The Andechs First Round

Though we looked forward to this as "The Andechs Round," it also included König Ludwig's Helles and Mönchshof's Feines Helles Lager.

We had to guess a bit on where to include the Mönchshof, as we expected it might be a darker beer than the other Helles. We had previously tried König Ludwig's Weissbier, for which it is well-known. The brewery, however, is best known as being the royal brewery. It remains in the hands of the Wittlesbacher family, which is currently headed by His Royal Highness Prince Luitpold of Bavaria (the great-grandson of Ludwig III, the last king of Bavaria). The House of Wittlesbach's coat of arms is the one you see on the bottle's label.

You'll find a wealth of information (in German) on their website, as the family has had over 70 breweries since founding their first in 1260. The royal family has been inextricably linked to beer and its place in Bavarian culture, with its institution of the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516 (Duke Wilhelm IV), Elector Maximilian's 200-year long Weißbier Monopoly (allowing only the royal family to produce weißbier in the 17th and 18th centuries), and King Ludwig I's contributions of establishing the great traditions of Oktoberfest and Beer Gardens. I can't imagine Munich in the summer without beer gardens!

Mönchshof was one we see occasionally in the stores, at least this Lager, their Weinachtsbier (Christmas Beer), and their Schwarzbier that we tasted earlier. Mönchshof began as a Klosterbrauerei (a monastery brewery, though primarily for their own use) in 1349, becoming a brewing company in 1885 (brewing primarily for export). It's now part of the Kulmbacher brewing company, with this brand positioned as "Kulmbacher's Sympathetic Beer".  

Mönchshof is from Kulmbach, in Oberfranken - the area which describes itself as "this is pure Bavaria." Think Hof, Bayreuth, Coburg, Bamberg...It's an area with a long brewing tradition but with smaller, more local breweries. And Pils is more popular in this area than it is here in Southern Bavaria. Hopefully we'll get a chance soon to travel there and sample some of the excellent local beers!

Back to the tournament...This one was what we'd call a triple overtime game. The beers were very similar - quite light and with very little hops. Mönchshof got the win, however, as it just had a slightly better feel in the mouth. I know, if we're basing it on carbonation levels, it's REALLY a close call!

Next up we have the Andechs round, with Andechs Vollbier Hell vs Andechs Bergbock Hell. Again, we weren't sure where to put the Bergbock Hell, but decided to place it with the Helles, even though it was a bock-style beer.

But first, about Andechs. For those of you not living in Munich, Andechs is a small town outside of Munich, in the Five Lakes District ("Fünfseenland"), situated between Ammersee and Starnbergersee. It's also home to the Benedictine monastery and its brewery.  Andechs Monastery 

The Holy Mountain ("Heiligen Berg") became the site for pilgrimages back in the 10th century, after word spread that relics including a branch from Jesus' crown of thorns were displayed there. In 1445, the first monastery was established on the site and the brewing tradition began. 50 years after the monastery was dissolved, King Ludwig I established the monastery in 1850 for the Benedictine order's Abbey of St. Boniface (Munich).

Interestingly (and I'm not sure why), this order does not recieve funds from the church tax that the government collects (9% of your income, if you check the religion box on your tax forms).  So, the brewery, restaurant, and products are their largest source of revenue. Though it's known for its beer, Andechs produces many excellent products available in the area. It's schnapps are incredible (try the Honey, trust me!), and its dairy products fresh and of the highest quality. We'll devote a post soon to just an Andechs tasting (beer, cheese, etc)...It's deserving of its own tasting!

But back to the monastery - One of the best easy hikes in the area is to go up to Andechs for a meal. The Munich public transportation system will take you there (S5 to Herrsching) and then it's a little under an hour easy hike through the woods and up to the monastery. A beautiful walk in winter snow, or an excellent chance to enjoy the view from the beer garden's terrace overlooking the valley in the warmer weather.

We were excited to test the Helles against the Bergbock Hell and find out which we prefer. Since you're drinking beer in half liter and liter sizes at the monastery, it's hard to sample many varieties and still be able to walk down the mountain.

First up was the Vollbier Hell. An excellent helles, light and clear and crisp. It was a very good beer, though similar to the other very good helles beers we'd had before (Augustiner, Tegernseer, etc).

Then we poured the Bergbock Hell, to find it a much darker, golden (but still clear) beer. Very promising. Let's just say that Andechs describes the perfectly: as "Lust at first sip."

It had a lovely almost caramel taste, with sweet malty goodness. But it was not as strongly spiced as a dunkel beer - it was perfect balance of a lighter beer (like a helles) with all the great tastes of the darker, stronger beers. And it comes with the 7% alcohol content of the darker beers... We still have many beers to taste, but WOW, this one will be the one to beat!

I'm so happy with this discovery and will make sure to always keep some around. It is a truly outstanding beer!

Needless to say, the Andechs easily beat the Mönchshof Lager and is headed to the Sweet Sixteen to face off against the Hacker Pschorr Münchener Kellerbier.

The Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr Helles Faceoffs

One of our first rounds in the Helles Bracket pitted two Paulaner beers and two Hacker-Pschorr beers against each other.

On the food side of the equation, we stuck with tradition and ate Schnitzel and Roasted Chicken...there's no better meal to pair with the Helles style beers. Add a couple pretzels, and you're done! (And there's no cooking involved...all are available from your local Vincenzmur or grocery store).

Hacker-Pschorr describes its Münchener Hell as: 

belong[ing] to Bavaria like pretzels and white blue sky.

It's a classic, light and clear helles beer.

The Münchener Kellerbier is beer, as they made it in the 1400's. It's a darker golden beer, with some cloudiness and sediment. It also has more carbonation and has a slightly bubbly feel to it. It still has a light flavor, but slightly more flavor due to the different yeast style. The name "Kellerbier" refers to the fact that it's like the beer that was pulled straight out of the celler (where it lagered and fermented, with the air in the basement as the source of the yeast) and served to guests.

We preferred the Kellerbier and it's flavor and carbonation. Score one for "the old ways!"

Next up, we had the Paulaner beers...we had no idea how these two would differ.

Similar the Hacker-Pschorr beers, the Original Münchener Hell is their classic hells, while the Original Münchener Urtyp is closer to the old beers. The Hell was light, golden, and clear. The Urtyp here is classified as an Exportbier and thus was brewed with a higher wort to help it withstand transportation. These days transportation is no issue, but many still enjoy the slightly maltier flavor and darker color.

You'll see the word "Urtyp" often on beer labels. It just means "traditional style." This doesn't always tell you how the beer will taste, but gives you a clue that it's closer to the old style of brewing. Or you'll see combinations wtih just the prefix "Ur-" (e.g., "Urhell"), which means "traditional" or "ancient."

Surprisingly, we prefered Paulaner's Helles to the Exportbier. We typically go for the maltier and darker beers, but we just really enjoyed the crisp Helles.

But how would the Paulaner Orginal Münchener Hell compare to the Hacker-Pschorr Münchener Kellerbier? We actually chose the Kellerbier, though they were very close in taste.

It was still light (compared to many of the beers we have tasted), but with a bit more interesting flavor than the Helles. Also maltier.

This is the beer to drink when you don't like the taste of beer!

The Final Weißbier 1st Round - Weißbier vs Oktoberfest

As we mentioned before, this beer tournament is not a truly scientific study...it's based on the beer selection in my two closest grocery stores. While we didn't have 16 weißbiers, there wasn't room to include the 4 Dunkles Weißbier in there either. So we made the executive decision to sprinkle in some Oktoberfest beers throughout the bracket and to put the Dunkles Weißbier in the Dunkel category.

Therefore, this first round is a bit odd. We start with our final two Weißbiers -  Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen Naturtrüb and Erdinger Pikantus Dunkler Weizenbock. These two were separated from the others as we were not sure if the names denoted something different than a typical Weißbier. In German, "Weißbier" technically means "white beer," not "wheat beer," though it is a wheat bear. Legend has it that it was brewed back in the middle ages and was the lighter colored beer compared to the traditional darker beer. "Weizenbier" does explicitly mean "Wheat Beer" and "Hefe Weizen" means "Yeast Wheat beer". As suspected, they are all the same - top fermented beers made with 50%-65% wheat malt, vs the 100% barley malt in the others. (The remaining 35-50% in a weißbier will still be barley).

In fact, "Weißbier" is the name most commonly used in Bavaria, the region where it is most loved and brewed. (As a good Bavarian, the Pope has publicly stated weißbier as his preferred beer style, though we know he drinks other varieties as well).

Some beer books refer to "Southern German Weißbier" as a style, though effectively it's the same as a Hefeweizen, a Weizenbier, or a wheat beer in brewing style. A filtered Weizen would be a Kristalweizen, exactly the same as the Kristallklar Weißbier we tried. For some reason, the US and other non-German wheat beers often use the term Hefeweizen.

So, the Schöfferhofer is a normal Weißbier, though our one non-Bavarian weißbier in the mix. From the largest brewery in Hesse, it's brewed by the Binding Brewery, part of the Radeberger Group. In addition to the normal selection of Kristal, Naturtrüb, Dunkel, and Alcohol-free, Schöfferhofer also brews an Eis-Kristall (yes, an ice-brewed, filtered wheat beer) and a two varieties of super-tasty flavored wheat beers. Herr J had both the Grapefruit and Cactus-Fig in his Beer Advent Calendar.

The Erdinger Pikantus, on the other hand, was a Weizenbock, so we expected it to be darker and stronger than a typical weißbier. We weren't sure how it compared to the Dunkel Weißbier, however, as Erdinger also makes one of those.  

As expected, the Erdinger was darker, stronger, and with spicier flavors. It also had a much larger head on the beer. The Schöfferhofer had an excellent clovey, traditional weißbier taste. But in terms of taste, the Erdinger just was more interesting and tasty. If we were looking for a beer we could drink all night, we'd order the Schöfferhofer. However, as this is a single elimination tournament, we awarded the win to Erdinger for just tasting better. It would be hard to drink it all night, as it does have a strong flavor. And at 7.3% alcohol content, I'd quickly fall off my bar stool.

The next two competitors in this round are the final two Oktoberfest beers in this tournament. We already tried three others - Hofbrau, Spaten, and Löwenbräu - bringing us to a total of 5 out of 6 of the "Sechs Richtige" Munich Oktoberfest beers. (Augustiner is the 6th, but it reserves its seasonal beers for sale in its restaurants). Both the Hacker-Pschorr and the Paulaner produced good Oktoberfest brews. For the first time in our tournment, Paulaner failed to advance. It was a close competition, but we liked the slightly darker Hacker-Pschorr märzen.

How, then, did the Weizenbock stack up against the Märzen? The Hacker-Pschorr was very pleasant and malty, but the caramel taste of the Erdinger Pikantus was a much better taste. It really is just a matter of preference here - and we've realized we prefer the more complex beers, or the perfectly smooth, drinkable Helles. It will be interesting to see what happens when those two go head to head!

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!