Weihenstephaner Original!

If you take the hipster point of view with beer, you will have some distinct advantages and disadvantages. By looking for beers that no one has ever heard of, you will undoubtedly find some great ones to share, as long as you don't mind wading through some terrible beers. The downside of this "anti-mainstream" view is that you will miss out on the classics, the beers that people have been emulating for as long as they have been around. Effectively, what I mean is that there can be a reason why people all drink a certain beer.

Weihenstephaner is one of the classic German light lagers. The name is derived from the Weihenstephan Benedictine monastery, where the monks brewed the beer. If you find yourself in Germany, particularly in Bayern (Bavaria), you will be able to find this beer all over the place. You will notice, though, in many of the bars, that they will only have beer from a particular brewery. This is still a prevalent thing. Most bars will have a kind-of allegiance to a certain brewery and only serve their product. This is unfortunate if you are a sedentary-style drinker, but actually kind of fun if you are looking to explore more of the city (and you should). Getting back to my original point, just because you can find it everywhere doesn't make it a bad beer. The Germans know what they like and those beers have thrived. Weihenstephaner is one of those.  

Now, what if you throw the Budweiser card at me? Tons of people drink that. Does it make that a good beer? First things first, I will always trust the German public over the US public when it comes to beer. They were making and drinking beer when that was safer than drinking the water. I think they had enough time to perfect it. Second, not to be very harsh, but Budweiser is a bastardized version of a Czech (Bohemian) Pilsner. It was changed in a few ways (like adding rice to make it lighter) to make a beer that was "offensive to no one". They were trying to sell beer to the US market, a market unfamiliar with beer. Beer is certainly an acquired taste, so the best way to sell a lot is to give it a lighter flavor. Today, the American palate is changing. Craft beers are becoming a bigger market. Still, notice that each brewery has a flagship beer that makes them most of their money. Usually, drinking a brewery's flagship is a good way to see what that particular brewery is all about.  

I have strayed drastically from the Weihenstephaner. For that, I apologize. It is a delicious, crisp, light lager. It is practically perfect for any and all beer drinking situations. It has a grainy, malty flavor, with just a hint of bitter hops to keep it from being too sweet. It is a standard 5.1% ABV, so it is light in color, average in ABV, and medium in taste. It is great if you want a beer that tastes good, yet you can still drink it by the liter, which you absolutely should. 

Glassware: Stein, Mug

Synonym Beer: Spaten Lager

If you want me to look at a particular beer, drink, place, or have anything to say to me, email me at monksandmalts@gmail.com. Buy my pictures here: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/robert-rizzolo.html. You can send me cool photos too, if you like and I will make a post up for you. 

Simple Beer Bread

You know how some people say that beer is liquid bread? I tend to agree. It has much of the same nutrients and actually kind of similar ingredients. So, why not use liquid bread to make solid bread? Only makes sense, right? 

Required ingredients are shown above and the amounts are detailed below:

3 cups of flour (either sifted, or lightly spooned into the measuring cup)

3 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of ground malt (each variety will add some different characteristics to the beer) 

1 bottle of beer at room temperature (again, different beers will create different breads)

1/4 cup of butter (melted)

The recipe is very easy. First, you have to preheat the oven to 375 F. As it is preheating, mix together all of the dry ingredients in a medium/large bowl. Only put 1/2 cup of the ground malt into the mixture here. The rest of the malt will be used later. I also can't understate the importance of sifting the flour. If the flour is compacted, then the result will be a very dense bread. If you actually do sift the flour, the bread will be able to stay lighter. 

 After all of the dry ingredients are mixed, pour in the bottle of beer. It will certainly foam up a lot as a result of being at room temp, but as long as you don't let it overflow, you have nothing to worry about. I chose to use one of my home brews, a black saison. Not that it is a bad beer (I actually do like to drink it), but it is not my favorite of my home brews. This makes it great for cooking, because it adds a distinctive beer taste, but the flavors are made subtle by the inclusion in the bread. Note: If you make a batch of  home brew that doesn't carbonate properly, don't throw it out! Use it for cooking! That's what I do. 

Once you have mixed the dough thoroughly, it is time to put it into a loaf pan. I didn't have one, so I wound up using a small pot that I had. Grease the pan and sprinkle about half of the remaining malt on the bottom of the pan before you pour in the dough. Once the dough is in the pan, sprinkle the rest of the malt on top and pour the butter over the dough. 

The cooking time is about an hour, but depending on how crisp you want the crust, you will have to adjust the time. The result is a really interesting bread with a thick, buttery crust. The malt adds a little bit of sweetness to the bread, but a very mild sweetness. Give it a shot. Use different malts. Use different beers. Let me know how everything goes! 

Fuller's ESB

In celebration of the London Olympics, I will talk about the first English beer on the list: Fuller's ESB. ESB stands for Extra Special Bitter, although sometimes the S can stand for Strong as well. If you have ever had an English bitter before, you know that they are subtle, easy drinking beers. I think of the ESB as the more aggressive older brother that greets the younger brother bitter by punching it in the stomach. It is higher in alcohol content, as well as hop character. Still, keep in mind that this is high in the English beer sense. It is rare to see an ESB break 6% ABV and while the hops are noticeable, they usually won't even reach American pale ale levels. 

Personally I found Fuller's ESB to be an enjoyable beer. It isn't in-your-face at all, but very pleasant, typical of English beers. Most of what I tasted from the ESB was malt. There is a nice, simple hop bitterness, but my taste buds have been dulled to hops from all the American IPAs that I have tried. It is a very stereotypical English beer, with a smooth, almost velvet-like mouthfeel and very low carbonation. Since the flavors of the ESB are more pronounced than other English ales, the ESB can be consumed slightly colder (although cellar temp. is perfect) without missing too much. If you are ever in the mood for a more reserved, less intense beer, with lower alcohol content, give English ales a shot. They have been brewing for a long time, so they must be doing something right, right? Just bear in mind that the English ale styles aren't for everyone. 

Glassware: Pint, Mug

Synonym Beer: Hobgoblin

If you want me to look at a particular beer, drink, place, or have anything to say to me, email me at monksandmalts@gmail.com. Buy my pictures here: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/robert-rizzolo.html. You can send me cool photos too, if you like and I will make a post up for you. 

Elbada

Last one from this brewery, I promise. Seriously. I am sick of them too.

This is a Rossa Doppio Malto style, which is effectively a strong red ale, kind of similar to a doppelbock, but it didn't really turn out that way. It is 8% ABV, so it packs a little bit of a punch, but you don't really notice it while drinking. It actually came across as a little watery. It might be a result of their use of farro, a grain, in the beer. I'm not used to farro being used in beer, so potentially a result could be a lightening of the body, even at high alcohol contents. It tasted sweet, thin, and kind of depressing. I won't belabor the point. I will leave it at: I wish this had been a better set of beers.

Glassware: Mug, Stein

Synonym Beer: No, just no. 

If you want me to look at a particular beer, drink, place, or have anything to say to me, email me at monksandmalts@gmail.com. Buy my pictures here: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/robert-rizzolo.html. You can send me cool photos too, if you like and I will make a post up for you. 

Dunkel Lager and Not Being Afraid of the Dark

Another Slyfox creation: Dunkel Lager. Dunkel is the German word for dark, so it means that the beer is a dark lager. If you have read this before, I have a deep appreciation for lagers in general, but I have a soft spot for dark lagers. 

As you can see by the pictures, by "dark, it doesn't necessarily mean pitch black. It can, but it doesn't need to. It basically means that it is brewed with darker malts. This can result in a number of different outcomes, depending on the particular dark malts used and the amount of the malts used. Even a relatively small amount of dark malt can drastically change the color and taste of a beer. With the German dark lager style, one of the common darker malts used is Cara-Munich malt. This provides a caramel sweetness to the beer, as the name implies. Darker malts can give the roasted coffee, vanilla, and chocolate flavors that can commonly be tasted in stouts. To get to my point, you shouldn't be afraid of a beer just because it is darker. That doesn't necessarily mean that it is strong, heavy, or even really flavorful. Take the German dark lager for instance. It is a little more flavorful than the light lager, but they are generally about the same ABV and in my opinion, they are comparably heavy in body. Don't be afraid of the dark. Try it, you might like it.

The more Sly Fox I buy, the more impressed I am. I don't know why I didn't buy much of it in the past, but I know better now. The Dunkel Lager was a spot-on version of a Munich dark lager. I have to admit that going into this beer I was expecting to be disappointed, only because I love dark lagers and I am used to the German ones, which are the best in the world. How could a brewery from Pennsylvania compete? I'm still not really sure, but one sip and i was back sitting in the Hofbrau Haus in Munich drinking from my liter stein. Seriously, dead on. It has the stereotypical malty sweetness that a Munich Dunkel always has. The carbonation is just right. It is also a beautiful dark amber color, maybe a little bit lighter than most Munich darks, but here's a question: Does the color actually matter if it tastes the same? Regardless, I would gladly pick up some more Dunkel Lager. It is a great beer, that makes me nostalgic for Germany. Also, it comes in a can, which is great for summer drinking.

I also can't get over how much I love the Sly Fox logo too.

Glassware: Mug, Stein, Can

Synonym Beer: Hofbrau Dunkel

If you want me to look at a particular beer, drink, place, or have anything to say to me, email me at monksandmalts@gmail.com. Buy my pictures here: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/robert-rizzolo.html. You can send me cool photos too, if you like and I will make a post up for you. 

Doug's Home Brew!

My older brother has a friend named Doug. Doug brews beer at home. He gave some of this beer to my brother, who in turn gave me some. I drank these beers. Now, I'm going to tell you about them. The two beers that I received were: Red Ale and IPA. 

The Red Ale was the first one I tried and I found it a little surprising. I originally thought of it as an Irish red ale, but I'm not really sure why. What I was expecting was a creamy, smooth, malty beer, but instead it was actually very notably, pleasantly hoppy. It had a good body to it and none of the yeastiness that I normally associate with home brews. Overall, I found it to be very enjoyable and surprising, considering I think that these are some of Doug's first home brews (I could be wrong about this and it wouldn't surprise me at all). 

The IPA followed the style pretty accurately. Judging by the amount of hops on the nose of the beer, I assume it was dry hopped, but I can't be 100% sure about that. The hops gave the taste a grassy bitterness, but that was balanced pretty well by the malt of the beer. It was lighter in color than the red ale was, which is actually pretty impressive for a home brew. This is because the malt extract will usually caramelize a little in the boil, darkening the beer. Since most home brew is made with malt extract they are generally darker than they should be. Either Doug used all malt, or somehow he avoided the extract issue. Whichever, bravo. 

I'll use this post to plug home brewing once again. It is really a fun hobby that has a fantastic end result. I would suggest that you use a kit and a recipe before moving on to more experimental batches. Another thing is that you you should start by brewing with someone that has done it a bunch before. I would be more than willing to brew with you (that is, if you know me) if you want to start. In fact, it is always easier (and more fun) to brew with a friend. Try it out! 

If you want me to look at a particular beer, drink, place, or have anything to say to me, email me at monksandmalts@gmail.com. Buy my pictures here: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/robert-rizzolo.html. You can send me cool photos too, if you like and I will make a post up for you. 

Bottle vs. Can Challenge: Heinnieweisse

Here we have another Butternuts creation, their weissebier, called Heinnieweisse. As I previously mentioned, Butternuts recently acquired Cooperstown Brewing and while they still operate as separate breweries, they do some contract brewing between the two. As a result, all of the Butternuts beers that are available in cans can now be found in bottles as well. By trying them side by side, you can notice the differences between the the bottle and the can versions. 

Heinnieweisse is a hefeweizen style, but more of an American style than a German style. It is light in both body and ABV (4.9%). The difference between the bottle and the can was extremely pronounced. Even though the color was very similar, the bottle had better head retention than the can. The biggest difference was very obvious: the can had some serious funk, while the bottle was much more of a traditional, delicate wheat beer style. Based on personal tastes, the can was a far better beer. It was farmy and refreshing, with the sour cutting out most of the sweetness that is normal in a wheat beer. The bottle was citrusy and soft, much better than most American hefeweizens. If you prefer a more traditional American Hefe, then go with the bottle, if you want a slightly sour version, go with the can. To be quite honest, this isn't really the same beer in different vessels, it is two kind-of-similar beers that are branded as the same. 

Glassware: Hefeweizen glass, can, pint

Synonym Beer: Harpoon UFO (although this is significantly better) 

If you want me to look at a particular beer, drink, place, or have anything to say to me, email me at monksandmalts@gmail.com. Buy my pictures here: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/robert-rizzolo.html. You can send me cool photos too, if you like and I will make a post up for you.