German Brewing

Folks often ask about German beer flavor and what it tastes like. Especially the "it" some of us have come to coin as an indicator of whether a beer tastes right or not. Many folks will conclude that, since many German beers bought in the US are stale and oxidized, that that is what they taste like. Absolutely not! 80-90% of the German beers I get in the US are, sadly, old and stale. That is not the flavor we are after.

I wrote this up a few months ago as an attempt to describe the overall German beer flavor and what is or is not 'it'.

The 5 elements of “it” in German light lagers.

1) Aroma and first impressions
It: Fresh malt and hop aroma – sign of good things to come. Very clean, slightly sweet but refreshing

Not it: No aroma. Metallic, plastic, organic off aroma coming from the glass. Or overwhelming, cloying malt aroma, or strong, pungent hop aroma overwhelming the malt.

2) Getting intimate - First Taste
It: the “it” we refer to – fresh grain, depth of character and bright notes of a fresh field of grain and flowers. Sometimes spicy, particularly with Czech and East German Pilsners. But clean and balanced with the malt. Sometimes a minerally, salty impression from East German examples.

Not it: Dull, single dimension of malt. It’s there, but not light, fresh and rich. Overwhelming hoppiness as either flavor or strong bitterness (e.g. Pivo Pils and Victory Prima Pils). "Honey" description falls into the not it part of this. And cardboard.

3) Balance of character
It: the overall impression is of balance between malt, bitterness and hop flavor. Often floral, slightly sweet, and grainy. Rich, bright grainy flavor.

Not it: Dull and flat, one dimension maltiness. Like old malt or darker malt that is heavy on the palate. Or muddy, overly complex flavors as from too many malts.

4) Mouthfeel
It: Clean, crisp mouthfeel. Refreshing and you want to take another sip. Clears out quickly. You can drink several liters of them and keep on going.

Not it: Either thick and sweet or dry, puckering and thin.

5) Finish - Ahhhhh
It: briefly lingering malt flavor and aroma. If you lightly exhale your breath and sniff, you get fresh malt graininess, a bit of hop aroma, and depth of aging character, slight lingering note of sulfur.

Not it: Cloying sweetness or astringent dryness, almost bitter. Lingering hop bitterness that hangs in your mouth for a long time. Yeast bite.

Thanks for posting. It's hard to judge what we're really after if we've never been there to try the beers in their truly authentic state. There's, "Hey, that tastes really damn good, but how close am I getting?" and there's, "That's spot on, that reminds me just as if I were sitting in the Hopfbrau Haus bier garten".

So you think the DAB in cans is pretty darn close, then? It was a big change and great move for Pilsner Urquell to start using brown bottles. Warsteiner in cans is pretty tasty as well. It still has a certain flavor that I haven't tasted in American versions of pilsner yet.

Most of them, though, just have a sweet flavor that just doesn't taste, to me, as if that's how they were intended. But we've already covered that... If I knew how to ship beer well, I'd send some to y'all. I have a helles lagering now that, I think, tastes really good.

The sweet honey flavor is 2,3-pentanedione and is from oxidation. What we call "it" is not that.

Do you think that German beer in kegs ship better than in bottles/cans and you can get that "it" factor?
I ask because, I just remembered that there are several restaurants in the area that serve German beer on draught and I might have a chance of recalling that flavor. The last time I experienced that was a couple years back in NYC.

One of the restaurants serves Weihenstephaner Original Premium. It's good, but IMO, didn't have that wow factor. So I'm unsure if it aged out, or just the fact that it's not that special of a beer...

I suppose a keg is nothing more than a giant (12oz) can. Zero light permeability. So it would be "better" than bottles.

I guess it all depends on how much care was taken when it was transported and the age of the product; how long it sat in a warehouse - at what temp/condition, before being shipped to the restaurant.

In my experience kegs are still hit or miss but usually better than bottles. There is nothing quite like getting the real thing fresh from the source, though.