Tucher Festbeir

It's volksfest time in Germany and guess what that means:

Yes, it means beer and in large glass mugs.  The above picture shows several mass of beir or measures of beer (1 Liter) ready to be served at a local fest.  Looks good doesn't it.  Festbiers are brewed in the spring time and most are reserved for Oktoberfest where they are called, of course Oktoberfestbeir, or Marzen (March, for when it's brewed).  The rest are served during the early Spring fests in April and May. Read more about festbeir here. I managed to get my hands on a rack of festbeir from the Tucher Brewery in Nuremberg and I'm just now getting around to posting the review.

The beer pours out a light golden yellow with a decent head that stays around for awhile.  A well balanced flavor that starts out roasted malty and finishes crisply with a hint of mild bitterness. The aroma is more of roasted malt then fresh cut grass.  An excellent beer and I'm looking for more offerings from Tucher to sample.

Hacker-Pshorr Munchner Hell

One of my favorite German beer types is the Hell or Helles.  This is particular hell is brewed by Hacker-Pshorr from Munich.  I've heard nothing but good things about their beers but I haven't been able to find any around the Vilseck area.  One of my NCO's went down to Munich and brought back a rack of it and he was kind of enough to give me two bottles to try out.  Here is what I thought.

The Hacker Pshorr Munchner Hell pours a nice foamy head, with aclear golden color.  A sweet taste with more of hint of malt than hops finishing with just a hint of roasted barley flavor.  A well balanced beer that leans more towards barley and malt than hops.  If I wasn't being deployed I'd be looking for more offerrings from Hacker Pshorr.

Veldensteiner Landbier

The Veldensteiner Landbier is the final beer from the Veldensteiner variety rack that I picked up the other day.  It pours a dark brown with some tints of red.  There was absolutely no head to this beer and very little tracing down the sides.  I'm still having issues with my sniffer so I have no clue as to the aroma, but the taste is a feast of smoky malt.  The beer finishes with no bitterness and no dryness.  I really like it and it would go great with a smoked brisket on a hot afternoon or evening.

Afghanistan

Well I've made it to Afghanistan.  No workouts yet.  I've tried to scope out a couple of the gyms and I've come to the conclusion that it's going to be interesting trying to get a workout in.  The American Gym is packed all the time, the NATO gym requires you to bring a second pair of shoes, which I didn't bring, and the Canadian Gym is only open at certain hours to non Canadians.  I've also been warned against running outside for a couple of reasons: One, the sewage treatment ponds on Kandahar are on the same side of the installation as I am going to live and work while here and the smell is very interesting when the wind is just right; two, there are only two paved roads and that means that it is very very very dusty and rocky; three, the installation is overcrowded and that means there is a lot of vehicular traffice and the last thing I want to do is be run over by 33,000 lb MRAP or even the honey sucker truck.  With that said though, I do see people running outside so I may have to chance it at night or early in the morning before the heat, dust, and traffic get too bad.

You may notice that there are still beer reviews being posted and they will continue to be posted through mid September.  I was a beer drinking fool in the last few weeks before deploying and I wrote up several reviews.  Keep checking back for those.  When I get R&R I'll drink a few more and get the reviews posted as well. 

Internet access is pretty good right now and I'll be posting workouts as soon as I get into a good battle rhythm.  I don't know though how long the internet access will last there are some course of action floating around that has me and my unit going out to more remote FOBs instead of staying on Kandahar Airfield.

Veldensteiner Weissbeir

The next beer from the Veldensteiner line is their Weissbier and it is a good one.  One note though before I get into the review, I'm a big fan of the flip top bottles, all of the beers I've had that come in a bottle like that seem to be really good.  Our refrigator here isn't very big and since I left my beer fridge in the states (I was afraid we wouldn't have a 110 volt outlet for it) I've been sttoring the .5L German beer bottles in a wine cooler that Shantel has.  That means they are stored on their sides and every once in awhile one of the bottles with the flip tops will leak and normally leads to Shantel hollering about my beer missing up her wine cooler and kitchen cabinet. 

This bottle leaked which is why the glass isn't full.  If the bottle had been full the beer would have poured perfectly to the .5L line with a head that just went over the top without spilling down the sides.  When swirled it gives off an aroma that reminds me of freshly cut hayfield.  A murky golden color lighter than the Zwick'l from a couple of weeks ago, with a slightly sweet citrusy taste.  I really like this beer and would recommend it.

The Veldensteir website describes it as a particularly fine mild yeast wheat beer with a slightly lower carbon dioxide content to be especially enjoyed straight from the bottle.