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 - Schlossbrauerei Hirschau

This week is one of the local breweries, located about 15 minutes down the road from our house is the Schlossbrauerei Hirschau.  Even though it's only 15 minutes away.  I have to drive it to get the beer.  The local Getrankemarkts don't carry.  That should give you an indication of how regionalized some of these beers are.  It should also explain some of my excitment when I come across another new beer and those discoveries are really what I'm going to miss when we move back to the states in a couple of months.

Here is a picture of the castle inn that's associated with the brewery.

The crest on one of the brewery buildings.

The loading dock area.

Schlossbrauerei Hirschau Radler - I'll start with the Radler here.  It pours much darker than other Radlers I've had lately, almost the pale gold of a helles, and has a little more of frothy white head.  Does this mean it has a little more beer in it?  If so then it doesn't manifest itself in the aroma or taste.  The aroma is all lemon with maybe just a hint of hops lingering underneath.  The taste is pure lemon and is a good break from beer.  I had this one on a day where I'd already had several beers and this was a refreshing break.  I'll probably ride out to Hirschau and stop and have a Radler or two when I do.

Schlossbrauerei Hirschau 1812 Original - This is the helles from Schlossbrauerei Hirschau.  The body is an amber gold with a thin head that quickly disappeared.  The aroma is subtle and eludes my sniffer.  The taste is crisp and more hops than malt.  The finish definitely carries a reminder of hops. While not a Pils I'd say that it's hops level almost approaches Pils level.  I'm not a fan of hoppy beers.  I prefer more balance and I normally get that in a helles.  Not here though.

Schlossbrauerei Hirschau Johannibier  - I'm not sure what kind of beer this is, I think it might be a bock, maybe?  What I am sure about is that it pours goldish orange with a generous off white head that hung around for awhile and continued to leave lacing down the sides.  The aroma slight but I can detect the malts.  The taste is slightly sweet with more malt than hops and leads to a dry finish.  Pretty tasty and a very interesting beer.

Schlossbrauerei Hirschau Hirschauer Spezial - A Dortmunder or Export type beer.  It pours a cloudy orangish yellow with virtually no head.  The aroma is underwhelming and eluded my sniffer.  The taste is malty with sour undertones and a shadow of hoppy bitterness.  The finish is dry and demands another drink.  An interesting brew.

Schlossbrauerei Hirschau Pils - The German Pils offerring .  The body is not as pale as some other Pils coming in a more golden color, slightly reminiscent of apple juice.  The head on this Pils was non exsistent, not even any lacing on the sides. The aroma was hoppy and earthy.  The taste was only slightly hoppy even for a Pils, slightly surprised there.  German Pils tend to be too hoppy and bitter for my taste but this was pretty mild, almost closer to a helles. 

Schlossbrauerei Hirschau Leicht - This is no reduced calorie offering.  When the Germans say Leicht it typical means less alcholol (sometimes it also just means ligher in color), so if you are looking for a good buzz steer clear of German beers that call themselve Leicht.  This one comes in with 3.0% alc.  It pours and looks much like it's Pils or Helles siblings and the head is thin and quickly disappears leaving lacing on the sides.  The aroma is malty and earthy and the taste is a well balanced between the malts and the hops with the hops showing up in the finish that lingers ever so slightly.  Once again another interesting brew.

Schlossbrauerei Hirschau Hefe-Weisse - The Hefe Weisse from Schlossbrauerei Hirschau comes in a slightly different bottle than it's lager and ale siblings, a longer necked .5l version instead of the short necked .5l bottle.  It pours a a dark brown/gold/amber, not dark like a dunkel weisse but not straw gold like some other weizen. The head is the standard frothy white though not as generous as some. The aroma is cloves and citrus.  The taste is stll cloves with a touch of citrus and overall is not a flavor explosion.  The finish is dry and leaves you wanting more.  This is an understated Hefe-Weisse, not bad just understated.

Schlossbrauerei Hirschau Festbier - I love Fests!!! At least that's what my son Macen says and I can't say that I disagree with him, maybe I like them for different reasons (it's all about the beer and the giant pretzels!!!)  but I still like them.  Schlossbrauerei Hirschau's Festbier or Marzan type beer poured a golden amber with a thin head that quickly disappeared with no lacing on the sides.  The aroma was sweet malty with just a hint of cut grass.  The taste was malty and slightly sweet with no hint of hops or bitterness.  The finish lingered slightly but wasn't bad.  A little less carbonated then some of the other beers not much of a tingle as I swirled around the mouth looking for taste.  

Schlossbrauerei Hirschau Keller-Bier Spezial - The final beer from Schlossbrauerei Hirschau is a Keller or Zwickl beer.  It pours a cloudy copper orange with a generous white head.  The head lasted a while gradually dissipating into white lacing on the sides of the glass.  The aroma was one of malts.  The taste was crisp and malty but with a tang of hops.  It finished dry, basically begging you to take another sip.  A pretty tasty brew.

Weltenburger Anno 1050

The last beer I tried in a halb mass glass on our trip to the Weltenburger brewery was the Anno 1050.  This Marzen or Oktoberfest style beer is named after the year in which the brewery was founded at the Weltenburger Abbey.  According to the Weltenburger website this beer has won a silver medal at the World Beer Cup in 2008, It's not quite as decorated as it's brother beer the Barock Dunkel but that's still an accomplishment.

This beer poured a dark reddish amber with a light tan head.  The aroma was very faint of sweet caramel.  I almost didn't catch it with my inadequate sniffer.  The tast was definitely sweat caramel with just a hint of bitterness.  This beer finished slightly dry but still infinitely drinkable.  A great beer.

I managed to taste most of the beers that the Weltenburger brewery offered between the beer garden and the samples on the tour.  I don't like to write a review on a beer unless I've had a full bottle or mug of it so full blown reviews of the Weissbeir and the award winning Barock Dunkel are going to have wait until my next trip to the brewery.  Sounds like as good excuse as any to head that way what do you think

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.