Champagne Beer Part 2: Infinium

We previously tried the Sylter Hopfen champagne-style beer and have talked about German brewery Weihenstephaner's collaboration with Samuel Adams to create the Inifinium champagne-style beer. 

Finally, we tried it over Christmas. There are two versions available - one produced in Germany and one produced in the US (Boston, of course). 

We tried the US-made one, which we found at the wonderful Charleston Beer Exchange. This is a little beer store in the historic distric of Charleston, which has a wide selection of craft and international beers (they have Augustiner Edelstof Exportbier!!) and holds monthly beer tasting dinners. 

The first thing we noticed was the color, a rich amber hue. Like champagne, it maintained its small bubbles. It poured with quite a significant head, though it's settled down significantly in the picture.

As expected, it definitely had a yeasty flavor. While the smell was a bit more complex, the malt and yeast were what we tasted most. And the "beer" part of the taste was much more of an ale than a lager.  Overall, it's not bad and we're glad we tried it. But it probably isn't a beer we'd buy again. It's more of an interesting idea and something fun to try than a good beer of which you'd want to drink a whole bottle.  (And btw, it's best served cold)

I'm not sure exactly what you're supposed to pair with champagne-style beer, but as we were at my parents' house we tried it with some great Corky's ribs and Dad's famous homemade onion rings. Yum!

 

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!

Beer Types, Part I

In the Schnitzelbahn Bier Tournament, the structure and “competitors” were not really planned in advance.  The competitors emerged as we discovered simply what was available in two local supermarkets.  The structure evolved as we assessed the beers we had collected and started learning about formal “types” of beer – then we grouped the beers we had on hand in a way that made sense.  This is the result:

We knew that it would be Munich-biased, and so it is:  Helles (“light”), Weiss (“wheat”), and Dunkel (“dark”) are more traditionally Bavarian beers.  Although Pilsner has Czech and northern German roots, it is the most consumed in Germany (and the world) so also has a strong presence in Bavaria too (and forms the basis for most export beer).  More regional German beer types like Alt (“old”) and Kölsch (from Köln / Cologne) did not make the cut, and will be addressed in another tournament.

We also recognized that at the core, a “winner” between two beers is really a matter of personal taste.  Therefore, we decided to determine our favorite beer of each type first, before pitting different beer types against each other.  You really can’t claim a Dunkel is “better” or “worse” than a Helles, because they are fundamentally different.  When it comes to the “final four”, our champion will be just our favorite beer, regardless of type.  We’re not even tasting the beers in the “correct” type of glass (see pic below, with credits to Augustiner Helles maß, Hofbräu Weissbier glass, some random Dunkles glass, and Pilsner glass types from Warsteiner, Krombacher, and Bitburger).

But this process begs the question:  What are the formal types of beer?  What are we really comparing in the tournament?  Should we really be using different kinds of glasses???

You can spend hours reading Internet sources on the topic of beer types (also addressed as categories, sub-categories, styles, sub-styles, etc.)  Online sources range from individual web pages to the Beer Judging Certification Program, with its 1.4MB / 51 page manual! And that is before reading books by the grandfather of beer typology, Michael Jackson.

                                       

But we learned something from just the first readings on this topic.  Beer traditionally has only four components:  water, a sugar source (usually a grain), yeast, and hops (by the old laws, German beers had only 3, but the yeast was naturally ocurring, thus not considered an ingredient). 

Almost every brewer begins with the same high-level distinction:  Beer can be an Ale or a Lager.  This distinction addresses the differences in the yeast used and how it affects the brewing process.

Note:  Lambic is a third type commonly found, but how to address this type and other/mixed types is inconsistent. 

The name "Lager" actually comes from the German verb "lager" (to store), denoting that this type of beer was stored longer than Ale, and produced a clearer beer.

Below this first level of distinction between Ale and Lager, beer categorization methodologies start to fragment almost immediately.  A Google search bring up a “family tree of beer styles”, a “periodic table of beer styles”, and other amateur and commercial mappings.

                

Some sources try to get pretty scientific about measuring beer types, using color, sweetness, bitterness, and even specific gravity scales!  I also found a "flavor wheel" similar to what some wine tastings use -- basically to help the drinker put descriptors to the experience, put prose to chemistry.

                                              

              

Beer Evaluation sources:  Color, Bitterness vs Specific Gravity, Bitterness vs Sweetness, and "Flavor Wheel"

But the main point of interest for us is that about three-fourths of the beers in our tournament are Lagers (Helles, Pilsner, and Dunkel) and only a handful are ales (Weissbier or Weizen).  I think Frau A will want more ales in the next tournament, because she really likes Weissbier!

We’re doing further reading on beer categories, and overall, I find the current ways of describing beer unsatisfying for the average beer drinker.  They’re either too microscopic (who really can tell the difference between an regular ale and a “premium” ale?) or just don’t make sense (why are some beers categorized by ingredient like wheat, and others are grouped by geography like Scottish Ale and “Vienna-style”???)  This needs to change!  Look for this topic in another post soon.