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!

Photoblog - Sylt

Sylt is the northernmost island in Germany, lying effectively at the same latitude as the mainland's border with Denmark (and about 10km off the west coast).  It is Germany's largest island in the North Sea at 38km north-to-south -- but generally only a few kilometers wide.  Here's Sylt on Google Maps.  Hamburg is a few hours south, London sits across the North Sea to the southwest, and the Baltic Sea lies across Denmark to the east (Germany call this the East Sea).

Again with Google maps you can see the distinctive shape of Sylt.  Westerland the is largest town (9,000 of the 21,000 total inhabitants), with Kampen being the very upper-class village a little to the north -- although nowhere can Sylt be called frugal in any sense.  In fact, they have prohibited any new construction to preserve nature... if you want to build, you have to tear down an existing structure and build on the same site.  I think that's a good move.  It would probably get overdeveloped otherwise, and it's a beautiful place.  More info on Sylt from Wikipedia here.

Indeed, the shape of the island is so distinctive that it helps define a culture around it.  You'll see a lot of cars with this bumper sticker (below) on it, indicating a fan of Sylt and probably a frequent visitor (or, if lucky, owner of a flat there).  Most cars with this sticker will be BMWs, Mercedes, or Audis... and the higher-end models at that.  You're announcing that you're a bit of a snob with this on your car, but at least a snob with good taste.

And the "culture" around Sylt?  There was a famous pop song from the Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) in the 1980's that immortalizes Westerland, the main town.  The NDW includes artiscs like Nena (Luftballons) and Falco (Rock Me Amadeus), by the way.  Here is the song and video.  It's actually a really catch tune.

You can fly to Sylt (small airport there) but it's better and more fun to "drive".  I drove north from Hamburg a couple of hours to the boarding point for the auto-carriers on the Deutsche Bahn.  You actually drive up onto the auto-carrier on the train, and it takes the route across the water to the island!

Fortunately, my car was on the top level of the carrier, so I was able to get this photo as the train just reached the first part of Sylt.  This is typical for the southern portion -- fields of wheat or cows, totally flat of course.

 

What Sylt is most famous for is the dunes and beaches, that reminded me a lot of the Outer Banks in North Carolina.  It's waaaay up north, and never truly gets hot.  Also, there is a constant strong breeze, so there are rather more sturdy grasses than many trees.

       What you see on the beach is also a trademark of Sylt:  the strandkorb.  Literally, the sand basket.  These things are quite heavy and stay put, but just light enough so that you can rotate them to face the sun and block the constant wind from your back.  It really works to keep you warm.  However, there are numbers on them... because each section of beach has a firm that is allowed to rent a certain number of strandkorbs.  You have to reserve one for each day that you want to use it -- but you better do this ahead of time.   They go fast.     

 

Here you can clearly see the numbers on each strandkorb.  The blue and white stripes on the inside are traditional, and there are two baskets underneath the seat to store bags, books, clothes, etc.  This is about the maximum density of strandkorbs that are allowed, and you see that they are ALL taken.  What I did not post, but is common, is that many people love to hang around and swim in the nude.  That's Germany - claim your square meters on the beach and get naked!

As you might expect, there are some nice walking/hiking trails on Sylt.  Germans are really outdoorsy and like to get fresh air and exercise.  You can walk paths around much of the island, which gets especially nice as you get farther from the crowded beaches.  Some parts are farmland, others a bit wooded, and some parts marshy.  This was one of my favorites.

  When you're done with the beach and trails, the best thing to do is get some seafood at Gosch.  Mr. Gosch started out selling seafood from a cart, got more and more carts, expanded into a restaurant, and now sells seafood across all Germany.  The two cool locations on Sylt (his home base, and is often at the restaurants) are in the towns Wenningstedt and List. (He even has stands in the Munich airport and main train station - both are always crowded and known for quality). 

Gosch restaurant in ListGosch restaurant in Wenningstedt