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.
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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”.
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.
What do they call straight from the cask in Austria?
Good question. Holzfass Anstich?
To 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.
Augustiner doesn’t publish the original gravity, just the ABV, but Edelstoff is exactly the same strength as Tegernseer’s Spezial.
Rob,
at one time a Lagerbier would have been 12º and an Export 13º. Not sure where Spezial would have fitted in then.
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