Weißbier Round 1 - Naturtrüb

We had tried normal weißbier, dunkel weißbier, and even Kristallweißbier, but the Naturtrüb and Hefetrüb weißbiers were something we'd never heard of before. Another mystery to investigate in the Beer Tournament... 

What we learned was that, in most cases, the Naturtrüb or Hefetrüb names just denote normal weißbiers, translating to mean "unfiltered" or "naturally cloudy". With the exception of the Kristallklar weißbiers, most are unfiltered. "Naturtrüb" is a term you also often encounter when buying cider or natural apple juice. While clear used to denote clean and safe drinking, in the past years, it has come to be seen as fake and overprocessed. Here, natural is seen as better and people can be suspicious of perfectly clear juices. Bio is better, or so I keep hearing....

So, after learning what these beers were, we continued on with the tastings. First up were Paulaner's and Andechs' Weißbiers. Paulaner offers a dark, a filtered (Kristallklar), this unfiltered Hefe-Weißbier Naturtrüb, as well as a Light and an Alcohol-free version. Andechs offers this Weissbier Hefetrüb and a Weissbier Dunkel.

This first competition was very close to a tie - both tasted extremely similar, with only a single taste note distinguishing them. And with that, Andechs advanced to the 2nd round for having a slightly more pleasing taste. Paulaner again came through with a good beer, though.

Next up were Franziskaner's Weissbier Naturtrüb and Hacker-Pschorr's Sternweisse. Franziskaner offers the same 5 weißbier types as Paulaner, with Naturtrüb being their main (and world-renowned) weißbier. Hacker-Pschorr, on the other hand, offers a Dunkel Weisse, a Hefe Weisse, a Lite, and this Sternweisse ("White Star") weißbier. The Sternweisse was popular in the 1920s and offers a slightly less carbonate and lighter tasting unfiltered weißbier. It also has a slightly darker amber color. However, it's a bit boring. It's really drinkable, but not interesting. The scent is promising, with smells of cloves and bananas and other great weißbier scents - but the actual taste is much lighter. As Franziskaner was a much more interesting and tasteful beer, it advanced to compete in the 2nd round against the Andechs.

In the Andechs vs Franziskaner contest, the victory went to Andechs. Though we've always known Andechs to have great beers, we had expected Franziskaner would win. Again, we were wrong.. The Andechs was slightly lighter and a little sweeter, serving as a perfect example of how a weißbier should taste!

The Pope Has Been Busy

Pope Benedict XVI has been quite busy in the past year. First the he reverses his previous statements and makes a highly controversial (and unclear) statement that using condoms to prevent spreading HIV is the lesser of evils, at least for prostitutes.  Now he continues his year-long push for the Church to embrace and make use of social media, though warning against the risks of substituting a cyber-life for a real one.  

Ignoring any of the other controversies, it's pretty great that the Pope has a Facebook application and a You Tube account.  What most suprised me, however, was discovering that he also has a beer.

This Pope is Bavarian, so of COURSE he drinks beer, and it's thanks to the church that we have beer in the first place. But it still seems strange to see Pope Beer.

When we saw it in Herr J's grocery store, our initial shock quickly gave way to "we HAVE to try this!"

I'm not sure if the Pope has truly endorsed this or what legalities are involved. The Weideneder Brewery in Marktl began producing the beer shortly after Cardinal Ratzinger's election as Pope, as he was born there in 1927. The house on the label is a drawing of his birthplace, and the label at the top of the bottle proudly proclaims him "The Bavarian Pope Benedict XVI."

According to Weideneder's English site, due to the long-standing "connection between the Church and the art of brewing we consider it to be our obligation to appreciate the election of a Bavarian Pope in a Bavarian way." How very Bavarian of them!

 

More importantly, it's a pretty decent beer. It's a festival beer, similar to the Oktoberfest Märzen style of beers. It's darker and stronger (5.4%) than a Helles or Pils. It's not as strongly hoppy as a Pils, but does have a stronger hops note than a Helles and a different hop flavor than a Pils. It has a deeper flavor, but not to the Dunkelbier point of flavor. It's a good tasting, drinkable beer that will stand up well even to spicy foods. We made pomelo salad and panang chicken for dinner, and it was a great beer to drink with spicy food...a great contrast and cooling to the spice, yet it didn't lose its flavor against the spiciness as many weaker beers do.  We expected this to be a novelty beer and not very good, but we would definitely drink it again! 

Innovations in Laziness

I highly doubt this worked on the first take as claimed, but still it's pretty clever and fun.

German Beer Wars - Kristallklar Weissbier

This was a new one for us...the Weissbier Kristal type. Basically, it's a wheat beer that is then filtered to remove the yeast and other sediment. We had no idea what to expect, but it sounded good to me. Looks like a light beer, tastes like a wheat beer...at least that was my guess. 

The Unertl was not a beer we knew, and it was definitely not a Kristall Weissbier. It was, however, very unusual. But in a good way. You can see how dark it is in the picture below, and I was expecting it would not taste like a Weissbier. It was much darker than the Dunkles Weissbiers we had tried. The taste, however, blended together the good spices of a dunkelbier and the sweet yeasty taste of a weissbier.

Unertl is a brewery in Haag, which is about 45 minutes due east of Munich. They've been brewing weissbier since the early 20th century, which makes them a very young brewery in comparision to others. In addition to a few varieties of weissbier, they make bierschnapps, which I think are exactly as it sounds. This could be a good afternoon excursion in the spring!

Then we have the Franziskaner Kristallklar - so clear you can read the "Weiss" on the label through the beer!

The Franziskaner was very good - light and crisp, with the light taste of weissbier. But the Unertl was so different and tasty that we had to give it the win.

We paired these with a delicious Asian dinner...miso-glazed salmon, pork dumplings, and cocktail shrimp with spicy Thai seafood sauce. Yum!

After tasting the Franziskaner we thought all of the Kristallklars would taste the same. Erdinger and Paulaner proved us wrong...The Erdinger tasted more like a sweetened Pils. It just was a little odd...the hops didn't seem to belong in a weissbier, let alone a filtered one.

The Paulaner Weissbier Kristallklar blew us away...it was great. It wasn't too sweet, but had a great tangy flavor with the spices and sparkle of a weissbier and the lightness and clarity of a helles. Great beer!

The Unertl - Paulaner matchup was a tough one...they were both truly excellent beers, but so different that it came down to a matter of taste. We just really enjoyed drinking the Paulaner Kristallklar, and so it goes on to the Sweet Sixteen, Paulaner's third berth so far! (Paulaner Salvator and Paulaner Original Münchener Dunkel will meet in the Dunkel regional semifinals, guaranteeing Paulaner at least one spot in the Elite Eight).

Two new great beers discovered...a good night's work!

German Beer Wars - The Oktoberfest Round

Since we live in Munich, we decide to include some Oktoberfest beers in the tournament. It is an important part of the beer culture here, after all!

Maybe not the wisest decision, as it isn't available year round and could be a problem to find in later rounds...

Pork chops with roasted winter veggies and warm goat cheese salad

Tonight featured 3 of the Big Six's Oktobefest beers.  Hofbrau vs Spaten, and then Löwenbräu vs one of Altenmünster brewery's offerings. We weren't really sure where to fit the Altenmünster, which was a beer we did not know. It's supposed to be a flavorful lager, but not sure if that means Helles, or something different. But we thought it would stand well with the Oktoberfest beers. Luckily, we were correct in that guess.

The Altenmünster was very tasty when compared to the Löwenbräu Oktoberfestbier - it had a very clean taste, with good flavors, but was not overly hoppy. The Löwenbräu was good too, but was less carbonated and also felt a bit flat in taste when compared to the Altenmünster.

I was surprised at the outcome of the Hofbrau vs Spaten match, as I think of Hofbrau more in terms of a touristy (but fun) beerhall, not in terms of good beer. However, HB has proved to be more than just a good party...it's a really good beer! The Spaten was good, and it's hops had a little bit of sweetness to them. The Hofbrau, on the other hand, was very crisp and not too hoppy, . It was just a perfectly balanced beer. Both were good, but we prefered the note of the hops used in the Hofbrau. The strange thing was that the Spaten was much better in the bottle than it was in the Oktoberfest tents.

Hofbrau went on to an easy victory over the Altenmünster. Despite how good it tasted in the first round, it seemed light and watery when compared to the Hofbrau, which was sparkly without being overly carbonated.

German Beer Wars: Helles Surf & Turf

 Coming back to the German Beer Wars, we move on to a promising round of Helles beers. Here we have Munich power Spaten against Weihenstephaner, the oldest operating brewery in the world and an asset of the Free State of Bavaria (yes, another reason Bavaria and Texas are long lost cousins). And then the unknown to us Hubauer Urhell vs Tegernseer, the favorite of many locals.

 

We weren't sure what to predict with this tasting...We had only had Spaten at Oktoberfest (and I used to drink Spaten Light at Stan's on Greenville!) and I'd never had Weihenstephaner. The Spaten was a typical Helles - light and drinkable, but nothing noteworthy. The Weihenstephaner, however, had more depth to it than the Spaten and was just a more enjoyable taste. Thus it advanced to face the winner of the night's other game.

Then we had the long-awaited contest...Many here consider Tegernseer to be the best Helles and the best beer in the greater Munich area (Tegernsee is a beautiful lake area a little less than an hour south of Munich). But it's not widely marketed, doesn't have associated restaurants in Munich, and isn't available everywhere. It's mainly known by reputation and word of mouth, rather than any real marketing efforts.

Hubauer Urhell was one we'd never heard of before, and it cost €0.39 for a 500mL bottle. (Most German beer here is €0.59 or €0.89, for comparison, and imports around €2). It was unbelievably cheap, so we weren't sure how it would compare with the others.

The Hubauer was shockingly good - I tasted it first (blindly, as always) and assumed it was the Tegernseer. However, then I tasted the next, and it was perfectly balanced, mild, and super drinkable. THAT was the Tegernseer. Unfortunately for the Hubauer, it was up against what likely will be one fo the top beers in the tournament. Otherwise, it would have advanced past the first round. Just bad luck to be playing against a top seed!

In the Weihenstephaner vs Tegernseer matchup, Tegernseer won the Sweet Sixteen berth. It just tasted better and was very light and enjoyable. I can picture drinking it on a warm afternoon on a patio overlooking the lake.

And for fun, we paired the Helles with a tasty (and low carb) surf and turf. Herr J found some gorgeous French lobster (the ones with no claws), filets, and made his famous feta-stuffed peppers.  Delicious!

The Advent Beer Calendar Selection

So as not to spoil Herr J's fun, I did not reveal online the contents of his Advent Beer Calendar.

Some we had tried before (in the German Beer Championship), and others were new....but the calendar opened up possibilities of non-German beers and "beers" that do not conform to the Reinheitsgebot, and thus cannot be called "beer."

The 24 Beers of Advent 2010 were:

Tegernseer Hell
Beck's Ice
Beck's Green Lime
Heineken
Beck's Gold
Paulaner Originial Münchener Hell
Paulaner Hefeweißbier Natrutrüb
Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen Grapefruit
Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen Kaktusfeige (Cactus-Fig flavor)
Guinness
Desperados
Magners Irish Cider
Budvar (the Czech Budweiser)
Bittburger
Cab (Dragon-Fruit flavored cola & beer)
Samuel Smith's India Ale
Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter
Foster's
Corona Extra
Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale
Warsteiner
Jever Pils
Legendary Duff Beer (yes, Homer Simpson's favorite)
König Pilsner

And as with any chocolate sampler, there are one or two "suprises"....here we had two potential bombs: Cab, the Dragonfruit-flavored Cola & Beer, and Desperados Tequila-flavored beer.

 
Now, you have to understand that I mock Desperados relentlessly. I had never tried it, but the commercials were endless on MTV and billboards. And I just didn't get the concept. Sure, I enjoyed a nice tequila followed by a Bohemia beer in Mexico. But I did not mix them. And most of the under-25 party crowd (the group targeted by Desperados) doesn't drink tequila for it's taste....so why flavor a beer with tequila?

But I tried it, blindly, in a taste test with Samuel Smith's India Ale. (In my cute Ladybug and Ribbit glasses that we often use for tasting....)

Herr J brought me a glass of each, without telling me what I was drinking. The India Ale was a bit too hoppy for my taste.

And after a sip of the Desperados, I said, "Wow, that's good, suprisingly sweet. What is it?"

I was shocked when he told me. Now, I probably wouldn't order it in a bar or buy a case. But it mostly tastes like a Radler (half beer, half lemon soda) or a Beck's lime. So, a super light and refreshing beer with a little sweetness. Something you would drink on a hot summer day in Texas or by the river. So, I stand corrected, and there is actually a time and a place for drinking Desperados. Not sure why they say it tastes like tequila, but I guess that makes it sound edgier than Beck's Lime or Bud Light Lime.

We'll let you know how the Cab tastes....It's brewed by Krombacher, so it might be actually be good.