Veltins Pilsner and the Export Beers

As we didn't have enough German Pilsners available in my Munich supermarket, we included three Exportbier in this bracket. (You can find some other pilsners if you go to a beer store, and you can find a few Czech pilsners in my market, but we didn't have 16 German Pilsners in my store).

First, what is an Exportbier?

It's exactly as it sounds, but what was considered an Export was anything that was exported to another city. The realities of transportation prior to engines and refrigerating meant that the beer had to be brewed slightly differently to survive the journey. An exportbier is still a lager (bottom-fermented, etc), but it is brewed with a higher original wort (12-14% gravity) than a Pils or Helles (typically 11-12% gravity). This also results in a beer with a slightly higher alcohol content (5% vs the usual 3.5-4%)). Often the beer was diluted with water once it reached its destination. Thanks to the higher alcohol content, the beer had both a longer shelf life and lower transportation costs.

For many years (until the 1970s), Exportbier was one of the most popular varieties in Germany, when it was overtaken by the Pils. It's important to note that there are two different types of German Exportbier, as well as a more rare Vienna-style Export:

1) Dortmunder Exportbier is the most well-known - It's a pale lager brewed in the Dortmund area since the mid-1800's. Dortmunder Exportbier became the favorite of the region's industrial workers, as the regions coal and steelworkers needed a good brew to drink. Though it still has a hoppy taste, it has a strong malty and slightly sweeter taste, too.

2) Munich Exportbier - This is what we're trying today. The Munich style typically is darker than a Dortmunder, due to darker malt and higher temperatures in the kiln. This also gives it a slightly caramel flavor. Not surprisingly, the Munich Exportbier is less strongly hopped than the Dortmunder.

So, onto the beers....

In this bracket, we also have our last Pilsner, Veltins Pilsener. Recall that Veltins, the 7th largest brewer, is the beer of FC Schalke and runs a 5km beer pipeline from the brewery to the taps at the arena. Veltin's primary brews a pilsner style beer, though they do also sell light, alcohol free, radler (beer/lemon soda mix), alcoholfree malt, and the V+ range of flavored beers as is very trendy today. Veltins brewery began in 1824, brewing the usual beer types. In 1926, it decided to focus only on the pilsner style of beer.

Here, Veltins goes up against Hacker-Pschorr's Münchener Gold Export Bier.  The Münchener Gold was first brewed in the late 1800s, and then was brought back in 2005.

While the Veltins is an excellent Pils, we preferred the maltiness of the export beer. Just a matter of personal preference...

In the next round, we get a fairer competition, as it's between two Munich Export Beers: Augustiner Edelstoff Exportbier and Tegernsee's Max I. Joseph Jubiliäms Export. ("Edel" means "noble", meaning that this beer uses the "noble ingredients." You often will hear of "noble hops" in Bavaria).

This beer from the Tegernseer brewery was brewed in 2006 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria by Max(imilian) I. Joseph. King Max, as he was known, also purchased the Tegernsee monastery and brewery from its baron owner in 1817, a decade or so after the secularization of Bavaria. Under his ownership, Tegernsee became a cultural and economic center. Hence the beer to honor King Max and Bavaria.

The Augustiner was a relatively light colored exportbeer. This was almost a tie - Augustiner had slightly more body (due to a fizzier feeling in the mouth). The Tegernsee was a bit sweeter, and we didn't love the feeling of its carbonation.

Then we have Augustiner vs Hacker-Pschorr to decide who goes on to the Sweet Sixteen. Again, the Augustiner had what we call "more body." It just felt like a more solid beer and had a very pleasant level of carbonation. Also, it had the great hint of malty taste, but was not too sweet - it was just a great balance between maltiness and hoppiness. The Hacker-Pschorr, on the other hand, tasted flat and sweet compared to the Augustiner.

German Beer Tournament - One Last Helles Round

For the last of the Helles first rounds, we have Hofbräu Original vs Löwenbräu Original and Chiemseer Hell vs Augustiner Lagerbier Hell.

We love Augustiner, especially at the beer gartens and restaurants. Augustiner restaurants are not as numerous as Paulaner and some of the other breweries, but you can always count on them having top quality food. So, we had high expectations of Augustiner in this tournament.

Augustiner has been brewed in Munich since 1328, first brewed by the Augustinian monks, and now privately. Augustiner is notorious for putting quality above all else. Legend has it that when Munich's unusually hot summer led to the breweries running out of beer, Augustiner refused to brew extra beer through a shortened process (as did most other breweries) because they would not trade quality and process in order to sell more beer. Unfortunately, this also means Augustiner is somewhat difficult to find in the US. It is availalble in some places, but in limited quantities. In Texas, due to a dispute over labelling with the TABC, Augustiner decided that selling beer in TX was not worth changing anything.

Chiemseer was a beer we didn't know before. It looks and sounds a bit like Tegernseer, which is one of the top beers in the area. Unfortunately their website is down, so there isn't much info available.

While it would have been a tough climb for any beer opposing Augustiner, this was no contest. It's possible we got a bad bottle, but this beer just was not good. It tasted bitter - not a hoppy bitterness, but a bitterness with a slight chemical taste. So far, it's the one beer we've tasted that we can say we did not enjoy. I guess to be fair, we should try another one sometime, but we have so many other beers to taste that this will have to wait.

Then we have two of the most internationally known Munich beers - Hofbräu and Löwenbräu. Hofbräu, of course, is known more for the Hofbräuhaus and its Oktoberfest tent. Löwenbräu has brand recoginition as it shares the same name as a bad American beer.

According to its history, Hofbräu was founded in 1589 by Duke Wilhelm V because he was tired of the cost of importing beer and he did not like any of the Munich beers brewed at the time. Hard to imagine, as Augustiner and Weihenstephaner were around....but that's the official story.  

Though the Löwenbräu name is not found on documents before the 1740's, there are references to a brewery going back to the late 14th century. It was one of the early pioneers among German beers in pushing for strong presence in the English-speaking markets abroad. I wasn't a beer drinker in the 70s and 80s, but supposedly it was very popular in the US. However, the reputation of American Löwenbräu I have always known was not as good beer...From the 70s until 2002, Miller brewed Löwenbräu under a licensing agreement and they included corn in the recipe, and I suspect different hops. However, today the Löwenbräu you'll find in the US is exported from Germany. After much consolidation in the beer industry, Löwenbräu is now the Spaten-Franziskaner-Löwenbräu Group, and part of InBev.

We weren't really sure which of these two we would prefer. I have to admit we both were a little prejudiced against both beers. Of course, they're pretty good beers in an absolute world, but in the world of Munich that includes Augustiner, Tegernseer, and wonderful weißbiers, they would not be our first choice. I actually put them in a first round match together in order to give them both an equal chance to advance.

These are two relatively similar beers, and surprisingly good. We found the Löwenbräu to have a crisper taste and the Hofbräu a little more hoppy, thus sent the Löwenbräu to the next round against Augustiner.

This is where the real shocker of the tournament comes...and proof that this is a blind tasting!  Based on our beer garden experiences, there are few things better than sitting under the Augustinerkeller's chesnut trees in summer, drinking a cool helles. While the food and atmosphere at the Löwenbräukeller's little beer garden are among our favorites (their schnitzel is full of buttery goodness!), the beer is not great.
When we tasted the two together, it was very difficult to pick a winner. But the Löwenbräu was just a tiny bit tastier and it took out one of the tournament favorites!

It makes me wonder....does Augustiner put their best beer in kegs for the beer gardens and Löwenbräu puts their best beer in bottles for sale???? Either way, Augustiner is still a great beer - one of my favorites here - and you really can't go wrong going to an Augustiner restaurant or beer garden.

So it will be Löwenbrau vs Tegernseer in the contest to move on to the Elite Eight. I'm looking forward to that tasting!

The Power Pils Round

Now that we've eased into the Pils with some Beck's and Bavarian Pils, we dive into Germany's big players in the Pils market.

We call this the Power Pils round, as it contains German's top 2 producers and

From the March Madness comparison, Warsteiner and Krombacher are UConn and Syracuse

Warsteiner is enjoyed in over 60 countries and is Germany's largest beer exporter. Far more, however, is drunk in Germany - it's considered one of the top Pilsners. It's not as old as some of the Bavarian breweries, but it's been around long enough (250 years) to be considered a real German player. Interestingly, Warsteiner is an investor in König Lüdwig. Beer is almost a strategic industry in Germany, and the decline in beer consumption has been major news for a few years. According to its annual report, Warsteiner was able to slightly increase its domestic sales last year despite a 2.4% overall decline in the German beer market. Not bad! Among their new marketing efforts is using the Klitschko brothers (both are World Heavyweight Champions and Wladimir is Hayden Pannettiere's boyfriend) to promote their alcohol-free beer to athletes and health-conscious beer lovers. For many tourists, this was their first German beer - I'll let Herr J tell his story later, but I remember this was the beer served in our hostel in Marbella on my first trip abroad!

With all the different measurements (by brand, by brewery, by brewery holding company, etc), it's not easy to say which are the largest breweries in Germany. Warsteiner, Krombacher, and Radeberger are easily in the top 10. The Radeberger Group is often named the largest German brewery group due to its ownership of so many German breweries. It's likely a very close race between Radeberger's and InBev's production in Germany.

Radeberger was founded in 1872 in Radeberg (near Dresden) and claims to be "the first brewery in Germany to brew beer in the traditional Pilsner manner." It also was designated by the Royal Court of Saxony as their beer provider. So perhaps Radeberge was the original German pilsner...it's definitely one of the most popular. You can see exactly how popular their pilsner is from the fact that the Binding Group renamed its entire holding company The Radeberger Group after it purchased Radeberger.

However, the Jever brand is also part The Radeberger Group. Similar to Beck's they use green glass (not as protective as the brown used by most) and 0.33mL bottles. The Jever brewery was founded in the mid-1800s and remained a relatively small brewery. It was hard hit by both wars - in the first war losing its leader on the front and by shortages of hops and barley; after the second, fuel shortages limited them to selling only for self-pickup and the head going from farm to farm trying to buy or barter for barley. But the brewery was able to stay in operation and grow into a modern brewery well-known for its pilsner and exportbiers. The formal name "Friesisches Brauhaus zu Jever" alludes to its location in the city of Jever and its pride in the region Friesland. Friesland is on the North Sea coast, including parts of both Germany and the Netherlands that were settled since the first century. It's also known for its natural beauty, fresh air, and beaches - something you'll see reflected when you open the Jever site to find beaches and seagull sounds! Interestingly, Jever has aligned itself with Harley-Davidson, sponsoring HarleyDay in Hamburg and offering custom Jever Harleys and dune buggies. I'm pretty amused that their alcohol-free version is called "Jever Fun."

And then we have Krombacher, which was founded in 1803 in Krombach (between Frankfurt and Würzburg). They initially brewed only traditional lagers, but began making a pils in 1890 that quickly became popular in the Sauerland and southern Ruhr areas. Part of their high quality is supposed to come from their water source, as many breweries claim. Krombacher has always been on the forefront of marketing - making a major push to win over former East Germans after Reunification, and sponsoring several Bundesliga and handball teams. In 2002, they had an interesting campaing with the WWF, whereby Krombacher would save 1 square meter of rainforest in the Central African Republic for every case sold. Sales jumped 8% that year and other German companies followed suit using charitable campaigns as marketing tools.  After a lawsuit (and successful appeal stating that Krombacher was not misleading consumers), they've changed and relaunched the campaign again. I guess you'd have to be a pretty big beer drinker to make a noticeable impact, but it is an appealing concept to drink beer for the environment! Their Facebook page claims that they have invested over €3 million in conservation efforts.  

 

For this tasting, we had my parents as special guests. During their visit, we took advantage of having an extra pair of votes, as well as giving my dad a chance to taste some new beers. He prefers a Pils, so this was a fun one for him.

We wanted something that wouldn't overpower the beers, so made my favorite paella with chicken, asparagus, and manchego cheese. Really, it's closer to a Spanish risotto, but it's really tasty and easy to make. And Herr J made his famous feta-stuffed red peppers. A good match for the pils!

First up was the Warsteiner-Krombacher matchup. Looking at the beers, the Warsteinger was lighter in color and more carbonated than the Krombacher. It was almost "spritzy," if that's a word. Despite it having a slightly flatter feel, the Krombacher had more taste than the Warsteiner and we chose it as the winner.  We had expected the Warsteiner to prevail, but that's exactly why we've been doing blind tastings.

Next up were Jever and Radeberger. Both were good, standard Pilsners. The Jever, however, had a slight odd aftertaste. Not bad exactly, but enough that the Radeberger clearly won. We will try the Jever again, in case we just had a couple bad bottles.  

We end the night with Krombacher vs Radeberger. Again, we find ourselves changing our minds....thought we normally choose the less hoppy beer, we chose Krombacher over Radeberger because Radeberger tastes a little flat and tasteless when compared to the Krombacher. Though the Krombacher was slightly more hoppy, it was still a smooth and non-bitter, very drinkable beer.

Moving on to the Pilsners

So far we've tasted a ton of Helles, Weißbier, Oktoberfest Märzen, Dunkles, and Starkbier. And these do represent what is most often drunk in Southern Bavaria. But it isn't necessarily representative of all of Germany's tastes or of German beers known worldwide. For many Germans, a Pils is the standard beer. If you walk into a bar in Hamburg and ask for a Helles, they'd probably laugh at you.

A Pils is what many people know as beer and it's the closest relative to most mainstream American beers. Calm down, no need to panic, we're not claiming a Miller Light is anything like a Warsteiner...but these are the beers that have the hoppy "beer taste" that most Americans know and love as beer. They come from the Bohemian (mostly Czech) style of beer, which is the same one that influenced Budweiser, Miller, and the other popular beers in the US.

A Pils has a similar alcohol content and wort to Helles and both are pale lagers. The most noticeable difference is in taste - put simply, a pils will have a much stronger taste to its hops than a helles. It sometimes is slightly clearer, too. But the main difference will be the degree of hoppiness.

So, we decided to ease into the Pils round with a pair of Pils from Munich brewers and a pair that will be well-known to beer drinkers around the globe.

Match 1: Paulaner Premium Pils vs Löwenbräu Premium Pils

First off, these are not always easy beers to find in Munich. The just aren't in major demand, but the breweries acknowledge that some customers want more hops in their beer. They seem to be somewhat the red-headed stepchildren of the family, though...Paulaner lists its beers by categories: Weißbier, Helles beers, Seasonal beers, and "other". the "Other" includes only two - the Premium Pils, and the cola-orange drink mix Spezi. But both take brewing very seriously and brew a beer in the Bohemian style, according to Bavarian tradition.

The two beers appeared similarly in the glass, though had quite different tastes. The Löwenbräu was much hoppier, and tasted slightly bitter to us.

Obviously this one is a matter of taste...we've found through this that we prefer balanced beers, or ones leaning into the malty side of taste. So, a Pils would usually not be our first beer choice. However, if you are someone who wants a manly, hoppy beer, then you would vote differently. (And we can recommend some crazily hoppy beers if you need!)

The Paulaner surprised us - it was great. Very light and though it was definitely a Pils, it had a slightly sweet finish. This one clearly is a Pils for the Bavarian market! It's a beer that will go well with spicy foods - it's strong than a helles and will stand up to the spiciness, but it doesn't have such a strong or sweet taste (as would a dunkel or weißbier) that would compete against the taste of your food.

Match 2: Beck's vs Beck's Gold 

Beck's is one of Germany's top breweries, established in Bremen in the 1870's, and now is part of InBev. Beck's Pilsner is widely available, though Beck's Gold is not sold in the US.

We're not exactly sure how the two are positioned, or if Beck's Gold is supposed to be a better or more upscale beer. Neither had a very strong taste - not surprising, since they are similar and appeal to such a large number people. But we found the Beck's Gold to be less bitter and a better balance of hops and very slight sweetness. Both were very drinkable, but we preferred the Gold.

Paulaner Pils vs Beck's Gold:

On to the matchup between Paulaner and Beck's Gold... These were very similar in taste and level of hoppiness. It makes me think that maybe Beck's Gold is meant to be a slightly smoother or lighter version of their regular Pils. We ended up voting for the Paulaner. It was a really enjoyable Pils - hoppy, without being bitter, and it had a more complex mix of flavors.   

I'm not a big Pils drinker, but have surprised Herr J a few times when I chose this beer to drink with dinner. Thanks to this beer tournament and the winter weather, my balcony basically is a large beer fridge...  

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!