues” and don’t have anything to show you – aside from this I stole found on the Internet. Hurray for the Internet!

Hövels Bitterbier

Never having heard of – let alone tried - a “bitterbier” before, the Hövel’s Bitterbier on the menu at the Kruse Baimken biergarten in Munster on the fine sunny evening that I was enjoying in Germany looked intriguing enough for me to give it a try.

Fine choice – the frothing glass of deep-brown beer that arrived at the table brough with it a deep, malty aroma and a mouthful of bread. Though, that could have been the pretzel that came with it, I guess. Not as sweet as the Diebel’s I’d enjoyed the night before, this nevertheless reminded me of the altbier style, and I’m wondering if there’s some relationship in recipe there.  Not overly carbonated, but with a head that remained fine and high throughout the glass, I really enjoyed this one too. One can’t help but agree with the web site; “Eine Komposition von einzigartigem Charakter”. Of course!

Apologies for the blurry picture below… at the time, I was far more interested in the contents of the glass than in photographing it. It does get a bit of the pretzel in the foreground though, and they were pretty darn good too

JBB6 Rating: For the Win

Weizen mit Banane

After the delight of the Schofferhoffer Weizen earlier in the evening, I took the bull by the horns, ignored my friends advice to save my soul for other pleasures, and rustled up a demi-litre of Weizen with added banana goodness.

What a diabolical mistake! Gone was the gently clouded honey-gold nectar of the first drink of the evening. Gone was the delicious aroma of wheat and yeast. Gone was the refreshing, invigorating flavour of one of Germany’s classics. Gone, everything I’d been enjoing so far about the evening… replaced with an overpowering faux-banana smell, a thick-looking sedimentary liquid, and a vile taste that made the drink undrinkable.

Sad to say, I couldn’t even finish the glass, and was forced to purify my pallate with a draft or two of fine Pils. In the case of of the remarkably delicious Weizen, less is most definitely more.

Avoid this banana abomination like the plague.

 

JBB6 Rating: Not Even For Free

Schofferhofer weizen

Picture the scene – a warm, drowsy evening follows a scorching summer afternoon on the high plains of northern Germany. Five wandering souls stroll the tree-lined cobbled promenade that follows the path of the medieval city walls of the ancient town of Munster, capital of Westphalia and home to more students on bicycles than you can possibly imagine. Rounding a leafy bend they spy the object of their quest – beside the lake, across the highway – the bustling, laughing tables of the Kruse Baimken biergarten, haven for all who seek refreshment.

After a gentle meander through the town, an equally gentle perusal of the menu presents an obvious choice: a tall, cloudy glass of Schofferhofer weizen is what’s called for, a yeasty glass of goodness that radiates taste, charm and happiness in equal measure. Our fraulein takes our order, and with bated breath… I wait.

My expectations are not dissapointed. I’m not sure if it’s the beer alone, or the combination of location and the brew, but this wheat beer is light, refreshing and bursting full of flavour. The very definition of “zesty”, it brings to mind cloudless summer days and fields of wheat, of weary travellers taking their ease at the side of the road, of ancient German brewing wisdom passed down the ages to make this beer. Through a thick foam head I dive into the liquid gold whole-heartedly, enjoying the purity of the experience and the beer in equal measure. Come hither, biergarten maiden, and fetch me another.  

 

JBB6 Rating: For The Win

Diebels Premium Altbier

On the road once again, for the first time in a long time I’m hanging out in the beer-lover’s paradise… Germany. Ah, man – what a place! After trekking across the US, the Atlantic, the south of England, the plains of Nordrhein-Westfalen and the streets of Muenster, it was a relief to finally sit down for a moment and savour a cheeky drop of ale. 

First up – a bottle (or two) of Diebels Premium Altbier from Brauerei Diebels, a style I don’t believe I’ve ever tried before, so thanks to the server who recommended it as a fine local ale. Historically brewed in the Dusseldorf region, this is a beer which has been brewed since olden times, the “old beer” name

“refers to the pre-lager brewing method of using a warm top-fermenting yeast like British pale ales. Over time the Alt yeast adjusted to lower temperatures, and the Alt brewers would store or lager the beer after fermentation, leading to a cleaner, crisper beer than is the norm for an ale.”

True, that – a deep copper and hazlenut colour in the glass with a light, thin head this beer is strong in the malt department and finishes with a tasty bitter ending. It definitely looks like an ale, but those looks are deceptive – Diebels has a lean and rangy character that isn’t exactly thin, but definitely doesn’t have the full, rotund body of a traditional ale. Refreshing, but with a hearty undertone that helped carry me from the first to the third bottle in the course of an hour with a plateful of steak to accompany it, this is a beer I’d go for again. If only there weren’t so many others to try while I’m here…

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again

Doppel-Hirsch Bavarian Doppelbock

Looking for something a little more robust than the schwarzbier I just polished off, I turned to my trusty fridge and selected an interesting looking bottle of Doppelbock – the Doppel-Hirsch from Privatbrauerei Höss, with a cheeky pair of stags on it’s appealing label. For some reason this bottle immediately put me in mind of autumn, my favourite time of the year, with sunlit misty mornings and crisp frosty walks through the woods with my faithful hound by my side. I probably want a wood fire and a big plate of peppery mushrooms to go with it. And some lederhosen.

None of those are to be though, at least not today. What I do have is a flip-top bottle with a half-liter of hyper-pure double bock… soon to be consumed. A deep-brown crystal-clear pour, a noseful of hops, and a thick, creamy texture help this slip down pretty easy.

On the (very slight) downside however, it’s sweet and slightly sticky, and although I really like it, I don’t think it’s quite up there with the rest of the double bocks I’ve had in the past. Not far off, but not quite there. I’ll definitely try it again, though, just to make sure

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again