Special Beer Review - Paulaner Brau

This weeks brewery beer review is from Paulaner Brewery.  One of the the Big Six from Munich.  I will admit that when I first moved to Germany I purposely avoided Paulaner because it was a name I was familiar with from the States.  That was a mistake and as I get ready to move back I'm damn glad that I should be able to find some Paulaner.  If you have a auto web translator their website is one of the more amusing ones I've been too.  If not their international site isn't bad either.  Bottom line though here is what I thought of the beer.

Paulaner Original Munchner Hell - The Helles from Paulaner.  I original had this beer when I first got to Germany and my review is here.  I'm still obviously not a pro at beer reviews but I've come a long way.  Here are my current thoughts.  this beer pours a clear yellow with hints of amber/red.  A generous head starts thin and dissolves quickly leaving small amounts of lacing on the sides.  The aroma is of malts and hints of fresh baked bread.  The taste is fine balance between hops and malts with the malts wining in the end.  The finish is wet and crisp.  The verdict is still the same, a fine example of the Munchner Helles and I'm glad that I should be able to find this beer when I get back to the states.

Paulaner Premium Pils - This pils pours a yellow-gold with a thin head that dissolved rapidly but leaves prominent lacing on the sides.  The aroma is hops and spices and that carries over into the taste.  The taste is spicy hops....not bitter, but tasty.  The finish has a touch of bitterness but it's almost not enough to notice.  A good example of a German Pils.

Paulaner Original Munchner Urtyp - According to the German Beer Institute a Urtyp Helles is beer where the brewery tries to emphasize the authenticity of its beverage (ur means "original" and urtyp means "original type").  This beer pours a clear amber gold with a generous head that slowly dissolves leaving small amounts of lacing on the sides.  The aroma is a sweet malts and that carrys over into the taste which is competing balance between the hops and malts with the malts ultimately dominating.  The finish is crisp and slightly dry, making you want another drink.  This not just one of my favorite Paulaner's it's one of my favorite beers period.

Paulaner Original Munchner Dunkel - The dunkel beer from Paulaner.  It pours a dark brownish amber almost like a cola.  The head is beige colored and foams up well just cresting the top of the glass without going over and leaving lots of lacing on the sides.  The aroma is of coffee, chocolate and sweet.  The taste is sweet, well roasted malts with the hints of coffee and chocolate.  The finish is slightly dry.  Not my favorite dunkel but it's drinkable and definitely not a bad example of the type.

Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier Naturtrub - The regular Hefewiezen from Paulaner.  This beer pours a brilliant straw gold with a generous slightly golden head.  The body is too cloudy to see the carbonation bubbles that keep the head alive for quite awhile.  The aroma is cloves and bread.  The taste is more cloves with just a hint of bananas.  The finish is crisp and wet, and just makes you want to have a follow up drink.  A fine example of Bavarian hefewiezen.

Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier Dunkel - This beer pours a cloudy dark copper amber with a generous beige head that is plenty foamy and dissolves really slowly.  The aroma is of spices and bread.  The taste is bananas, spices (cloves?) and slightly toasted bread.  Interesting.  The finish is crisp and wet.  Pretty tasty.  Since we couldn't get into the beer tents during Oktoberfest this was the beer I was drinking that day.  For an interesting twist on the radler or shandy concept take a 50/50 mix of this and a lemon soda.  Germans call it Russ.  I'm almost tempted to think I like a Russ more than I do a Radler. 

Paulaner Weissbier Kristallklar - The filtered wheat beer from Paulaner.  This one pours a clear golden yellow with a frothy head that quickly disappeared but was fead from a constant flow of tiny bubbles from the center of the glass.  The aroma is spicy banana cloves.  The taste is bananas and cloves as well.  The finish is very crisp and tart, but not really dry or not really wet.  A very refreshing beer and probably one that goes down well on a hot day in the middle of summer.

Paulaner Oktoberfest beer - This beer came with a 1 liter glass mug to go with it. I mean how could I pass that up. A liter beer and a mug all for 1 Euro. Here's what I thought of it. This beer pours with a dark coppery tint and nice fluffy head that lasts about 5 minutes. In essence it looks exactly like all of the pictures of the beers that those well endowed barmaids are serving to all of the revelers in Munich during Oktoberfest. The aroma is fine balance between hops and fresh cut grass and the flavor is just as balanced with a slightly sweet malty hint of hops and a semi dry finish. Most definitely a very drinkable beer. 

Paulaner Salvator - A meal in a bottle, this dopplebock also packs a punch at 7.9% alcohol by volume.  It's Paulaner's take on the Catholic monks liquid diet for Lent.  It pours a bright coppery red with in my pouring a very limited head.  The aroma is slightly fruity and sweet.  The initial taste is fruity, dissolving into chocolaty, roasted malts.  The finish is dry with just a little more than a hint of the alcoholic punch that it will hit you with.  Not a bad substitute for a meal, but I'm not sure I can handle more than one at a time.

As I've stated before you can't beat a free steinkrug with a rack of beer.  It's even cooler when the handle is a carabiner that you can attach to backpack!  Actually it's not as comfortable as a normal handle, but it's still cool.