Germany: dark beers recommendations

In message , bruce snipped-for-privacy@my-deja.com writes

You cant really go wrong with any Alt beers you find but this is more of a 'me too' post, particularly Koeln. I'll be slipping across the border from Belgium sometime between the Grand Place beer affair in Brussels and the following weekends

;)

bruce snipped-for-privacy@my-deja.com a écrit :

I'd suggest Die Schwarze from Schwaben-Bräu, but it is brewed in Stuttgart, and not that well distributed outside Baden-Würtemberg...

Nope, they aren't... at least not all of them. The lager at Spezial is a nice amber, so are the Märzen at Spezial and Schlenkerla. The Weizen at Schlenkerla is pretty pale, too... the really dark ones are teh Urbock from both breweries, but you're unlikely to find them in Summer.

IIRC, most of teh bamberg brewing non-smoked beers also have a dark lager in the range, for example Fässla (called Zwergla IIRC). So there will be quite a few to try out whilst touringteh brewery taps.

Cheers !

Laurent

Some brands to look out for (especially when you are in Bamberg and Nuernberg):

Ahornberger Dunkel and Ahornberger Weissbier Dunkel Andechser Dunkel, Dunkles Weissbier, Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel Ettaler Kloster Dunkel Klosterbräu Braunbier (Bamberg) Kaiserdom Alt-Bamberger Dunkel (Bamberg) Kneitinger Dunkel Export Irseer Klosterdunkel Landwehr Dunkles Landbier and Landwehr Dunkler Bock (west of Nuernberg) St. Georgenbräu Landbier (near Bamberg) St. Michaelsberg Dunkel Premium (Bamberg) Spreewalder Dunkel (near Bamberg)

I listed a few dunkel weizen, but there are many more. I didn't list them all because it didn't seem to be what you were looking for. If you don't mind wheat beers you might want to check out Aventinus if you find it. This 8% dark weizenbock is one of my favourite German beers.

RobBeer

Thanks, Rob.

One word of warning. On recent holiday I purchased some random dark beers from supermarkets assuming they would be to normal German purity standards. Alas no. A few beers are now having buckets of sugar added, resulting in a fowl, sickly gloop. They are quite strong in alcohol though and I would doubt dark beers attracts the yoof market, so not sure why these beers exist. Perhaps they always have, but I've never stumbled upon them previously.

You can tell from list of ingredients what to avoid.

David

David Thornhill a écrit :

On top of that, you should be aware that many german breweries looking to cut corners actually base their Schwarzbier on the standard helles, and add some Farbbier. Farbbier is sort of a black malt extract... but technically a beer out of black malt, and tiny amounts of hops and alcohol, so it can legally be mixed to the base beer. One such product is Weyermann's Sinamar (qv.

Cheers !

Laurent

This sounds like the awful "Sweetheart Stout" that I once tried a can of in Edinburgh.

Never actually saw anyone else buying any of that, either...

Henry

Henry a écrit :

Except Sweetheart Stout contains about 2% alcohol, IIRC... :o>

Thanks very much for that. I'll check it out.