Special Beer Review - Sperber Brau

Sperber Brau Classic Lager - These is Sperber's Ur/Urtype helles.  It comes in .33L bottle.  It pours an amber gold with slight hints of orange.  There is a generous frothy head that dissolved fairly quickly but left lots of lacing on the sides.  The aroma is negligible.  The taste is more hops than malt and the bitterness lingers but it's not overwhelming.  The finish is crisp and dry. Not my favorite Urtype but tasty nevertheless.

Sperber Brau Helles Vollbier - The regular helles from Sperber brau.  It pours a clear gold with a generous head that quickly disappeared leaving no lacing.  The aroma is sweet fresh cut grass.  The taste is slightly sweet with the hint hops bitterness.  There is a slight aftertaste but it disappears quickly.  Other than that this was a pretty good beer.

Sperber Brau Zoiglbier - Zoiglbier is typically only brewed in Northern Bavaria near the Czech border.  We are right in the heart of that region but it took me two years to discover one.  It similar in many ways to a Pilsner.  This one pours a pale gold with a very generous head and lots and lots of tiny bubbles.  The aroma is strongly of hops and the taste is of fine spicy hops with just a hint of bitterness that then explodes into full blown bitterness.  Finally it finishes smooth and without much of an aftertaste.  This is an interesting beer.  Not sure I'd search this beer out other than the fact that it's pretty rare.  Very drinkable though. 

Sperber Brau Graf Gebhard Weisse - The regular hefe-Weizen from Sperber Brau.  It pours a dark brownish amber with a very generous frothy off white head that dissolved slowly leaving plenty of lacing on the sides of the glass.  The aroma is banana, cloves and other spices, with maybe a hint of fruit.  The taste is banana, cloves and once again some fruitiness.  The finish is tart and wet.  Not half bad.  An interesting weisse. 

Sperber Brau Rosenburg Pils - This pils pours a clear golden with a generous 2 finger head that quickly disappeared while leaving lots of lacing on the sides of the glass.  The aroma is hoppy and spicy.  The taste is crisp with the hops predominating but not overly bitter, hints of spice take off the bitter edge.  The finish is crisp and dry.  I've said it before, I'm not a fan of German Pils but I'll take a second one of these.

Sperber Brau Steiger Schwarze - This is the dunkel weisse offering from Sperber Brau.  It pours a dark brown with hints of red.  The head is full chocolately brown and fades away slowly.  The taste is clovy bananas.  The finish is very crisp and the carbonation numbs the tongue.  A very good dunkel weisse.

Special Beer Review - Lowenbrau

Lowenbrau Original - The helles from Lowenbrau.  It pours a a clear gold with a generous foamy head that dissolved quickly into a thin layer with some lacing on the sides. The aroma is faintly of fresh cut grass.  The taste is slightly sweet with a slight undercurrent of bitterness from the hops.  The finish is crisp and slightly dry.  Not my favorite helles but definitely one that is drinkable.

Lowenbrau Urtyp - The label proclaims this to beer to have character.  It pours a clear golden with a generous slightly off white head that disappeared slowly leaving lots of lacing on the side of the glass.  There is a weak aroma of fresh cut grass. The taste is slightly sweet perfectly balanced with a slight bitterness.  It finishes crisp and clean.  I definitely like this beer and I'd have to agree more character than the regular helles.

Lowenbrau Triumphator - Lowenbrau's doppelbock, one of the few that are available year round, This beer pours a dark coffee with hints of reddish amber.  The head is a generous beige that slowly dissolves into a thin layer with lots of lacing on the sides.  The taste is sweet chocolaty caramel with little of the 7.6% alcohol showing through.  That's a lot of alcohol but not as much as some other doppelbocks.  The finish is wet and crisp.  A fine, if just a little lightweight, example of a doppelbock.

Lowenbrau Dunkel - This beer pours a dark coffee with hints of amber.  A slightly offwhite head dissolved quickly into a very thin layer with almost no lacing.  The taste is of well roasted malts with a very slight sweet undertone.  The finish is crisp and begs another drink.  I like dunkels and this is a good one.

Lowenbrau Oktoberfestbier - The lion's brew, that's a rough translation of lowenbrau. Their Oktoberfest/Marzen offering pours a coppery gold like the others but the head seemed to disappear a little faster, although the lacing remained on the sides. The aroma is still malty. The taste is malty sweet with a more pronounced hoppy bitterness. Interesting. The finish is crisp and wet and with that extra hoppy kick. Tasty but not my favorite.

Lowenbrau LowenWeisse - The hefe weisse from Lowenbrau.  It pours a dark cloudy caramel with hints of gold.  The head is a thick white that dissolves quickly donw to nothing with only limited residue.  The aroma is citrusy and sweet.  The taste is more citrus with hints of clove. The carbonation makes this beer very crisp on the tongue.  The finish continues to be crisp and there is minimal after taste.  This is a good hefe. 

Special Beer Review - Augustiner Brau Munchen

Augustiner Lagerbier Hell - This beer pours a crystal clear god with a generous head that dissolves fairly quickly but leaves plenty of lacing on the sides.  The aroma is one of fresh grass.  The taste is not as balanced between hops and malts as other helles and it finishes quite bitter.  I'm almost tempted to say this is more a German Pils than a helles.  Definitely not my favorite helles.

Augustiner Dunkel - The dunkel offering from Augustiner.  It pours a dark reddish amber with an off white beige head that dissolved fairly rapidly leaving lacing on the sides of the glass.  Caramally roasted malts fills the nose and the taste is sweet with hints of coffee bitterness, the finish is smooth and leaves you wanting another drink.  Another slightly different from normal offering from Augustiner.  I do like this one better than the helles but not one of my favorite dunkels.  I'm starting to wonder if the slightly different theme will persist throughout all their beers.

Augustiner Oktoberfest - This Marzen is one hard beer to find.  It was the only one that I couldn't find in the run up to Oktoberfest.  I lucked into a vendor at the post bazaar who had a stockage of it.  It pours a clear straw yellow with a white light bodied generous head that quickly dissolved into lacing that stuck to the sides of the glass.  The aroma is slightly sweet and the first swig reinforces that sweetness.  A second drink reveals an undercurrent of bitterness that wars with the upfront sweetness for predominance.  The finish is crisp, wet and makes me want to take another drink.  This is a good beer and I'm much more impressed with it then the two preceding beers.  There must be a reason it was hard to find.

Augustiner Edelstoff Exportbier - This is the Augustiner that is the easiest to find in my area.  For all of the other varieties I've had to head closer to Munich.  It pours a clear straw gold with a generous head that quickly dissolved leaving lots of white lacings on the side of the glass.  The aroma is predominated by sweet malts.  The taste does demonstrate slightly more bitterness then sweetness but is overall a good balance.   The finish is subtle and clean and quite good.  I like this beer.

Augustiner Pils - There must be something about German Pils and .33L bottles.  Most of the ones I come across come in bottles that size.  Interesting.  This beer pours a brillant clear straw gold with a generous head that quickly dissolved leaving just a hint of lacing on the sides.  The taste hits you straight up with hops bitterness, leaving you no doubt that this a German Pils.  The bitterness fades to a crisp finish that actually makes you forget the bitterness and leaves you wanting another drink.  This is a good German Pils

Augustiner Weissbier - This weizen pours a golden toned amber with a slightly off white head.  The head dissolved rapidly but left lots of lacings on the side of the glass.  The aroma is bananas and slight cloves.  The taste is bananas and tart spices.  The finish is crisp and dry.  Something seems just a little different from some of the other weizen's I've had, I just can't put my finger on it.  Doesn't matter anyway since if you know me, you know I like my beers just a little bit different and this one definitely fits the bill.