Schlenkerla

Helles Schlenkerla Lagerbier - The helles from Schlenkerla.  It pours a clear straw gold with a decent head that quickly dissipates.  The aroma is subtle, giving no clue to the taste that will hit you.  Smoky flavor permeates every sip with just a hint of hops bitterness.  The finish is crisp and clean and leaves you wanting another drink.  The Rauchbiers (Smoke beers) are a little different taste but I like them and they would definitely go well with a smoked brisket or chicken.

Aecht Schlenkerla Weizen - The smoked weizen from Schlenkerla.  It pours a dark cloudy brown with hints of reddish amber.  A generous beige head slowly dissolves into a fine layer atop the beer.  This beer really looks like a dunkel weisse.  The aroma is pure smoked malts.  The taste is smoky with some hints of spices...a touch of cloves.  There is virtually no taste of citrus, bubblegum or banana that is typically found in a German Weizen, just the smoke and the hint of spices.  The smoke on this is almost overwhelming, it's tasty but it might be just a little too much for some folks.

Hacker Pshorr

Hacker Pshorr Braumeister Pils - The premium pils offering from Hacker-Pshorr.  It pours a brilliant clear straw gold with a thin generous head that dissolves quickly into lacing that clings to the side of the glass.  The aroma is sweetly hoppy.  Taste is hoppy without too much bitterness.  The finish is crisp, clean and wet.  Not too bad for a German Pils.

Special Beer Review - Schlossbrauerei Naabeck

Naabecker Hell - This beer pours a clear yellow with hints of darker gold.  A generous head slowly dissolves leaving lots of lacing on the sides of a glass.  The aroma is hoppy and mild.  The taste wars between slightly bitter hops and sweet malts with the hops just edging out the malts, although the bitterness is really mild.  The finish is crisp and wet and leaves you wanting another one.  A fine example of a helles.

Naabecker Marzen - This marzen pours a deep gold with hints of copper.  The head is generous and dissolves slowly into a thin layer with some lacing on the sides of the glass.  The aroma is malty sweet and so is the taste.  The mouth feel is substantial and the fiinsh leaves a slight aftertaste that quickly goes away.  Marzen's are one of my favorite varieties of German beers and I like this one.

Naabecker Pils - A clear pale gold with a generous head that dissolves quickly leaving lots of lacing on the sides of the glass.  The aroma is mildly hoppy.  The bite of bitter hops slaps you at first swallow.  Hops drags into the crisp finish and is still finish in the after taste.  I can handle a hoppy beer but I don't like it when it's still present after I swallow.  Definitely not a Pils I'll repeat.

Naabecker Bock Hell - This orangish red beer develops a decent three finger head that quickly disappears with almost no residue.  The aroma is sweet malt.  Taste is malty with hints of caramel and some traces of alcohol, 6.4 %.  The finish is crisp and dry. A pretty tasty bock.

Naabecker Bock Dunkel - This Bock Dunkel pours a dark chocolate with hints of amber and red.  The head is a generous beige that lasted quite awhile but eventually dissolved to nothingness.  The aroma is overwhelmingly malty.  The taste is chocolately well roasted malts with a clean finish and just a hint of an aftertaste.  Another pretty tasty version of a bock.

Special Beer Review - La Trappe Belgian Trappist Brewery

La Trappe Blond - The Belgian Blonde offering from La Trappe.  It pours a dark yellow gold with hints of reddish amber.  The head is slightly off white and dissolves quickly into nothingness.  The aroma is sweet caramelly malts.  The taste is caramelly malts with some hints of spices.  The finish is crsip and wet.  Interesting.

La Trappe Quadrupel - 10% alcohol by volume.  This trappist brew pours an amber reddish with a beige head.  The aroma is malts and alcohol.  That theme carries over into taste where malts predominate and you can always the alcohol.  The finishdry and all alcohol.  This one packs too much of a kick and doesn't bother to disguise it for me.

Special Beer Review -Brauerei Fuchsbeck

Fuchsbeck Hell - The standard helles from Brauerei Fuchsbeck.  It pours a pale gold with a thick two finger head that quickly dissipates leaving some lacing on the side of the glass.  The aroma is subtle but hoppy.  The taste is mild malt with hints of hop bitterness.  The finish is dominated by hoppy bitterness.  This helles is a little more hoppy than what I like, so I'll pass on a second.

Fuchsbeck Export - This Export or Dortmunder style beer pours a clear amber gold with a thin white head the dissolved quickly leaving no tracing on the sides of the glass.  The aroma is malty.  The taste is malty with some hints of hoppy bitterness.  The finish is clean and crisp with no after taste.  This isn't a bad beer but there is just something about that I don't like.

Fuchsbeck Pils - There must be something I'm missing about German beer, because almost every pils I find comes in a .33L bottle and this pils from Brauerei Fuchsbeck is no exception.  It pours a darker amber/gold with a very thin head that dissipated quickly.  The aroma is slight and I can't pick out any individual notes.  The taste though is more hops than malt but this much less bitter than other German Pils I've had.  In fact I'd almost guess this was the helles and the helles was the pils.  Interesting.   i like this one which is not something I've said about any of the other Fuchsbeck's or even many German Pils.

Fuchsbeck Weissbier - This pours a cloudy amber brown with a generous slightly off white head that dissolved down into a constant 1 finger froth.  The aroma is cloves and bananas.  The taste is cloves and other spices as well as bananas.  The mouthfeel does seem to be a little thinner than other weissbiers.  The finish si crisp and dry with just a hint of an after taste.  Not a bad weissbier.

Fuchsbeck Kristall Weissbier - The filtered weissbier from Fuchsbeck.  I tpours a clear gold with a thin white head that disappeared quickly.  The aroma is subdued spices.  The mouthful is thin and the taste is of banana as well as some citrus and spice.  The finish is very crisp and wet.  Not a bad kristal weisse, I think I like it better than the regular weisse, even if the mouthfeel is a little light or thin.



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.