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.
Not an hour in Munich and I was in the Augustinerkeller. 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.
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.
Such mouth-watering and thirst inducing posts should be banned when it is +32 outside and one has to spend the rest of the day in the office.
ReplyDeleteAs you can well imagine, I'm abig fan of BA. Next week. Five days, that'll be me.
ReplyDeleteYou're dead right - Augustiner Edelstoff is one of the world's very great beers, especially from the wood on gravity, not too cold.
ReplyDeleteRoll on September, when I'll be there for a fortnight. I once put on a stone in weight during a stay in Munich.......
I managed to come the same weight as when I arrived. That must say something about my usual behaviour.
ReplyDeleteI really love Augustiner. First time I had the Helles vom Holzfass at Augustiner Keller I couldn't help but crack a smile. I can drink liter upon liter of that stuff.
ReplyDeleteThat is probably a "Simply Perfect" blog post. I thirst!
ReplyDeleteWonderfully written, Ron. And equally well expressed.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and I fully agree, even though I haven't had yet the luck to drink most of those beers you talk about, but it doesn't matter, living in the Czech Rep. I fully know what you are talking about...
ReplyDeleteI love Augustiner Edelstoff and the Augustinerkeller.
ReplyDeleteReally like the Augustiner Bräustuben when it is too cold to visit the keller.
As a college student circa 1960, my introduction to "real beer", as opposed to Ballantine Chug-a-Mugs, was German Lagers: Lowenbrau (pre-Millers), Dortmunder and the like -- all light lagers. During my time in the USAF with Luftwaffe comrades introduced me to Beck's and St Pauli Girl. A Good lager is still one of my favorite beers.
ReplyDeleteBoooooring. Those guys need to start making double IPAs.
ReplyDeleteWell written indeed.
ReplyDeleteOf course, everything is relative. In relation to good porter, IPA or Trappist ale, the best Bavarian beer can fairly be said to be soft, simple, pure. But such beer is actually very full in flavour in my experience, as much as any typical craft beer in North America, but just differently structured.
I think craft brewing here has mostly eschewed lager for two reasons. First, ale brewing (taking in porter here) is easier to do with less money. Second, North American hops, if they suit any beer in large quantities, suit ale more than lager. Almost by definition, lager needs good Czech or German hops. We don't have such hops here, and why import them to make a clone when you can innovate with "C" hops (amongst others) and ale traditions?
There are some exceptions: Sam Adams makes excellent, traditional-tasting lager. Some of them use German hops though, e.g. the Noble Pils I think it is called. The regular lager of Sam Adams probably uses some German hops too I think or perhaps a blend of domestic and imported. There are other excellent lagers: Stoudt Brewing makes one, Victory makes one, King Brewery in Ontario makes one. They do exist but the glamour in the craft brewing world still goes to the ale-porter-stout side, other top-fermented specialties (wheat beers) and now extreme brews.
Perhaps it will change around before long, I wouldn't mind since great lager is one of the world's best drinks.
Gary
Before I was an actual beer geek, I was a bit of a beer snob (I know many of your readers can probably relate). But before I was a beer snob, I was a beer enthusiast. I knew I hated the industrial adjunct lagers, I knew I liked some of my beers hoppy, some of them dark, but I just loved variety and any time I could, I LOVED drinking local. Just before "craft beer" entered my vocabulary, I was introduced to a brewery named Franconia in Frisco, TX. I lived just a couple miles away, so this was as local as it got. All the respectable beer joints in Dallas (even those without rotating taps) started carrying their first beer. And it was my go-to drink. It was insanely delicious without being overbearing or pretentious. It was nuanced, and the flavor didn't go away in a wash of being hit over the head with how complex or robust it was. I could drink several of these in a row and not be bored.
ReplyDeleteAnd it was a lager.
About two years later, I started becoming "aware" that lagers are boring, bland, and mostly not worth drinking. It's strange how a little "awareness" can rob you of some amazingly enjoyable experiences.
Now I live in SoCal, but whenever I go back, even with Rahr & Sons, Boulevard, St. Arnold, and Real Ale at my disposal, the Franconia is the first pint I order. I miss the pure, unadulterated taste of a well-crafted lager.