Your intrepid beer...uh...guy is off for the next two days until the madness that is the day of New Year's Eve. I'll be visiting my in-laws in central New York, just outside of Saratoga, in a very small town called Gloversville. Richard Russo based EMPIRE FALLS on the town, fyi. Aside from qt with the fam, I'm looking forward to two things 1) hot dogs, meat sauce, and hand-cut fries at Tegeo's and 2) Abraham's aka Naif's, a hidden gem of a craft beer store in a very rural setting. So I'll be stocking up on hot dogs and my private stash of beer;)
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| Drunk monks on the prowl... |
To preface - I mostly find myself talking about American craft beer or esoteric Belgian/European beer in the store. It's easy to see why - these breweries are making some of the most exciting beer in the world. But what you may not know is that I love German beer. Love it. The German brewers we carry make some of the most consistent and delicious beer in the world. Like Weihenstephan. They've been making beer since 1040 AD when the brewery was established by Benedictine monks as an abbey and brewery and subsequently taken over as the Bavarian State Brewery in 1803, thus reputedly making them the oldest continuously operating brewery in the world. (That's almost a millennium, people.) So they know what they're doing. Today, Weihenstephan exists as both brewery and where graduates are considered amongst the elite in the brewing world. And, thankfully for the masses, they produce +200k barrels of some of the finest German beer available in the US and specifically Vermont. (PS - thanks to Garrett Oliver's OXFORD COMPANION TO BEER for much of the info here. Please purchase this fine work if you have any interest in learning more about beer.)
Which brings me to my point - Weihenstephaner (the beer that Weihenstephan produces) is FANTASTIC! My wife, aka Lady Lager Lover, and I refreshed our palates with a sampling of all this fine brewery has to offer, and here are the results:
Original, the first of two non-wheat beers. A Munich Helles lager. (In short - Munich Helles lagers were a response to the Pilsner rage of the 1800's. They are slightly more malty, with an almost corn-like sweetness, and spicy hops similar to Czech pilsners but with more balance.) This was my wife's fave, very clean and drinkable. And, if you like this, try Victory's Lager or Stoudt's Gold Lager for an American craft version.
Kristall aka kristallweiss aka Crystal Clear - this is the first of their hefeweizens we tried. (Btw, hefeweizen, weissbier, hefeweiss - all pretty much the same thing.) Kristallweiss is a filtered version of a hefeweiss, so a lighter version, very strongly carbonated, refreshing and bright on the palate with mild bitterness. (Side note - German hefeweizen has fairly universal tastes of banana, clove, and hints of bubblegum.)
Hefe-weissbier - the gold standard and one of my all-time favorites. Buy a proper glass - a .5L or 1L that flares at the top to allow the gorgeous head of foam to develop when pouring - and go nuts. Very few beers come close to Weihenstephaner Hefeweiss in terms of drinkability except SchneiderWeiss.
Hefeweiss Dark aka Hefe-dunkle aka Dunkleweiss, i.e. dark wheat beer - as you can probably guess, this is the darker version of the hefeweiss via the use of darker malts. For the winter season, you can't beat this dunkleweiss. The flavors and body of the hefeweiss deepen with a bit more bread flavor. If you like Franziskaner, you will LOVE this.Vitus - now we get into the first of Weihenstephaner's two stronger offerings. Vitus has a very devoted following in our store as a number of customers have standing orders for cases. I hadn't drank a Vitus in some time; doing so last night, it was easy to see why. Vitus is a weizenbock, a bock being a term for a full-bodied stronger beer with a higher gravity, weizenbock being a stronger version of a dunkleweiss! Vitus is 7.7% abv and, like the dunkleweiss is the deeper version of a hefeweiss, Vitus is the stronger, more pronounced version of dunkleweiss, though nothing here is overwhelming. Schneider's Aventinus is another excellent version of a weizenbock. In short, this beer is dangerously drinkable!
Lastly, Korbinian, the second non-wheat beer. A dopplebock! If you're not confused already, keep following - again, bocks are strong beers. So a dopplebock is...STRONGER! These are generally darker and more full-bodied than bocks with more alcohol. One of the more famous is Ayinger Celebrator which is fairly universally considered the standard-bearer for dopplebocks. Korbinian is right up there as well, full of caramel, raisin, and malty flavor and that hint of alcohol on the finish. This is a great alternative to Spaten Optimator which has been unavailable from their distributor for some time now.
So there you have it, a blow-by-blow of one of the great breweries in the world. All of the above beers are available in 500ml bottles. Original and Hefeweiss are available in 6-packs as well!
That's it for me! Enjoy these last few days of 2011 and I'm sure I'll see many of you on Saturday for your holiday shopping! Some additional notes -
Sierra Celebration - what we have is it, and that's mostly 12-packs! Get it before it's gone!
Heady Topper - we are getting our shipment on Friday and expect it to sell out the same day. Stay tuned to Facebook/Twitter for updates on our next week.North Coast Old Rasputin Barrel Aged is arriving NEXT WEEK!
Founders Imperial Stout - NEXT WEEK!
BBC Good Night Irene - NEXT WEEK!
Clown Shoes Vampire Slayer - NEXT WEEK!
Have a happy New Year's eve!!!!
Evan G.
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