Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Kellerbier

To be honest I had no idea what to expect from this beer, the beer was called Kellerbier and was brewed by Schinner of Germany. The only thing I could discern from the bottle (written entirely in German), was that the beer is unfiltered. For anybody else who has not come across Kellerbier before, here is a quick wiki lesson:

"Kellerbier, also Zwickelbier, or Zoigl, is a type of German beer which is not clarified or pasteurised. Kellerbier can be either top or bottom fermented. The term Kellerbier literally translates as "cellar beer", referring to its cool lagering temperatures, and its recipe likely dates to the Middle Ages. In comparison with most of today's filtered lagers, Kellerbier contains more of its original brewing yeast, as well as vitamins, held in suspension. As a result, it is distinctly cloudy, and is described by German producers as naturtrüb (naturally cloudy)."

Now that I know roughly what I am dealing with, what about the beer? Pours a lovely dark brown colour with a slight hint of red. A large billowy tan head subsides to leave a nice thick head. The aroma is quite unusual, spicy with definite hints of cloves, there is also a very slight metallic characteristic to the aroma. The taste is similar to a pilsner (despite the colour) with a nice light hoppiness and a clean finsh. To be honest I dont really get the yeast flavour that i would have expected from an unfiltered beer. Light to medium bodied with a clean and crisp mouthfeel. As the beer warms up a bit you start to get those darker malts coming to the fore with nice hints of choclate and caramel. Nothing terribly complex about this beer, but at only 4.9% it is very sessionable and quite refreshing. Certainly worth picking up a few bottles.

1 comment:

Barry M said...

I'm not sure about that definition. I've had Kellerbiers that were pretty clear. Maybe if they were served from the cask... But there's such a variety of Kellerbiers, it could mean anything :) But yeah, they're often good session beers.