It's a lovely drinking beer. Light, but with enough flavour to jkeep you interested. Perfect for casual afternoon drinking. Nothing too distracting.
I do love Austiner's beers.It's hard to beat their Helles when it's served Bayerischer Anstich (straight from a wooden cask). But it's a very delicate beer that doesn't come over as well in the bottle. Edelstoff fares much better.
What style of beer is Edelstoff? I'd call it a Spexial. A pale Lager that's stronger than a Helles. Many Bavarian breweries make one. With a gravity of around 13º Plato and 5.6% ABV.
The classic way would be to call the weaker one a Helles Lagerbier and the stronger one a Helles Export. Though that system has largely broken down since WW II. Agustner do call their standard beer Helles Lagerbier. So ther eis still that.
I'm glad I can get hold of a decent Lager when I'm out. It's depressingly difficult in Amsterdam. Mostly, it's just Pils of varying degrees of awfulness. Edelstoff is a class better. And better class.
I thought you might want a change from Youngs. If only for a day.
I have had people try to explain to me that there is a difference between an Export and a Spezial, but I was none the wiser afterwards. I don‘t know of any breweries that produce both, and I can think of at least one that sold a “Spezial-Export”.
ReplyDeleteTo answer my own question, Brauhaus Tegernsee brews both a Spezial and an Export. The Spezial is 13º (5.6% abv), Export is 12º (5.2% abv) and the Helles Lagerbier is 11º (4.8% abv). So that one degree Plato is the difference between an Export and a Spezial.
DeleteAugustiner doesn’t publish the original gravity, just the ABV, but Edelstoff is exactly the same strength as Tegernseer’s Spezial.
One of my top five beer experiences was spending a sunny afternoon in the shade of the trees at the Augustinerkeller in Munich, with a sadly now late mate, drinking gravity dispensed Edelstoff back in 2010. Nearby was a Stammtisch where a group of regulars appeared to congregate for a couple of Maß after work in the summer. Lucky chaps.
ReplyDeleteWhat do they call straight from the cask in Austria?
ReplyDeleteGood question. Holzfass Anstich?
DeleteRob,
ReplyDeleteat one time a Lagerbier would have been 12º and an Export 13º. Not sure where Spezial would have fitted in then.