Beer of the Week

It's been a while since we went back to the "Old World" to find a beer of the week. This beer of the week is both Old World and Old School.

The Hacker-Pschorr brewery of Munich traces its legacy back almost 600 years, to 1417. Our beer of the week, Hacker-Pschorr's Anno 1417, takes its name from the year of the brewery's founding.

Anno 1417 is a Kellerbier, or Cellar Beer in English. The Kellerbier is common in Franconia, a region in northern Bavaria. Kellerbier has very little carbonation, due to the fact that the bung is not inserted tightly into the fermenting barrel, allowing the carbon dioxide to escape. Generally, the beer is then drank right out of the keg, with no filtration, giving the lager a cloudy appearance (Naturtrüb or "naturally cloudy" auf Deutsch) and a smooth yeasty taste.

A few Kellerbiers, also known as Zwickel Beers, are available in bottles, such as Hacker-Pschorr's and St. Georgenbraü.

Hacker's brew pours a light and cloudy amber, with a creamy off-white head. The brew smells of toasted malts and just a touch of hops.

The smooth and light mouthfeel is accentuated by the dryness of the malts, and the richness of the yeast. The hops are definitely present in balance, but do not overpower the malts. The beer finishes rich and earthy.

Although Kellerbiers may be hard to find at your local store, this Old World tradition is worth the hunt. Prost!

Links of Interest:

Hacker-Pschorr (Auf Deutsch!)

Summit Unchained

Attention Midwest beer lovers: there's a new series of limited edition brews headed your way.

Summit is offering up a limited series of beers called their "Unchained" series. The first offering is to be an authentic German Kölsch.

Kölsch, unlike most of its German cousins, is not a lager. The beer is actually top fermented at relatively warm temperatures, like an ale. Although it is often stored for a period of time, or lagered, it is not technically a lager.

Much like tequila, champagne, or cognac, technically only beers from Köln (Cologne) can bear the Kölsch designation. A 1986 German law limited production to Köln and a few nearby breweries that were grandfathered in. The designation was eventually extended to the entire EU.

Indeed, referring to Kölsch brewed in the U.S. the Wikipedia page notes that:

While the labeling of these brews as Kölsch may be legal in local law, it is certainly misleading, as Kölsch-style ales brewed outside the Cologne area are not guaranteed to use the same ingredients and brewing processes, and might therefore differ in their flavor and aroma profile. Further, they may not be compliant with the Provisional German Beer Law, the current implementation of the Reinheitsgebot.

It may be a concern for some folks, but it shouldn't be for Summit drinkers. According to the Brewery:

...we have used only the most authentic ingredients available to produce this beer. We have used 100% imported German malt; a blend of Pilsener and Kölsch malts from the Global Malt cooperative (a cooperative of 3 German Maltsters with a combined 6 maltings headquartered in Osthofen) and a small percentage of Caramalz from the Weyermann maltings in Bamberg. The hops we have used are also imported from Germany and are only grown in the Hallertau region of Bavaria. Hallertau Mittelfrüh are some of the most delicate, distinctive and highly prized hops in the world. Finally, we will be using traditional top fermenting Kölsch yeast obtained from the world-renowned yeast banks at Weihenstephan in Bavaria.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting thirsty just thinking about it!

Recipes on the Brain

What is the next best thing to drinking delicious beer? Why cooking with it of course. Combining my love of beer and my love of cooking not only provides me with tasty food, but also a better understanding of the flavors that shine through in certain beers.

Today I would like to share with you one of my favorite and easiest recipes I make involving beer:

Slow Cooker Kielbasa in Beer

Ingredients:
3 Cloves of Garlic
1 Medium Onion (I prefer red onion to add color)
7 Medium Potatoes (Yukon Gold or Red Potatoes)
1lb Polska Kielbasa (use the best you can find, check your local meat market)
1 Can or Jar of Sauerkraut
Spoonful of Horseradish
Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes
Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
Salt
Beer Ingredient:
2.5 bottles of an Oktoberfest Style Beer (My favorites to use are Paulaner Oktoberfest or Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest; if you don't have access to either, a brown ale will work in a pinch)

Directions:
1. Turn the slow cooker to high. 2. Rough chop the garlic, onions and potatoes and toss them into the slow cooker. 3. Next, cut the Kielbasa into chunks that are about 2 inches long and add to the slow cooker. 4. Then add the horseradish and spices. 5. Finally, add the beer and the sauerkraut and stir.

Let the whole thing cook for about 4-5 hours checking in on it about once an hour to stir and see how it is coming along. If the beer boils down but you are not ready to serve, simply add a little more beer or some water. It is ready to eat when the potatoes are fork tender.

Enjoy with some spicy ground mustard and the rest of the 6 (or 12 if you are up for it) pack.

Links of Interest:
http://www.paulaner.de/home.php
http://www.hacker-pschorr.de/

Beer of the Week - Summer Beer Edition

Summer has finally arrived in full: sunbathing, BBQs, vacations. And nothing makes these activities better than a refreshing beer in hand. With that in mind, BOTB presents its Summer Beer Guide.


Spaten Lager - Munich, Germany

A delicious lager in the Munich helles style, Spaten's Premium lager is a standard setter. It's malty enough to have deep flavor, not overly hopped, but slightly lemony and grassy, making for a smooth body, and clean enough to chug on a summer day; it's really all about the high quality malts in this one.


Haacker-Pschorr Weisse - Munich, Germany

Another beer from Bavaria, this Weisse is good year round, and great in the summer. All wheat beers ring off the palatte a little bit more in the summer months, and Haacker-Pschorr's is no exception. Lemony fruitiness all over this one, so you don't even need the lemon garnish. It has the most beautiful head you've ever seen, a gorgeous cloudy body, and smooth over everything. Clean, crsip, and highly sessionable, this is the epitome of a summer beer.





Saison Dupont - Tourpes-Lueze, Belgium

A farmhouse ale brewed in a style that was meant to hold up during the warm summer months prior to refrigeration, Dupont is heavier than the previous two beers. Brewed with ample malt and hops, this beer pours with a heavy white head, but flows crisply and smoothly over the tounge. There are certainly yeast notes in here, with earthy fruit flavors like pear. Dupont isn't spiced, letting its malts and hops stand out, which they do, competing with any food pairing (so a simple paring like cheese would be ideal). Sip this Belgian treat in your back yard on a starry night.

Beer of the Week

Ok, so I know that I've been letting the blog slide a little, but I'm getting it back on track. Without further ado...

There's been a delay on this, I realize, but loyal quaffers, it was worth the wait; this BOTW is one of the best beers I have ever had.

Wheat beers, whether the Belgian Wits or the Germans Weisses occupy a strange and delicious corner of the brewing world. Miles away in taste and appearance from the Belgian Ales and the German Lagers, wheat beers vary as much as their cousins, ranging from blond to brown, and from refreshing to rich.

The Bavarian wheat tradition in particular, is an interesting slice of brewing history. The first brewery established with the specific purpose of brewing wheat beer was built in the Bavarian village of Schwarzach around 1520. Ludwig X of Bavaria had granted Hans Sigismund of Degenberg, his official steward (also a Duke), the rights to produce wheat beer for the province.

In 1567 a law was passed banning the production of wheat beer, but the Degenbergs were grandfathered in. When the line of Degenbergs died out, Duke Maximillian gained their wheat beer rights. The law of 1567 was still in effect, though it was not enforced on the princes, making Maximillian's operation a wheat beer-opoly, and guaranteeing a steady revenue stream.

While here and there licenses were granted for local breweries to produce their own wheat beer (with a fee of course), it wasn't competition that brought down the wheat beer monopoly, it was fashion and technology.

In the mid-18th century the Munich dunkels & helles, as well as the Vienna lagers and Czech Pilsners came on the scene. The new lagering methods and brewing techniques allowed the easy production of high quality beers year round, and the thirsty drinkers of Prague, Vienna, & Munich gravitated to the delicious new pilsners and helles, as well as the recently perfected dunkels. Weissbier quickly became the beer of the upper-crust, and out of fashion.

As the market collapsed, Georg Schneider saw opportunity. With the Dukes losing incentive to protect their wheat beer rights, Schneider easily wrestled it away from them and set up weiss brewing of his own.

Schneider kept the style alive, and being the only weiss show in town, did quite well. Indeed, his relatives still operate the brewery baring his name to this day.

Schneider-Weisse produces a number of wheat beers including our BOTW, Schneider Aventius. Aventius is a Weizen-Bock, that is, a strong wheat. Also known as Weizenstarkbier, Aventius clocks in at 8.2% ABV, pretty serious for a wheat beer.

The beer pours a brown-ruby color, with a nice thick two-finger head.

It has an easily detectable nose with strains of yeast, vanilla and banana. The smells are sweet and much more penetrating than even other wheat brews.

The Aventius has a medium-heavy mouthfeel with yeast and wheat notes, sweet caramel malts and a crisp carbonated, though only slightly bitter finish, leading you back for more. Although the beer is 8.2%, the alcohol presence doesn't manifest until you've finished the bottle. This is, without a doubt, one of the premier wheat beers in the world. An appreciation of wheat beer without a sampling of this gem from an originator is an incomplete appreciation.

Highly Recommended.

Links of Interest (German):

Schneider-Weisse Aventius

Beer of the Week

We've been talking about lagers this week, and briefly touched on the golden pilsner and pale lager styles that dominate the tastes of the beer drinking world. Many American beer snobs don't want to give these styles the time of day, perhaps having been soured to the style having come of beer drinking age in a country full of mass-produced flavorless light lagers. But a well made pilsner or golden pale lager is a thing of craft brewing beauty, and one needn't look further than the German pioneers to find a delicious example.

Paulaner Bräuerei of Munich, named for the founder of an order of beer making monks, has been brewing beer since the 1600s. Paulaner is probably best known for their "Salvator" (latin for "saviour") doppelbock. In fact most German (and some American) doppelbocks still use the "-ator" suffix to denote the doppelbock style.

Besides it's legendary doppelbock, Paulaner also produces a Pils (pilsner), a delicious weiss, and an oktoberfest märzen that might now rival the Salvator in popularity in America. Paulaner also makes a delicious Munich style helles (pronounced "Hell-us"), known in America as "Paulaner Original Munich Lager" that is our Beer of the Week.

The Paulaner Lager pours a beautiful rich golden color with a minimal head that leaves some lacing as you drink it. It smells fresh, crisp, and clean, with a hint of malt, and a trace of fresh cut grass type hop aroma. Being this is a pale lager, the aromas are faint, so take a sniff before you start to drink it.

The taste is surprisingly malty and rich, with a nice medium-bodied mouthfeel. The carbonation is lively, dancing around your palette. Its 4.9% ABV, combined with its crisp finish, makes this is a beer you could certainly "session" (drink many a pint) with. That said, please quaff in moderation.

If you have a friend that is a macro drinker, and you want to introduce him/her into the larger world of delicious beer, Paulaner's lager might be a good introduction. It has better ingredients than most American macros (no rice or corn in here), has a more complex malty taste, but yet is still a beer you can have a few of and not be overwhelmed. Here's to the Germans for creating the perfect "everyman" beer.

Prost!

Links of Interest:

(I would put the link to the Paulaner website here, but having visited it, you won't really get to much info from it unless you can speak German. Even the "Facinating Facts" section of the English website version is totally in German.)

Beer of the Week

Our BOTW this week is another high alcohol bock from Germania. Schloss Eggenberg Urbock 23 hails from the Schloss Eggenberg Brauerei in Austria, and like this week's BOTWE, EKU 28, is kept in the cellar for an astounding 9 months.

The resulting bock is perfect for winter consumption: high in alcohol, smooth, and creamy. Coming in at 9.6% ABV, the Urbock 23 is potent, and the smell and taste reflect it.

The nose has a mingling of alcohol, honey, and fruit bursting out from a nice dense white head; lacing is very nice. The mouthfeel is thick and ueber-creamy, perhaps even creamier than the EKU 28. The carbonation is perfect, and the alcohol dryness at the end is the perfect stop punctuation for a honey-like sweetness that seems to mingle with rum.

I've heard this brew refered to as the "cognac of beers" (not to be confused with "the champagne of beers"), and rightly so; this is a beer that is meant to be sipped, savored, and shared. Prost!

Links of Interest:

Schloss Eggenberg Urbock 23

Beer of the Weekend

Winter is starting to wear on, as those of us in the upper Midwest have been treated to alternating thaws and snow storms. You might wonder what, besides severe drought, hurricanes and earthquakes, keeps us from moving to warmer climes. Well in Wisconsin, we have good friends and good beer to get us through, and I have found a delicious gift from Kulmbach, Germany to help us make it to April.

Kulbacher Brauerei produces a number of different brands, the one familiar to me being their EKU Pils; however, we're not here to talk Pilsner because obviously we need a little more than that to make it through the winter. Rather, let's talk about an Eisbock.

An Eisbock is similar to a regular doppelbock, except after lagering for an astounding nine months, a layer of ice is removed from the vessel, effectively concentrating the flavor and alcohol (11%) of the beer.

Kulbacher's eisbock is called "EKU 28," and is an outstanding example of an the style. The beer pours a light copper color, with a small head. The smell is very fruity, with hints of honey and caramel, and a slight tinge of alcohol. The mouthfeel is very creamy, with some of the carbonation mixing in, and amazingly, the alcohol is not very noticeable. I've had Belgians and barleywines this strong, and I have to admit, in comparison, the alcohol in this just disappears in the flavors. There are strong tastes of fruit, mostly raisins for me, and a syrupy sweetness that is just cut perfectly and subtly by alcohol at the end of the sip.

And sip you should. This beer is no joke at 11% ABV. I would have a few of these at the end of the night, maybe after a meal. I know from experience that this is not a beer you should wrangle with without a proper meal in you. Besides, it goes excellent as a post food digestive, or as we in Wisconsin might appreciate it, as a winter warmer.

Links of Interest:

Kulmbacher Brauerei (English)


PS: Thanks to Dane101.com for the link.

Oktoberfest!

If the word “Oktoberfest” was used in a word-association test, the most common response would surely be “beer.” Many cities around the world hold an Oktoberfest celebration, including: Cincinnati, Ohio; La Crosse, Wisconsin; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Denver, Colorado; Blumenau, Brazil; and Hong Kong, but the fest from which all these others draw their name is held annually in München, Bayern (Munich, Bavaria).

Since its inception as a celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildberghausen in 1811, beer has been a central pillar in what has become a Bavarian tradition. Although beer stands long allowed fairgoers to fresco their tonsils with the Bavarian brush, the beer tents that we know and love were not added until 1896 by landlords who were backed by the local breweries.

Today Germany’s Oktoberfest draws 6 million people from all around the world to revel in Bavarian culture. The question for those of us not fortunate enough to travel to Deutschland is: what Oktoberfest beers would be good to enjoy at my local fest, or in my own home. After some exhaustive “research” we have some recommendations for you.

Aus Deutschland

Spaten Oktoberfest (Munich, Germany)

According to Spaten’s website their Oktoberfestbier is brewed each spring for “das größte Volksfest der Welt” (the largest folk festival in the world), and is 5.9% alcohol. Spaten Oktoberfest is a medium bodied amber beer, just slightly sweet with a rich malt body and just enough hops for one to notice the bitterness. In contrast with many American Oktoberfest beers, it is not spicy, nor is it too sweet or rich in body to prevent you from quaffing multiple mugs of this delicious lager (Amber & Ryan encourage you to chug responsibly).

From the US

Samuel Adams Octoberfest (Boston, MA)

Sam’s Octoberfest is an excellent American variety. It has a rich copper color, and a deep malt taste that according to their website is balanced by “German noble hops.” The beer is not as sweet as Spaten’s and the hops come through a little bit more. It has a medium body and you can definitely have more than two of these in a sitting (again, please chug in moderation).

Sprecher Oktoberfest (Glendale, WI)

Established in Brew City itself, Sprecher has since moved its operations to Milwaukee’s suburb of Glendale. Sprecher has a large roster of year-round beers and sodas (try the root beer), as well as a large selection of seasonal brews of which the Oktoberfest is one. The Oktoberfest is 5.75% alcohol, and boasts a blend of Caramel, Munich, and Pale hops. The beer is exceptionally smooth, even more so than the Spaten or the Sam Adams. The body is also slightly richer than both of the aforementioned beers, but it lacks the hops bite. Compared to other Oktoberfests of the area, Sprecher wins out, so if you’re in Milwaukee make sure you have your barkeep pull the tapper on this one a few times (Amber & Ryan suggest you take a cab, drunkie).

Stay tuned for pictures from Amber & Ryan's very own Oktoberfest!

Links of interest:

http://www.muenchen.de/Tourismus/Oktoberfest/7548/index.html
http://www.spatenbraeu.de
http://www.samueladams.com/
http://www.sprecherbrewery.com/beer.php?cat=2