Archive for the ‘Germany’ Category

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Beer festivals are growing on us

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

At a loose end, we decided to pop to Manchester for the weekend, taking in the National Winter Ales Festival, of which Tandleman was one of the organisers.

After startling him with our unannounced arrival (he made a very effective bouncer) we made our way upstairs to the main hall. Our first impressions were of a relatively young crowd with the kind of male-female mix you’d expect in the real world. The atmosphere was like that of a large, busy, if rather brightly lit pub. Or, with people sat on the floor in groups, was it reminiscent of a music festival? We felt very comfortable and soon completely forgot we were in a wedding banquet hall on an industrial estate in a city we hardly knew.

We headed straight for the German rarities. Uerige Sticke Alt, which we’d been wanting to try for a long time, had the trademark Uerige bitterness, although after such anticipation, it was a little disappointing. Schlenkerla Urbock (or did the label say Eichbock?) (6.5%) was clear and syrupy and, frankly, balanced too much towards sweetness for our taste.

A brief detour to Bohemia next with Bernard Kvasnicove took the idea of unfiltered beer to the extreme:  there was a bit of wood in it. It was mellow and, again, sweetish. It wasn’t warm, but it could have got away with being two degrees colder.

Lowenbrau Buttenheim Bock didn’t taste as strong as 6.5%. It was very nicely balanced, clearly a well crafted beer, and far from bland, but we wanted a bit more zing.

We went closer to home for the next round. Broughton 80 Shilling was bland; Acorn Gorlovka Stout astounding. What a contrast. We were sceptical as to how a 5% beer could lay claim to the ‘imperial’ moniker but this beauty did it, through hop bitterness, chocolate intensity and a very heavy, chewy body. It was the stand out beer of the evening.

JW Lees Darkside was really interesting — so fruity and sour that if someone said it had plums or maybe even cherries in, we’d believe them.

Red shield, White Shield’s weaker, blonder, cask-conditioned cousin, could have borne a lote more hop aroma and came off as a bit boring in comparison to, say, Dark Star Hophead or Marble Pint.

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Posted in Germany, beer festivals, beer reviews, czech republic, real ale | 10 Comments »

Plenty beer, plenty meat, plenty money

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

On our recent jaunt in the north of Germany, we took the opportunity to re-read Erskine Childers 1903 German-invasion-scare novel, The Riddle of the Sands.

This passage occurs when Davies and Carruthers (yes, the narrator is called Carruthers!) meet a channel pilot on the Friesian coast and he takes them duck hunting.

‘Yes, yes,’ he said, ‘all right. There is plenty ducks, but first we will drink a glass beer; then we will shift your ship, captain–she lies not good there.’ (Davies started up in a panic, but was waved back to his beer.) ‘Then we will drink together another glass beer; then we will talk of ducks–no, then we will kill ducks–that is better. Then we will have plenty glasses beer.’

This was an unexpected climax, and promised well for our prospects. And the programme was fully carried out. After the beer our host was packed briskly by his daughter into an armour of woollen gaiters, coats, and mufflers, topped with a worsted helmet, which left nothing of his face visible but a pair of twinkling eyes. Thus equipped, he led the way out of doors, and roared for Hans and his gun, till a great gawky youth, with high cheek-bones and a downy beard, came out from the yard and sheepishly shook our hands.

Together we repaired to the quay, where the pilot stood, looking like a genial ball of worsted, and bawled hoarse directions while we shifted the Dulcibella to a berth on the farther shore close to the other vessels. We returned with our guns, and the interval for refreshments followed. It was just dusk when we sallied out again, crossed a stretch of bog-land, and took up strategic posts round a stagnant pond. Hans had been sent to drive, and the result was a fine mallard and three ducks. It was true that all fell to the pilot’s gun, perhaps owing to Hans’ filial instinct and his parent’s canny egotism in choosing his own lair, or perhaps it was chance; but the shooting-party was none the less a triumphal success. It was celebrated with beer and music as before, while the pilot, an infant on each podgy knee, discoursed exuberantly on the glories of his country and the Elysian content of his life. ‘There is plenty beer, plenty meat, plenty money, plenty ducks,’ summed up his survey.

Image from the cover of the recent beautifully designed Penguin edition.

Posted in Germany, beer in fiction / tv | 8 Comments »

Cologne: not just about the Koelsch

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

freischems

We end up in Cologne so often these days  on our way in and out of Germany that it’s a struggle to find new pubs or beers to try. This time, however, we spotted an advert for Freischem’s Brauhaus on a free city map and trekked out of the immediate city centre in the rain to give it a go.

It was huge and mostly empty — because it was 4.30 on a wet Sunday afternoon or because it only opened a month or two ago? The beer list immediately had us a little excited. It included a Koelsch, of course, but also something called Trub, a weizen, a Christmas beer and a stout.

The Koelsch was of the slightly darker, honey-tasting variety (see also Paeffgen) and very pleasant. Trub was, unsurprisingly, a cloudy light beer — their answer to the bland brauhaus zwickl and perfectly drinkable, if unexciting. The weizen ticked all the usual boxes.

Weihnachtsbier was a nice red colour with a good spicy aroma. We were split on this one, though. Boak thought it was dull, verging on unpleasant, with an off yeast flavour and not much more. Bailey could taste roasted malt and liked the bitterness.

The stout was the stand-out beer, though. We really weren’t expecting much — a boring schwarzbier, perhaps? — but it had a good thick body, a creamy chocolate flavour and a great roasted bitter aftertaste. We’d have enjoyed this anywhere but, by German brewpub standards, it was a knockout.

Given that it wasn’t far away, we also staged a return visit to Hellers, where there were a couple of new beers for us to try as well as some old favourites. Winterbock was an amateur take on Aventinus, with all the right clove and fruit flavours but  with absolutely no condition. Pity, as this would be stunning otherwise. The new bottled Pils was very good — bitter, but not especially hoppy, and so malty it tasted like mashing grain.

Bottles of Hellers Wiess (the unfiltered Koelsch) are currently on sale at Cask, the excellent pub in Pimlico we wrote about here.

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Posted in Germany, pubs | 6 Comments »

Jever: now that’s what we call bitter!

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

A krug of Jever pilsener beer in Hamburg

We’ve been fans of Jever, the famously bitter pils from the North German city of that name, for some time. When we met Knut a couple of weeks back we spent a few minutes collectively rhapsodising about what a wonderful beer it is when it’s not gone stale, as the bottles that turn up in London seem to have done about 50 per cent of the time.

We’d never had it on tap, though, and were determined to put this right in Hamburg where Jever is one of the three or four most readily available commercial lagers. The Friesenkeller, which is in a cave between the Alster lake and the Rathaus and focuses on Friesian specialities, caught our eye as a likely spot.

The pils came in a stone krug so that only the rocky head was visible peering over the top. The familiar sulphurous smell hit us before we’d even lifted the vessels. The marvellous lingering bitter aftertaste was thrown into sharp contrast by all the timid brewpub beers we’d been drinking — it really seemed a bold, lively, interesting beer.

One dimensional? Yes, probably, but nonetheless a beer we’d like to be able to drink in good condition more often.

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Posted in Germany | 15 Comments »

That’s never pils!

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

groninger

Groeninger Brauhaus is Hamburg’s other brewpub. It offers a Bavarian-style wheat beer (surprise, surprise) and a pils, which at least makes a change from a zwickl.

The weird thing is that, without getting too into style guide territory, the pils simply isn’t one. It’s brown, sweet and has very low carbonation. It’s ok, a bit like a bland alt bier. If we were to try to describe the flavour we’d say it had some soft caramel, but that’s about it — there’s certainly no hop character.

These brewpubs are often are huge but this one really takes the biscuit. It was a cross-country hike to get to the loo and there were room after room with tables reseved for 35 or more. Some tables were in huge old barrels, which was cool. And, of course, several roast pigs on the counter.

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Posted in Germany | 2 Comments »

We’ve had blander beer

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

albrechthamburg

The Brauhaus Joh. Albrecht is just behind the Rathaus in Hamburg. It’s in an extremely modern building which looks like the head office of an insurance company from outside. Inside, though, it’s actually very cosy with low lighting and thousands of Christmas baubles hanging from the ceiling in garlands.

The other thing that put a smile on our faces when we entered was an overwhelming and delicious aroma of mashing malt. It’s one of those smells, like fresh coffee or baking bread, that makes you feel contented. More brewpubs should pump it out.

The beers themselves were just about OK. Messing is a pale, cloudy lager, described as hoppy on the menu. It really isn’t. Like the Brauberger beer in Luebeck, it was yeasty in a good way, but without a huge amount else going on.

The Christmas beer, Nickel, was a dark brown, sweet malty brew with a full body and a thick tan head. It reminded us of a slightly fizzier, less fruity, less bitter Old Peculier. In other words, interesting, but not one for the ages.

Kupfer, a dunkel, was the blandest of all — a sweeter version of the Messing tasting mostly of caramel.

Finally, their weizen was a big, cartoon-like Bavarian wheat beer with a huge bubblegum flavour which, to our mind, made it the best of a medicore bunch.

Nonetheless, all were way better than Brinkhoff’s No 1, our benchmark for blandness in German beer.

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Posted in Germany | 6 Comments »

At least one decent beer in Luebeck

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

braubergerluebeck

Brauberger in Luebeck is a brewpub in a lovely old building in a quaint part of the old town. There are various implications that the brewery and the pub are pretty ancient although, when you get down to it, the beermats suggest it was founded in 2006.

Nonetheless, the keller is very cosy and their one beer, a hazy yellow zwickl served in tall  straight glasses with handles, is actually pretty good. It’s definitely a step up from the standard modern German brewpub fare. It has a distinctly yeasty flavour but in a good way — refreshing and slightly fruity rather than overpowering and dusty. A mild bitterness at the end makes it a lively accompaniment to the hearty food.

In short, don’t go out of your way to try it, but if you’re in Luebeck, Brauberger is definitely worth a visit.

Luebeck itself is a fascinating and sometimes beautiful place, if a little quiet after the Danish coach parties have departed. If, like us, you sometimes visit places for reasons other than beer, we’d recommend a night or two.

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Posted in Germany | 3 Comments »

Un-skunked bottled lager

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

The cap from a bottle of Augustiner lager beer

In a crap pub, a bottle of Budvar is often the last refuge for the beer geek. Sadly, those little green bottles are almost always past their best — stale and flavourless.

It was nice this week to be reminded that it doesn’t always have to be that way with bottled lager, though, when Augustiner Lagerbier Hell (our beer of the week) transported us to Bavaria with one sip.

There were veritable hops, sweet malt and — hooray! — no off flavours.

It also helped that it was served in a nicely shaped and properly branded glass. That shouldn’t matter, but it does.

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Posted in Germany, beer reviews, bottled beer | 9 Comments »

Berliner Weisse in London

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

berlinerweisse

Cask, a nicely refurbished pub in Pimlico, London, continues to impress. This week, we noticed that their range of German bottled beers includes a Berliner weisse, which is a style we’ve been wanting to get our hands on for a while.

We have had it before — on a trip to the city of its origin in 2002, when we knew absolutely nothing about beer, and submitted to having it spiked with bright green fruit syrup.

So, drinking this 3% abv wheat beer straight, we were very impressed. It more than makes up for a lack of alcoholic kick with plenty of sourness and grainy flavour, and is certainly something we’d like to have around at our next party or barbecue.

For balance, we should say that Ron Pattinson’s not a fan of this brand — he considers it “disgusting crap”.

Posted in Germany, beer reviews, bottled beer | 12 Comments »

Moktoberfest

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Here’s an old but interesting menu for a German-inspired beer and food party from Chow.com.

Interesting that they don’t recommend any German beers — hence “Moktoberfest”, presumably – but their’s look like good choices for US based readers.

We found this quite inspiring.

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Posted in Germany, beer and food | 4 Comments »

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