German

This beer is exactly what I was looking for. Exactly. When I was poking around in the fridge looking for a beer to drink tonight I wanted something that was smooth, creamy and tasted familiar. When I saw this bottle of Mahr's Bräu Saphir Weiss I couldn't resist opening it. If you've read more than a few of my other posts you probably already know that I spent a good deal of time living in the small Franconian town of Bamberg. I may be biased but I still believe that Bamberg beers are the best in their class, and the beers from Mahr's Bräu are no exception.

Pilsners are beers I generally keep my distance from. It's not because I don't like them, they just aren't as interesting as other styles of beer. Lately I've been trying to get more Pilsner malt in my diet, so tonight I find myself sitting here drinking a glass of Kulmbacher Edelherb Premium Pils. This bottle doesn't exactly scream "Premium" when you first look at it... for starters, it looks like its missing half it's label. I know this is the Kulmbacher branding, but it looks a little silly. When you pour this Pils into a glass you're underwhelmed with it's run of the mill aroma.

This is my first true Gruit style beer. I've heard a lot about Gruits recently and was excited when I found this bottle on a recent trip. My knowledge of Gruits is pretty limited, I just know that they are not brewed with hops. Instead of using hops to flavor the beer, Gruits are brewed with herbs and spices. This particular Gruit is a version released by Weihenstephaner and is modeled after recipes from the 13th century. The label of this beer indicates that is is part of a Historic Signature Series and was brewed by Dr. Fritz Briem in Munich. The historical significance of Gruits isn't lost on me, but there's a good reason beers aren't brewed with ginger and bay leaves anymore... so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Oh the vaunted German Helles, the beer that shattered so many of my misconceptions about light bodied beer. It's is a style I'm very well acquainted with, having spent a good deal of my 24th summer emptying as many pints of Franconian Helles as I could. I've enjoyed many summertime Helles beers because they are nice and light while being very full flavored. While a Pilsner is crisp and lighter in malt, Helles beers tend to be much more well balanced and deliciously malty. While I've had my fair share of Helles pints in Germany, I haven't had many Hacker-Pschorr beers.

Pilsners aren't my favorite style of beer but I've learned to appreciate them for what they are, which is crisp and light refreshing lagers. My main gripe with Pilsner beer is that it doesn't have any of the flavors I'm looking for. I'm setting my reservations aside today as I try a bottle of König Pilsener from Duisburg. I've always liked German Pilsners a bit more than their American counterparts but they're still Pilsners... just brewed a little better. When I poured the König Pilsener into my glass I could tell right away that this was spot on stylistically.

Erdinger's Oktoberfest Weizen is a beer I hate to love. It's simple and seemingly uninspired, but it tastes great and is so easy to drink. There really isn't anything about this beer I don't like... It's a creamy wheat that has a light carbonated fizz that brings out the subtle citrus flavor in this beer. It's good, quite good, but it's also pretty boring. I don't mean to imply that I'm looking for a life changing experience every time I order a pint, but I like to have a good time. Erdinger's Oktoberfest seasonal Weizen is just underwhelming. I mean, seasonal beers should be something a little different. Oktoberfest comes but once a year so you should bring your A game (or A beer as the case may be). What it seems like Erdinger did here was just slap a slightly more Bavarian label on a regular Weizen.

The Weihenstephaner Kristall Weissbier was a pleasant surprise. Even though the label says this is a Kristall Weissbier, I wasn't expecting it to be literally crystal clear... and still taste like a Weiss. But sure enough, this beer has all the banana and coriander flavor of a regular Weiss but without the cloudy body. So what's the point? Why bother with finding a Kristall Weiss? Well, when it's nearing a hundred degrees outside you might not want to drink a thick wheaty Weiss... The filtered version of the Weiss is much crisper and more bubbly, it feels almost like a light Weiss. Sort of like how Bud Light is light, but with flavor. This beer is well worth seeking out, if you're able to find a couple of them. If you can, pick up a few of these and save them for a warm summer evening. You can thank me later.

I'm not real sure about this beer... Spaten is a brand I don't drink too often and I've never really been able to explain why in a meaningful way. I don't hate Spaten, but I don't love their beers either. Generally speaking, their beers are about 80% of the way there. They taste vaguely German, kinda how unsauced sweet and sour chicken pieces taste vaguely like chicken nuggets. All of the ingredients are there but something's just... off. Spaten's Oktoberfest plays right into all of my preconceived notions of what a Spaten is, or isn't. This beer follows the Oktoberfest archetype pretty well, it looks and smells like a Märzen style beer. It tastes, however, like someone was meaning to make an Oktoberfest but cut as many corners as possible to do it.

Vitus is Weihenstephan's winter seasonal. It's like a traditional Bock only in the sense that it's a bigger beer with a bit more alcohol that will keep you warm through the cold winter months. Where the Vitus differs from other Bocks is that that it's based off of Weihenstephan's delicious Hefe-Weissbier. Rather than starting with a malty dark lager base like Bocks and Doppelbocks, the Vitus starts with a sweet and sour Weiss base. This Weizenbock is really a bit more like a Doppelweiss.... it has all of the characteristics of the Weissbier base but has a bumped up alcohol content. The alcohol flavor that comes through in the aftertaste is just about the only thing this beer really has in common with your traditional dark Bock beer. Rather than creamy like most Bocks, this beer is more crisp and much lighter in texture even if it is 7.7% ABV.