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10-06-2011, 08:44
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I'm just back from a week in Bavaria. A week of Bierkellers and beer halls, country pubs and city boozers. An experience that's reinforced my feelings for German beer. Renewed my appreciation of what German beer delivers so well: simple perfection.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o2qo6oTYCdk/TfD29VEZ7NI/AAAAAAAAH-o/5eSdbwpQMB0/s320/Augustinerkeller_Edelstoff.jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o2qo6oTYCdk/TfD29VEZ7NI/AAAAAAAAH-o/5eSdbwpQMB0/s1600/Augustinerkeller_Edelstoff.jpg)
I pondered the title of this piece on the tram to work. A post in praise of Lager. I've written them before. My love of Lager is not new. It gripped me with that first sip of Pilsner Urquell in Prague, way back in 1983. That's before some of you were born. Suddenly I got it. Understood what made Lager such a wonderful drink. The beauty of a beer that doesn't shout "Look at me!" like some hyperactive teenager. A beer happy to take a back seat while you get on with the serious business of having fun.
Real Lager. That was one putative title for this piece. Because there's one form of Lager with a very special place in my glass. Lager in its truest, simplest form. Soft and inviting. Pure and clean. Beer with nothing added and nothing taken out. Bayrischer Anstich. A barrel on the bar, a tap hammered in, joy poured out. The German equivalent of cask beer.
Out in the backwaters of Franconia, I drank lots of beer from tiny village breweries. Breweries with one or two outlets, brewing tiny amounts. A few hundred hectolitres, half what many brewpubs brew. Often they make just one beer. I love these throwbacks. Where the passion of generations is funnelled into a single product.
But you'll be surprised by two of the glasses that satisfied me most. Many accuse them of blandness. I'd say: subtly seductive. Everyday drinking beers, meant to be consumed in large draughts. Beers seemingly on sale in every other Munich pub: Augustiner Helles and Edelstoff. (http://www.augustiner-braeu.de/)
Not an hour in Munich and I was in the Augustinerkeller (http://www.augustinerkeller.de/). Dodging thick spots of rain while the sun shone ironically on. A Mass of Edelstoff beaded with moisture, mimicking the rain. The first half litre disappeared in a clutch of guiltless gulps. The world, despite the spitting skies, was warm and welcoming. Poured from a fat-bellied barrel, a merry monk bestowing blessings, beer like liquid sunlight, cheering from within. But it wasn't the most satisfying.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Wn3DxcNjn04/TfD2PObb3KI/AAAAAAAAH-k/AiJeAgQDXcU/s320/Gloeckl_Helles.jpg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Wn3DxcNjn04/TfD2PObb3KI/AAAAAAAAH-k/AiJeAgQDXcU/s1600/Gloeckl_Helles.jpg)
On the final day, under smiling skies pouring gold into the streets, I sat by the shoulder of the Frauenkirche. Outside the quaintly-named Nürnberger Bratwurstglöckl (http://www.bratwurst-gloeckl.de/). "Augustiner Hell aus dem Holzfass" the wall announced. Helles, the little brother of Edelstoff. Augustiner's Cooking Lager. A beer bereft of pretension, unassuming, self-effacing even. But one that satisfied. That didn't just hit the spot, more beat it senseless.
Visiting the gents, I saw it. A piglet next to Augustinerkeller's suckling sows. A baby barrel, brass tap shining like a tiny sun.
Bayrischer Anstich. Such a wonderful thing. It makes a simple beer simply perfect.https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5445569787371915337-3175235505780150834?l=barclayperkins.blogspot.com
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/06/simply-perfect.html)
I'm just back from a week in Bavaria. A week of Bierkellers and beer halls, country pubs and city boozers. An experience that's reinforced my feelings for German beer. Renewed my appreciation of what German beer delivers so well: simple perfection.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o2qo6oTYCdk/TfD29VEZ7NI/AAAAAAAAH-o/5eSdbwpQMB0/s320/Augustinerkeller_Edelstoff.jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o2qo6oTYCdk/TfD29VEZ7NI/AAAAAAAAH-o/5eSdbwpQMB0/s1600/Augustinerkeller_Edelstoff.jpg)
I pondered the title of this piece on the tram to work. A post in praise of Lager. I've written them before. My love of Lager is not new. It gripped me with that first sip of Pilsner Urquell in Prague, way back in 1983. That's before some of you were born. Suddenly I got it. Understood what made Lager such a wonderful drink. The beauty of a beer that doesn't shout "Look at me!" like some hyperactive teenager. A beer happy to take a back seat while you get on with the serious business of having fun.
Real Lager. That was one putative title for this piece. Because there's one form of Lager with a very special place in my glass. Lager in its truest, simplest form. Soft and inviting. Pure and clean. Beer with nothing added and nothing taken out. Bayrischer Anstich. A barrel on the bar, a tap hammered in, joy poured out. The German equivalent of cask beer.
Out in the backwaters of Franconia, I drank lots of beer from tiny village breweries. Breweries with one or two outlets, brewing tiny amounts. A few hundred hectolitres, half what many brewpubs brew. Often they make just one beer. I love these throwbacks. Where the passion of generations is funnelled into a single product.
But you'll be surprised by two of the glasses that satisfied me most. Many accuse them of blandness. I'd say: subtly seductive. Everyday drinking beers, meant to be consumed in large draughts. Beers seemingly on sale in every other Munich pub: Augustiner Helles and Edelstoff. (http://www.augustiner-braeu.de/)
Not an hour in Munich and I was in the Augustinerkeller (http://www.augustinerkeller.de/). Dodging thick spots of rain while the sun shone ironically on. A Mass of Edelstoff beaded with moisture, mimicking the rain. The first half litre disappeared in a clutch of guiltless gulps. The world, despite the spitting skies, was warm and welcoming. Poured from a fat-bellied barrel, a merry monk bestowing blessings, beer like liquid sunlight, cheering from within. But it wasn't the most satisfying.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Wn3DxcNjn04/TfD2PObb3KI/AAAAAAAAH-k/AiJeAgQDXcU/s320/Gloeckl_Helles.jpg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Wn3DxcNjn04/TfD2PObb3KI/AAAAAAAAH-k/AiJeAgQDXcU/s1600/Gloeckl_Helles.jpg)
On the final day, under smiling skies pouring gold into the streets, I sat by the shoulder of the Frauenkirche. Outside the quaintly-named Nürnberger Bratwurstglöckl (http://www.bratwurst-gloeckl.de/). "Augustiner Hell aus dem Holzfass" the wall announced. Helles, the little brother of Edelstoff. Augustiner's Cooking Lager. A beer bereft of pretension, unassuming, self-effacing even. But one that satisfied. That didn't just hit the spot, more beat it senseless.
Visiting the gents, I saw it. A piglet next to Augustinerkeller's suckling sows. A baby barrel, brass tap shining like a tiny sun.
Bayrischer Anstich. Such a wonderful thing. It makes a simple beer simply perfect.https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5445569787371915337-3175235505780150834?l=barclayperkins.blogspot.com
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/06/simply-perfect.html)