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.

Special Beer Review - Schloderer Brau

This week's brewery is a local one from Amberg.  We've gone there a couple of times to eat and the food is really good as is the beer.  With a combination like that you can't go wrong!  Here's a more detailed recap of the beer. 

Schloderer Schlodi Kult - This is the helles beer from Schloderer Brau.  It's a little different in that it comes in a .33L bottle instead of the standard .5L bottle.  It pours a darker amber/gold with a very thin head that disappeared quickly leaving some lacing on the sides.  The aroma is hoppy and reminds me of fresh cut grass, not something that normally comes out in a helles.  The taste is more hoppy than other helles I've tried and the finish lingers a little bit.  

Schloderer Weizen - The wheat beer from Schloderer Brau. The body color is a cloudy amber gold. The head was minimal compared to some weizen I've had, but still frothy and generous leaving light lacing on the sides. The aroma is cloves and fruit. The taste is an explosion of cloves and apples. Really good. This is one of my favorite weizens.

  

Schloderer Dunkel- As the name suggests, this is the Dunkel from Schloderl Brau. It pours a a very dark coffee with a beige head. The head lingers and leaves light lacing even after it disappears. The aroma is chocolaty sweet from the roasted malts and that carries over into the taste. The finish is clean with no hoppy bitterness or after taste. Not a bad dunkel.  

Special Beer Review - Regensburger Spital Brauerei

I had visited the Regensburger Spital Brauerei while home on R&R last year (You can read about it here) but I didn't really review the beers. So here's an opportunity to correct that, especially since I liked the beer when I had it in the restuarant.  The label proclaims it to be the oldest brauerei in Regensburg.  It's a shame that I'm probably not getting back down there since they have several other varieties that I wasn't able to pick up.

Regensburger Spital Helles - This beer pours a brillant golden amber with a what seemed to be a thin head that dissolved quickly, although there were generous amounts of lacing left on the side of the glass.  The aroma was very subtle and missed my nose.  The taste though was a pleasant surprise perfectly balanced with a hint of citrus, I actually had to check to make sure I hadn't picked up a Radler by mistake.  The finsih was wet with just a hint of bitterness and left you wanting another drink.  Yep, just as good as I remembered it from R&R.

Regensburger Spital Dunkels - This beer pours a dark amber brown, almost a black with hints of amber.  The generous beige lasted awhile before dissolving into lacing that coated the side of the glass.  The aroma is of malts and sweetness.  The taste is chocolately sweet with maybe some hints of coffee?  The finish has a touch of bitterness but not overwhelming, just enough to counter the sweetness that the beer started with.  Probably a little stronger than your typical dunkel but definitely not bad.

Regensburger Spital Weizen - This beer pours  the typical cloudy golden amber of a weizen.  The head is generous and lasts a while and leaves lacings that stubbornly stick to the sides.  The aroma is of cloves and spices, while the taste is of cloves spices and definite hints of bananas.  There is just a touch of bitterness in the finish.  An interesting weizen since there is probably a more powerful flavor of cloves and bananas then what I've typically seen. 

Regensburger Spital Pils -   I found this in a .33L bottle, although I think it does come in a .5L bottle.  It pours a brillant clear yellow gold with a generous white head that dissappeared fairly quickly with only some lacing on the sides.  The aroma is definitely hops.  After the aroma I expected this beer to taste very hoppy and bitter.  I was surprised, hoppy yes, bitter no.  In fact there are hints of other spices in the flavor.  A slightly different take on what I'm accustomed to from a German Pils and I actually like it. 

One of my favorite steinkrug's, plain but distinctive looking.

Beer Review - Schlossbrauerei Holnstein

I mentioned here how much I like being a bike rider.  It allows me to get out and see things at a pace that you typically miss while driving in a car.  That's the case with Schlossbrauerei Holnstein.  If you blink you will almost miss the village of Holnstein and directly opposite the schlossbrauerei is a rambling rustic old gasthaus that could grab your attention away from the old castle and the next door brewery.  Luckily for me they are at the top of a hill and I got a good look at both as I was spinning my way to the top.  After my ride I promptly jumped into the car and went on a quest to find a getrankemarkt that sold the Holnsteiner line. 

It took me me awhile but I finally found one, in of all places a Kaufland (think German style Wal-Mart).  I'm sure the checkout girl was cussing me in German since I only had one of each variety plus a couple of other interesting brews and the Holnsteiner beers did not have a bar code so she had to enter them manually.  She was really glad to see me leave.

OK enough of the story and on to what I thought.

Schlossbrauerei Holnstein Barons Urhell - Here is the Helles offering.  It pours a crisp clear gold with a light head that dissipated quickly but left extensive lacing on the side of the mug.  The aroma is elusive to my sniffer.   The taste is crisp and mild with a lingering finish overall it is a fine balance between malt and hops.  There might be a mild fruity undercurrent.  A pretty taste beer.  .5l brown bottle, 4.8% alc by vol.

Schlossbrauerei Holnstein Ahnentrunk - This one is a dark or dunkle beer.  It pours with a generous beige colored head that quickly disappeared. The color is  a dark brown with reddish gold hints.  The aroma is one of sweet malts and the taste is slightly sweet with spicy undertones.  The finish is dry and slightly smoky.  I really like this beer.  It was one of the first ones I found from the Schlossbrauerei Holnstein and I had drank several prior to reviewing it here. .5l brown bottle, 5.2% alc by vol.

Schlossbrauerei Holnstein Baroness Weisse.  This beer pours a light yellow gold with the slightly cloudy characteristics of a wheat beer.  The head was fluffy and white and disappeared fairly quickly. The aroma is fresh cut grass with some spicy undertones (maybe cloves?)  The taste is light with slight hints of orange peel.  The finish is crisp and dry.  A lighter weissen than normal, but that doesn't make it bad, just different.  .5L brown bottle, 5.0% alc by vol.

Schlossbrauerei Holnstein Schlossherrn Pils - As the name suggests this the Pilner offering from Schlossbrauerei Holnstein.  It pours a bright gold with a soft head that disappeared quickly but left fine lacing on the side of the glass.  The aroma is pretty subtle and eludes my stopped up nose.  The taste is slightly sweet with just a small bite of hops.  The finish is where the hops really kicks, although it is still pretty subtle as compared to a Czech Pilsner.  An interesting finish to my evening of beers.  Not bad but definitely not my favorite of the group.

Hacker-Pschorr Munchner Dunkel

I'm starting to run out of beers from Hacker-Pschorr but here is one more that I've picked up as I scoured Getrankemarkts in Bavaria, it's the Munchner Dunkel.  It pours a dark coffee colored body with a beige head that didn't last long.  An aroma of roasted malts filled even my picky nostrils.  The taste of slighly bitter roasted malts filled my mouth. but a slightly caramally finish kept it from being too overpowering.  Not my favorite dunkel, but not a bad beer either.  Although I must admit I don't think I've had a "bad" beer in Germany.

Schlichter Winkler Brau Dagesteiner Rittertrunk

This beer has a mouthful for a name, Schlichter Winkler Brau Dagesteiner Rittertrunk, so I'll break it down first before I get to the review.  Schlicter, the beer is from the town of Schlicht.  Winkler Brau, Winkler Brewery.  Dagesteiner, I have no clue and Ritter trunk means roughly knight drink.  So this is the Dagesteiner Knight drink from the Winkler brewery in the town of Schlict.  With that said the Rittertrunk is a dunkel type beer.

Here's what I thought.  It pours a rich amber with tints of red.  A light brown foam head crowns the beer and just barely crests the rim of the glass.  It gives off a rich sweet aroma that reminds me of caramel.  The taste is slightly sweet with the caramelly theme continuing.  It finishes surprisingly smooth, light and clean for a dark beer. 

I really kind of liked this beer which surprised me.  It is from the local brewery here in Vilseck and if you remember I didn't like their doppelback back in the spring time.  This is actually the third beer I've had from the brewery even if it's only the second I've reviewed here, hey I can't keep track of EVERY beer I drink, and I've liked the Rittertrunk and the other beer I've had.  So that just means I'll have to go back to the brewery when I come home from Afghanistan.