German

I like a good Berliner Weisse, but my options in the middle of the US are quite limited. I had my first Berliner Weisse in Berlin back in 2006 when I was living in Germany. It wasn't my favorite style at first, I tended to stick with Wiezens and really despised Radler, but Berliner Weisses grew on me. When I moved back to the states the closest thing I could find locally a summer seasonal Shandy, and I'm really not that keen on ginger... A friend of mine from Berlin recently came to visit and brought a bottle of Berliner Kindl with him. I was elated to say the least.

Weizenbocks always surprise me. This is a style that has everything one would look for in a Doppelbock; big malty flavor, rich sweetness and a higher alcohol content. Doppelbocks have all of that without being too heavy or too grainy. Wheat adds a nice full texture and a nice Weizen-like yeast component that, I think, really takes Weizenbocks to the next level. But, what about the NEXT next level? This bottle of Aventinus is a Doppel Weizenbock, so it should be twice as great as all those other Weizenbocks I've had, right? Oh, I hope so...

I've been looking forward to this beer for longer than I care to admit. Infinium is the product of a collaboration between Sam Adams and Weihenstephaner. When I first read that these two breweries were going to collaborate on a beer I was intrigued to say the least. I'm not crazy about many of the Sam Adams beers but they do make solid beer that occasionally tickles my fancy. Weihenstephaner on the other hand, they make what may just be the best Weissbier in the world. Hearing that they were going to brew an entirely new style of beer is what really made it interesting...

There once was a time when I was crazy about German beer. Sure, there were styles I wasn't crazy about, but nothing could compare to a Weissbier back then. That was a while ago, I've expanded my horizons and had a lot of interesting beers that no German would ever brew (insert Reinheitsgebot knock here). I can't say I never looked back though, it's actually a lot of fun to look back and compare old favorites to the new flavor of the month. Tonight I dug a bottle of Weltenburger Barock Dunkel out of the fridge. I haven't had this beer before but I've had hundreds of Dunkels before, it's a style I know well and I really enjoy. It's been a while since I've revisited the non-Weizen Dunkel style beers and I'm looking forward to it.

I have a lot of fond memories of the time I spent in Bamberg. Most of them involve Bamberger beer in some way. Bamberg's biggest contribution to the world of beer is arguably the Rauchbier style. While Bamberg may not have invented the style, it's brewers perfected it. Again, perfected is arguable since there are a good number of people who don't like Rauchbier or smoke beer in general. I happen to love it. That rich roasted malt, oily charred grain and bacon-like savory flavor is unique and reminds me of all the good time I had in Bamberg. Schlenkerla is the biggest exporter of Bamberg Rauchbier and makes several variations of the style. Actually, all of their beer is a variation of Rauchbier... which is to say all of their beer just has smoked malt in it. I have yet to have a bad Schlenkerla beer and they sell enough of it that there must be something to it...

Plank is a German brewer which only recently started showing up in the import section of my local liquor store. I haven't been drinking many German styles recently so I pretty much overlooked Plank's entire line up. This bottle of Dunkler Weizenbock was a gift, and a well thought out one at that. I've had only a handful of Weizenbocks before and I've really enjoyed them. In the world of German beers there are only about five main styles and the Reinheitsgebot doesn't allow for a whole lot of creativity, at least not when you compare German beers to their Belgian or American competition. Weizenbocks are one of the stylistic offshoots that provide a little variety in the otherwise strictly ordered world of German beer.

2010 is the 200th anniversary of the most well known drinking party in history, Oktoberfest. I won't bore you with all the details, because if you're reading a review of an Oktoberfest beer you should really already know the store of Oktoberfest... Suffice it to say, Oktoberfest is the annual remembrance of a wedding that took place on the Theresienwiese in Munich 200 years ago. People have been returning every year to get drunk and ogle dirndl-clad frauleins ever since. Paulaner, one of Munich's big six breweries, is commemorating the bicentennial with a liter sized can of their Wiesn Bier that comes with the iconic Maßkrug. O'zapft is!

The bottle says St. Michaelsberg very prominently. When I first glimpsed at this bottle I though, "No way that's St. Michaelsberg from Bamberg..." I'd lived in Bamberg for a year in college and have fond memories of the place. It's a medium sized town in Franconia, halfway between Munich and Berlin. Bamberg had nine breweries serving a population of about 80,000 people back then. It's definitely a town known for its beer, and for good reason... Rauchbier is a style that put Bamberg on the map but Weissbier is what kept me coming back to visit. I knew St. Michaelsberg as a hilltop abbey, not a modern brewery, so I was very surprised to see this bottle and I wanted to know more about the story behind it.

A couple bottles of Bischoff arrived at my doorstep last week, some Ur-Weisse and a few Doppelbocks. It's a little late in the evening for a Weisse so I reached for a chilled bottle of their Doppelbock to close out the night. Bischoff is relative unknown to me. Now, I don't claim to be any kind of authority of German brewers so it's not like I was expecting to identify this beer right away. I'm actually glad I was able to get a few bottles from a smaller German brewer I otherwise probably never would have bothered to seek out. I don't mean that just because they don't have a big name or famous beer in their portfolio, but their packaging is pretty awful...

I've been to Berlin. Yes, they make a big deal about the Berliner Weiss style. It's been four years since I've had one so my recollection of what today's modern Berliner Weissbiers taste like might be a little hazy. I bring that up because this beer, brewed by Dr. Fritz Briem at Brauerei Weihenstephan, is specifically labeled a "1809 Berliner Weisse" ...so I'm going to assume my 2006 Berliner Weisse tasted a bit different. What I do remember of the Berliner Weiss is a sweeter than sour fruit character in a light bodied wheat beer. That vague memory set my expectations pretty well, because that's what this 1809 Berliner Weisse is like, but there is a whole lot more to it...