Radler Tournament - Becks

After our first radler round, tasting four Warsteiner beer mixes, we decided to test out 4 of the Beck's offerings.  Beck's is notable in the flavored beer category, not only because it seems to have more varieties widely available than anyone else, but also because its Green Lemon is one of the most popular beer mixes. Many good Bavarians will turn up their noses at the idea of a fruity beer mixed drink, but Beck's Green Lemon seems to be one of the firt and one of the more accepted ones out there.

In addition to its normal Pils beer assortment (we tasted Beck's and Beck's Gold in the Schnitzelbahn Beer Tournament), Beck's offers several flavored beers. Beck's Green Lemon was introduced in 2005, followed the next year by Chilled Orange and Level 7 (Guarana and lemongrass alcoholic energy drink). Then in 2008 came Beck's Ice, a mint and lime beverage that Beck's describes as having "filtered out the coloring of beer leaving the typical Beck's taste." 

We'll taste it in another round, but this year they're producing a "limited edition" Black Currant.

All of these are categorized as beer mixed drinks (Biermixgetränken), with 2.5% alcohol content. They also make a Beck's Lime, which at 4.9% alcohol content is described as "Real Beck's with a shot of lime." 

So, for this round we started with the Green Lemon, Lime, Ice, and Chilled Orange. Our biggest question before the tasting was "what's the difference between Green Lemon and Lime?" We did all the research after the tasting, so we could go into it without any prejudice. Therefore, we were unprepared for how different Green Lemon and Lime were. The Green Lemon tastes like beer, though a light one with a lime flavor. It's light, crisp, and sparkly and really enjoyable. A good mix, that isn't too sweet but retains the taste of beer.

The Lime tasted exactly as described - a real full beer, with a shot of lime... a very small hint of lime. While it's definitely a German pils, it reminds me of a Corona with lime. The lime softens the pils hoppiness and I think this would be a great beer with Mexican food. While we were pleasantly surprised by both, we preferred the smooth, light Green Lemon.  The Lime was good, but had a slight sour finish. Had we paired it with food, it might have beat its lighter brother. But for summer beer drinking, we'd choose the Green Lemon.

Then we had Beck's Ice Lime & Mint vs Beck's Chilled Orange. After the creamsicle-y Warsteiner Orange, we weren't sure what to expect. And we had no idea what to expect with the Lime & Mint. Well, Beck's Ice basically is Smirnoff Ice with less alcohol. There's no beer taste whatsoever.  I'd wouldn't be suprised if this one does well. Caipirinhas are quite popular here, and this is kind of a caipirinha-flavored drink. It's very smooth and easy to drink.

The Chilled Orange was also good, and had much more of a natural mandarin orange flavor, rather than the orange creamsicle sweetness of Warsteiner. We didn't love either of them, but we found the Chilled Orange to be more drinkable. The Ice probably is more popular, but it would be hard to drink much of it.

Not surprisingly, the Green Lemon then beat the Chilled Orange in the final of this preliminary round. We found the Green Lemon to be more in the spirit of a radler and the Orange has a slight artificial taste. Not bad, but we just prefered the smooth, not too sweet Green Lemon. 

Radler Tournament - Warsteiner

We've felt a little lost without a beer tournament, so we decided to test out the radlers, including the radler-style flavored beers. 

For the first competition, we tried four of Warsteiner's radlers: Radler, Grapefruit Radler, Lemon, and Orange.  

Since the Lemon and the Radler seemed closest, we matched them up for the first competition.   

We expected they would be quite similar, but were surprised with the outcome. The Radler, not surprisingly, has the classic radler taste of light, sweet, crisp, and with hints of beer and lemon-soda. The Lemon Warsteiner, on the other hand, tasted more like lemon flavor (rather than like Sprite), though it was not bitter.  It was not sweet, though, and we barely tasted the beer. 

We unanimously chose the Radler, since it was crisper and still maintained a little beer taste.

Next up were the Grapefruit Radler and the Orange. We really had no idea what to expect.  I was somehow surprised, though, to find that the Grapefruit had actual grapefruit taste, rather than some artificial flavor that was called "grapefruit." I love grapefruit juice and will eat them plain, but the grapefruit in my beer was just a little odd.  But, big points for authentic taste...it tastes exactly as described!

The Orange, on the other hand, had an orange taste that was closer to a sweet creamsicle-y orange rather than a citrus fruit. It was light and refreshing, and clean and sweet with the orange taste coming as a very light taste at the end. 

We wouldn't say the Grapefruit Radler is bad, but the Orange is much better and refreshing.

So, then we have a final taste-off for the first spot in the Radler Final Four (yes, this really is an abbreviated tournament!):  Warsteiner Radler vs Warsteiner Orange.

It was a really close call - both the Radler and the Orange tasted very similar at the beginning of each sip.  They were crisp, light, and refreshing.  But at the end of the sip, the tastes diverged.  The Radler had the classic Sprite taste and the Orange had a light creamsicle taste.  I just found the Orange to be more enjoyable tasting, but Herr J voted for it because he could still taste a little bit of beer in there.  And even though it is a flavored summer beer, he still wanted it to be a beer.

Next up, we'll taste some of Beck's many offerings and some classic Munich radlers.  We'll also compare bottled radlers to home-made.

Not your ordinary German beer...

I always enjoy seeing what they have in new grocery stores. (Herr J can attest to how long I can spend in a store in a foreign country, amazed by the different products). In Germany, I like to check out the beer section in different regions, to see if there are some new beers to try.

They've started carrying Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, and Antarctica's Guarana soda in some of the stores in Munich.

However, my most recent discovery is really rather shocking.

No, your eyes are not decieving you...They really ARE selling The Beast and Busch here, in the Galleria store at Frankfurt Hauptwache!

Of all the American beers they could be selling here......

It's beginning already...

Oktoberfest preparations are underway. The official Oktoberfest 2011 poster has been released.

Most importantly, the beer prices now have been set! Munich residents hope year after year (in vain) for a year with no increase in the price of a maß. Alas, this year the average increase is around 4%, with all tents selling a Maß of Oktoberfestbier (or Radler) for €8.80 to €9.20. A Maß of Weißbier at the Weinzelt tent (primarily a wine and champagne tent) will run you an incredible €14.20!

How does this compare to the biergarten prices? Each one differs, but a Maß of helles typically runs from around €6.75 to €8.00 at a biergarten. (Keep in mind that a helles also has a lower alcohol content than the Oktoberfest Märzen, so part of the higher Oktoberfest price is reflected in higher alcohol content).

In a city serious about its beer, this is big news every year.

For me the bigger news would be that they're brewing the Olde Wiesn Jubliaumsbier again. I see it on the 2011 beer price list. Has anyone heard that they're planning to make it again? That stuff was soooo good - I'd be thrilled to have it again!

source: Abendzeitung newspaper

A few pictures to start the countdown to Oktoberfest 2011

The German Beer Wars Final

And so we reach the end of our 64-beer tour....

After some blowouts and some close calls, we find ourselves with 8 beers remaining:

The Helles Region:
Battling for the regional championship, we have Andechs Bergbock Hell (darker and stronger than a true helles) vs Löwenbräu Orginal.

It really wasn't a fair fight...Though the Löwenbräu had shocked everyone with its success, it couldn't stand up to the rich taste and extra alcohol of the Bergbock Hell and lost 2 votes to 7. The most common comment was that it tasted like water compared to the Andechs. Perhaps it would have done better against a similar beer or would have done better on a hot summer day rather than a cold winter night...but those are the rules in a single elimination bracket tourney. Auf wiedersehen, Löwenbräu!  

The Pils/Export Region:
In this round, we ended up with two diverse beers - Hassröder Premium Pils (previously unknown to us, but we found tastier than all of the well-known Pilsners) vs Augustiner Edelstoff Exportbier. This one was a close one, coming down to the last couple of votes. It was truly a back and forth game, but Andechs came out on top by one vote.

The Weißbier Region:
Interestingly, we ended up on both ends of the weißbier spectrum: the unfiltered Andechs Weissbier Hefetrüb vs Paulaner's filtered Weissbier Kristalklar.

 In the end, the traditional weißbier beat out it's unfiltered cousin, by a margin of 6 to 3. The Kristalklar had surprised us all, but it couldn't compete with the real thing.

The Dunkel Region:
Here we have two powerful beers - Erdinger Dunkel (a dunkelweißbier) vs Paulanar Salvator, the famous starkbier.
Another buzzer beater, Salvator won the matchup by one vote. This one really came down to preference. As we're now in the middle of Starkbier season, we'll soon have a special starkbier mini-tournament to see if there's a better one than Salvator. Luckily Salvator is available year-round!

So we find ourselves (not surprisingly) with an all-Bavarian Final Four:

Andechs Bergbock Hell vs Augustiner Edelstoff Exportbier
and
Andechs Weissbier vs Paulaner Salvator   

 

 (we had some tasty chocolate chip cookies from my chocolate chip stash!)

Andechs Bergbock Hell vs Augustiner Edelstoff Exportbier:
Yet again, the monks' tasty brew blows away the competition - 7 votes to two! A pretty large margin this far in the tournament. Again, nothing could stand up to the rich (but not heavy like a dunkel or starkbier) taste of the Bergbock Hell.

Andechs Weissbier vs Paulaner Salvator 
While this one wasn't quite a blowout, it wasn't so close either...There's a reason weißbier is so beloved in Bavaria - it just has a really pleasing taste, and a full-bodied feel. Salvator, of course, is very full-bodied (it originated as bread in a glass!), but it doesn't have the feel in your mouth that the more carbonated weißbier does. 6 to 3, Andechs.

The Final Match

We've loved Andechs beers in general since discovering the monastery, but we never could have predicted an all Andechs final. Remember, folks, this was all blind tasting (as best as we could), and involved many different groups of people throughout the tournament. And here we are:

As we had predicted, this final contest would come down to a matter of preference for beer type. While we do have a winner, it was another competition that came down to the last vote...5 to 4, for the Weissbier Hefetrüb.

Though the Weissbier wins the overall tournament, it could have been different with a different crowd. So, we'll just crown Andechs the winner of the First Schnitzelbahn Beer Tournament. (with my crown from Oktoberfest).
 

We do realize it was highly weighted toward Munich area beers, but it makes sense that we start with learning about the beers in our area. We have some plans for further tournaments, either having mini-tourneys, or branching out into non-German beers. We're always open to suggestions, volunteers, and if anyone wants to hold a US beer tournament, we'd love to hear about it!  

Here's the full final bracket (click on it to enlarge):

Champagne Beer

We haven't had a chance to try Sam Adams' and Weihenstephaner's Infinium, but we did try a true champagne beer - Sylter Hopfen. While Miller High Life claims to be "The Champagne of Beer" (a title we feel more accurately describes weißbier), this beer truly is a champagne beer. In fact, it is labeled as a "Bierspezialität," as it cannot be called "beer" under German rules.   

So, what's special about this beer? 

• Natural ingredients for an organic beer
• Sylt Hops: The hops used in the beer are grown on the German island of Sylt. After much experimentation, they found that English hops best suited the unique island climate.
• Packaging: Packaged in champagne bottles, with individually numbered labels, embossed with real gold.
• Yeast: Brewed with two types of yeast, including French champagne yeast
• Fermentation Process: Fermented twice; the first, bottom fermented in vats. The second ocurrs in the bottles, at different temperatures, with each bottle rotated up to 20 times by hand during the second fermentation
• Dégorgement: Utilizing the champagne method, the cork is removed for a second (after fermentation) to allow the yeast to pop out of the bottle. The champagne yeast need to be removed prior to consumption, and this method allows them to do it naturally and avoid filtering the beer.

The company is located in Flensburg, which lies near the German-Danish border on the peninsula near Sylt. That this is a high end beer fits in well with Sylt's reputation as a destination.

But how does it taste?

I enjoyed it, but wouldn't drink it every day (plus it's priced closer to champagne than beer!). Herr J didn't love it, but thought it wasn't bad. Weißbiers are not his favorite, and the flavors that registered on the sides of his tongue were similar to those of a weißbier.

The first thing you'll notice is the major head on this beer. It pours similar to a champagne in that it takes much pouring and waiting in order to get a full glass. As you can see here, the flutes are all foam, with a sip of beer at the bottom. The extreme carbonation comes from the champagne yeast and the second fermentation.

In the mouth, however, it is not nearly as bubbly as champagne. Definitely more bubbly than normal beer, but not too crazy. Unlike German beer, Sylter Hopfen should be served very cold.

Since my only champagne flutes are red, we poured it into a normal clear glass in order to see the color (and also because it was too labor-intensive to get an actual glassfull!).
It's a darker beer, slightly cloudy due to the lack of filtration. Even with very careful pouring into a tilted glass, there's still a large amount of foam.
The taste is much sweeter than beer or champagne and very complex. So complex that it's difficult to identify the different tastes...there's a little of the champagne tartness, but the sweetness of a malty drink, and some very light hints of the clove taste of a weißbier.

Overall, it was an enjoyable drink, but not really a beer. It's something you should drink as an aperitif or wine. Perhaps it's a good wine substitute for beer drinkers who don't like wine?

We paired it with a cheese I saw when buying the raclette cheese. It's an Italian hard cheese (pasteurized cows milk cheese), called Bacchus. It looked very much like a wonderful parmesan-like cheese that was served in Tuscany with a wine jelly as an appetizer.  I crumbled it up and had some white wine and pear jelly. It was just the same as I remembered and a happy discovery!

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