Sweet Sixteen Matches - Weissbier and Dunkel

Having selected the four representatives from the Helles/Pils half of the beer tournament, we moved to the other side to select the top four from the Weissbier and Dunkel regions.

Again we invited friends to help with the voting, and made a hearty beef stew to help absorb some of the alcohol...we knew anything with Dunkel, Oktobefestbier and Starkbier involved was potentially dangerous!

We began the games with a contest between two variations on Weißbier - Löwenbräu's Löwenweisse (a traditional unfiltered weißbier and another underdog victory for Löwenbräu*) vs Paulaner's Weissbier Kristallklar, which was like discovering a new style of beer. Equally shocking was the outcome - the Kristallklar pulled out another victory! What was most fun was hearing the reactions of our German friends.  Germans (especially in Bavaria, which has such a long and rich tradition) are very traditional and reacted to the kristallklar weissbier much like people reacted to Crystal Pepsi:  that's not what it's supposed to look like!  That's why we had everyone taste the contestants "blind".  In fact, by filtering the weissbier, it becomes a little less "mouthy" and a little fresher, almost riding the fence between a weiss and the beloved helles.  It took the contest by a clear 2/3 margin and left many scratching their heads, saying "I voted for a kristalweissbier???" Luckily, we have seen our friends since and the Free State of Bavaria ("Freistaat Bayern") has not revoked their citizenship for liking a filtered weissbier.

* Question: Is it correct to call something an underdog when it's this big and commercial? But really, Müncheners give Löwenbräu the short shrits and NO ONE thought it would get anywhere in the tourney...

Next up we had another traditional weissbier vs a dunkler weizenbock. After beating out all the other unfiltered weißbier, Andechs' Weissbier Hefetrüb took on the Erdinger Pikantus, which had blown away its weißbier and oktoberfestbier competion.

(Note:  At this stage in the tournament, we were past the point of comparing beers of the same style.  This changes the dynamics of the tasting... even more than before, votes represent preferred rather than better beer.  We noticed a few people vote against a style that generally is not to their taste, but most tasters appreciated all beer types and voted for the best of that moment beer.)

 

In this case, our tasters appreciated the Erdinger, but the smoothness and balance of the Andechs again delivered a convincing victory.  That has been the story of Andechs in this competition - the Andechs beers just work.  Maybe it's the water and water treatment they use, maybe they have exceptional braumeisters, maybe God really does want a monestary to win. Who knows?  But from the first hit on the tongue to the finish, this Andechs is a beer your can savor as a rich brew but not get taste fatigue after an entire bottle.  The vote istelf was about 80/20 for the Andechs Weissbier.

After the above matches, we're left with a future battle between Andechs' unfiltered weissbier vs Paulaner's filtered kristallweissbier for the champion of the weissbiers...a VERY important trophy in weissbier-loving Bavaria!

 

 

The Pikantus tasting was a good transition toward the darker, stronger beers of the Dunkel region.  In fact, we begin with another Erdinger. The Erdinger Dunkel, whose rich taste beat out the other dunkelweisbiers, was up against Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier, the only Oktoberfestbier to survive.  This was a close vote, with only swing of 1-2 people that made the difference.  The Oktoberfest was familiar and well-liked, but the complexity of the dunkel eeked out the victory.  Some proposed a theory that with a different/lighter meal (we had beef stew) the Oktoberfest would have won.  Perhaps the food made the difference, or perhaps because this was a later tasting (after 4 other beers) the dunkel stood out on its own more strongly.  In any event, the Erdinger moves on and the Hofbräu goes home.

And then our last match was the battle of the Paulaners. Like Andechs, Paulaner has had a lot of success in the beer tournament.  This matchup had Paulaner Original Münchener Dunkel, which defeated the Schwarzbiers in our very first matchup, vs Paulaner Salvator, which won The Dark & Dangerous Round. The Salvator surprised us in many ways - first, we never thought it was that good before...it's what you drink at Starkbierfest because that's what you drink...., and second, we always are served starkbier in the old-style pottery mugs, so we thought it was much darker and opaque than it really is.  The Paulaner dunkel had a nice roasted malty sweetness, but the balance (a bit more hops to it) and finish (more alcohol!) of the Salvator made the difference bay a margin of about 3:2.  The starkbier was truly "stark" (strong) tonight!

 

And now we have set for our regional finals the next matches:
Weißbier Region - Paulaner Weissbier Kristallklar vs Andechs Weissbier Hefetrüb 
Dunkel Region - Hasseröder Premium Pils vs Augustiner Edelstoff Export

Sweet Sixteen Matches - Helles and Pils

We started this round on a cold night, with all the happy beers lined up outside waiting for the games. The best thing about winter - outside of skiing - is that your balcony is magically transformed into a giant drink refrigerator for at least 5 months per year. We took fuuuuull advantage of this during the beer tournament.

We decided to follow wine tasting procedure and move from lighter to stronger, so we began with two classic Bavarian helles, Löwenbräu Original and Tegernseer Hell.  You'll recall from the first round matches that Löwenbräu shocked us by winning a blind tasting against Munich favorite Augustiner. (Theories abound as to why:  the difference between keg and bottle?  The Augustiner beer gardens somehow bring additional magic to the maß?  Who knows.)  Tegernseer, however, predictably demolished the competition, though we did discover the surprisngly good cheap beer (39 cents per half liter!) Hubauer Urhell.

We had around 9 people voting most of the night. As expected, the Tegernseer was really much lighter and smoother than the Löwenbräu... but that ironically was it's downfall here.  We prefered the more complex Löwenbräu to the silky smooth Tegernseer.  Other were surprised to find that they preferred the Löwenbräu too -- again a prejudice shattered. The Tegernseer was crisp and refreshing, but perhaps a little too light for a winter evening.  However, it did reinforce the experience of seeing people bringing cases of Tegernseer to the Isar river, leaving it in the water to cool, and grilling wursts.  It's a great summer beer, but lost 6 to 3 with the temperature hovering around 0 degrees.

Next up were Hacker-Pschorr's Münchener Kellerbier (beer made the way they made it in 1490) and Andechs' wonderfully caramelly but light Bergbock Hell. 

As in the prior round, the Andechs' Bergbock Hell trounced the competition (basically unanimous).  At this point, it probably has the most votes and widest margin of victory of any beer in the tournament.  It just has a great mix of sweet maltiness, a balance of hoppy bitterness, and the extra alcohol just works.  Ironically, this surprised our Bavarian tasters too because they always knew they liked Andechs, but by default the regular Helles.  Many think they now prefer the Bergbock Hell!

So those two matches leave use with a Helles Regional Final between Löwenbräu Original and Andechs Bergbock Hell.

Moving down to the Pils/Export region, we start off with Paulaner Premium Pils vs Hasseröder Premium Pils. Neither prior round match was particularly close, with Paulaner plowing through the Beck's and Hasseröder clearly beating down the bitter beers with its malty take on the pilsner tradition.  We had been really surprised by the Paulaner Pils, enjoying its flavor that was like a Pils for Bavarian palates. (You could argue that it is halfway to being a Munich Helles because it is a little sweeter and less hoppy, but it does use "noble" hops like a pils should.)

When the Paulaner Pils then went against the Hasseröder, a similar thing happened as with Tegernseer.  Despite the advantage of being like a smooth helles, the Paulaner goes home while Hasseröder was voted through to the next round.  The tasters thought Hasseröder had a better overall blend with that extra hoppiness; in this case, the crowd wanted a little more bite to the beer. The voting was pretty close though (5 to 4).  On this evening, we're seeing some tasters consistently wanting a more "forward" beer that is on equal footing with any food on the table, and other tasters consistently looking for the biergarden/refreshing/ahhhh type beer.  This evening, the testers wanting complexity had the majority.

And finally, we had Krombacher Pils vs Augustiner Edelstoff Exportbier. Krombacher was fresh off a victory in the Power Pils Round, while Augustiner beat out Veltins and the other two Munich exportbiers to move on to this matchup.  Krombacher is a prototypical pils:  light golden color, crisp taste with noticable hoppiness.  The Augustiner Exportbier is more like a helles but with significantly more hoppiness than their regular Helles.  Think of it as coming to a similar place as the Paulaner Pils (sweeter/less hoppy than a pils, more hoppy than a helles) but from the other direction.  That was the difference:  the hops balanced with a more malty complexion gave the game to Augustiner Exportbier.  It was a solid victory, with 2/3 choosing the Augustiner.

This night leaves us with happy memories (and headaches the next morning), as well as two regional final matchups:

Helles Region - Andechs Bergbock Hell vs Löwenbräu Original
Pils/Export Region - Hasseröder Premium Pils vs Augustiner Edelstoff Export

Ski Trips - St. Jakob in Defereggental (the Funpark!)

In a previous post, we showed briefly the skiing in St. Jakob in Defereggental (Austria).  A little further than most skiiers in Munich will drive, but wide open slopes and short lines make it a relaxing alternative to the crowded mountains closer to big cities.

Another especially interesting dimension of Defereggental is the "Funpark".  This is basically a long, broad slope that has ramps, jumps, and other possibilities for trick skiing.  Think of your local skateboard halfpipe area at the park - this is the skiing version.  You have to go to a specific lift for it -- the arrow on the map shows you where it's located on the slopes.

This is a pair of good sized snow jumps.  I would see a bunch of snowboarders and skiiers (see the double tracks?) try them, although conservatively.  I tried a jump like this at a different Funpark and fell back on my butt - you have to lean forward more than you'd think. I would see a lot of snowboarders resting uphill from the jumps with their buddies, perhaps getting up the nerve to kick off and tackle the jumps.

Expecially for the snowboarders, St. Jakob has installed skateboard-like handrails to jump up and slide down.  Here you can approach from the right or the left.  I actually saw a skiier do this one!  He was one of those Austrian teenagers that has probably been skiing since he was three years old.  I saw him all day, and he would ski down the easy slopes going backwards, so this guy had chops. 

This one was almost exclusively used by snowboarders.  Maybe because of the curve?  It would theoretically be possible to do this with skiis, right?  You can see a lot of snowboard tracks to the left of the ramp, where people changed their minds at the last minute and changed course to go right of the ramp. 

I didn't see anyone try this particular prop while I was taking the lifts.  But I think it's cool that they installed an entire stairway in the slopes, and am guessing that when the hard-core snowboarders are out there that this is used quite a bit.  I want to see three guys board down this at the same time, one on each section!  It's funny that you can see footprints on the left - did someone wipe out and head back up for another go?

 

Finally, there was this monster jump.  HUGE.  I thought about taking this veeeeery slowly, but chickened out.  Look at the right side of the ramp and you'll see ski marks about halfway up - that come diagonally down from right to left.  These people, like me, started approaching this towering pile of snow and changed their minds, swerving to the left and cutting across the side of the ramp rather than over it!  I did see some people do this, and a professional photographer taking photos.  I'll look for them on the next brochure.  Cool. dude.

March Madness

As the NCAA tournament has moved beyond its first rounds, so has the Schnitzelbahn German Beer Tournament.

After many tastings and experiments with food and beer, we find ourselves with 16 teams beers remaining (sorry, my mind is overcome with basketball...Go Heels!). We've had a lot of winners so far, and I guess Herr J and I have been the biggest winners of all, getting to try so many new beers and say hello again to our old favorites.

At this point, the bracket looks like this (click to enlarge):

In our four "regions"we have remaining beers from 10 breweries:
Hacker-Pschorr
2x Löwenbräu
2x Andechs
Tegernseer
Hasseröder
Krombacher
Augustiner
Hofbräu
2x Erdinger
and a record FOUR entries from Paulaner!!!

8 of the 10 are in or around Munich, though Tegernsee and Andechs are special places meriting their own mention!

This is where we bring our friends into the fun...Most of our first round matches pitted similar beer types against each other. In the later rounds, however, personal preference really becomes the deciding factor. So we thought we'd solicit the opinions of our trusted friends and get more votes...well, and any excuse to have a party....

We have some favorites, of course, but there's not a beer in the Sweet Sixteen that we wouldn't gladly order. And since the field is dominated by Bavarian beers, it would be pretty easy for us to order one fresh out of the tap!

Macro Photography with compact cameras

I rambled a bit about trying to get decent night photos from a compact camera in that previous post, but now it's time for some random thoughts about "marco" photography with compact cameras.  Macro photography can be simply defined as capturing small subjects.  Technically, a macro shot is when the light image that hits the sensor is close to the same size as the actual subject (thanks, Wikipedia).  Think of a mountain landscape:  on the sensor, the "picture" will be small.  If you capture an insect at a macro level, the "picture" on the sensor will approach the size of the insect in real life.  This differentiation is important to pros because it changes the mechanics of lens/light/etc.  I don't know such details, but try to take macro shots anyway.

There are two methods of going macro:  either use a zoom lens (that can focus in a macro setting), or put the front of the lens really close to the subject.  For campact cameras, even ones with quite a bit of zoom like my now-dead Canon SX200IS, only the second is really available.  Here is one of my favorites taken in garden here in Germany.  (Don't jump!)

In this case, the front of the lens was probably 3cm from the insect itself.  Many DSLRs have a minimum distance between lens and subject, often measured in feet.  Fortunately, most compact cameras today have the minimum distance specified in centimeters, and some are effectively 0cm!  In other words, the subject can basically be touching the front of the lens, but the camera will still be able to focus and capture the shot.  For whatever reason, this insect allowed me to get the lens to about 6cm from it.  The colors turned out great, and there was not a lot of movement so I didn't get much subject blur and got some neat detail.

 

The challenge of getting the lens so close to a subject is not only that the subject may be disturbed and move away, but the camera itself starts to cast a shadow -- because the lens is so close to the subject, it starts blocking light from reaching the subject!  In this example below, the day was clear and the sun was bright.  However, the sun was overhead, so getting too close for a top down pic just made it dark.  Therefore, I had to change my angle to ensure enough light hit the bee.  It creates a nice effect on the flower, but I could not get nearly as close as with the prior photo.

Even with the bright sun (and therefore lots of light and a fast shutter speed) insects are difficult.  They move lots, and quickly.  In the example below, the spider let me get just a few centimetes away, but was constantly moving.  That made it difficult for the compact camera to achieve focus (it kept "hunting"), and when it did, some of the spider's legs are blurry.  Still fun to take and look at, though.

 

The other challenge with focusing:  when the lens is that close to the subject, even with a smaller sensor you get a shallow depth of field.  Notice here that I wanted to get the ants in focus, but my camera kept grabbing a part of the plant.  I should have used "spot" focus mode, to tell the camera specifically where I wanted it to focus on.  Too bad, the ant "checking me out" would have been great in focus!

The upside of macro photography with a compact camera (and its small sensor) is that you get some "bokeh" -- the "blurred" section in the background.  Bokeh is not something you can usually get with these cameras.  In this case, the blue makes an interesting addition to the scene.

Like night photography, these are not professional examples, but fun for me.  I really recommend you experiment with your camera.  It can be fun to see what comes out, just don't get bitten.

German Pranks

Our Anglo culture does not always understand the German sense of humor.  The best (satyrical) summary I've ever seen is from "The Xenophobe's Guide to the Germans", which says:  "The Germans take humor very seriously.  It is no laughing matter."  It's a good way to describe it.

I can speak the language quite well now, but it is hard for me to keep up with a comedian (they speak very fast, with lots of slang).  But hanging out with guys from work, I have learned that the humor is often quite directed -- they laugh "at" as much as they do "with".  And, as usual in the German culture, there is not a lot of subtlety to their humor... but when they do put together a skit or a prank they approach it like building a BMW.  All out.  As you'll see below.

Here are a few pranks from an old television program, "Verstehst du Spass?"  ("Do you understand fun?").  In the first, they set up a fake waterbed in a department store... and you know how everyone likes to try out beds (especially at 1:26 and 2:19).  The targets take it pretty well.

In the second, they use identical twins and a fake bathroom mirror to make other visitors think they don't have a reflection.  I especially like the end, where the girl has to remind her reflection to come with her (at 6:03).

The third skit is the longest and most complicated, but it's really worth it.  A guy is driving someone else's BMW, and thinks it rolls down the hill and sinks in water.  But then another guy drives a car over the same water, trying to convince him that it's just a large puddle (at 4:13).  There's even more, with a disapperaing person in the same "puddle" (at 5:07) - it's worth the time to see the whole thing, even without the benefit of understanding the language.

Finally, I have to share this classic.  It's not a prank, but a television commercial for Germans to learn English.  A German Coast Guard rookie has to help a ship in distress... Cheers.

The Good Side of German Customer Service

As previously mentioned, customer service in Germany sometimes can surprise you...on the postive side, a service person's incredible knowledge in his or her area of expertise is shocking. And you will often come across people in stores who take great pride in their department.

Herr J's neighborhood grocery store is a great example of this. The man who runs the wine section spent 7 years in New Zealand, and therefore is always on the lookout for good NZ wines to include in the store's selection. The wine section of the store is "his" section, and he takes great pride in it. He holds wine tastings in the store every few months and likes to interact with customers to find out what they enjoy and how he can improve the selection.

One of the butchers there has a similar approach. In addition to the normal meat selection, they offer a variety of pre-marinated or pre-assembled meat dishes (think kebabs, roulade, etc.). We've found the marinades to be exceptionally good, and he explained to Herr J that he enjoys experimenting and making new creations to sell to customers.

His thinly sliced bacon-wrapped pork spirals on a stick were pretty amazing, so when we saw this unusual looking thing in the meat counter, we had to try it:

It looked like raw hamburger braided with strips of puff pastry, so I expected it would taste similar to the beer and beef pies I usually have on hand in the fridge...just in a different shape.

We still don't know what these are called, but we're going to experiment with making them. The taste was wonderful - the ground beef (a very lean beef, as is typical here) was mixed with onion, garlic, and spices, sandwiched between strips of puff pastry, then braided. You cook around 150°C for 15-25 minutes, and then we turned it up a little at the end.

The results were so great! We're looking forward to seeing what else the butcher creates.