Herrnbrau Zwickl Kellerbier |Ingolstadt, Germany
I was ready to enjoy a beer. It was a Monday. I was busy all day but didn’t seem to get anything done. It is my night to cook and I was trying to figure out what I could pull together. I had a bag of those small fancy potatoes Publix has on sale. Some are red, some black, some blue. They can be pretty tasty. I was worried they might start growing little roots so I cut them up, tossed them with grated parmesan, olive oil and some Greek seasoning. Tossed them in the oven and baked the hell out of them. Next was very thin chicken breast slices cooked in zesty Italian dressing with some Slap Your Momma seasoning (spices things up). A bag-o-salad and I’m there.
Well if you’re gonna cook you might as well have a beer to fill in the gaps. Herrnbrau Zwickl Kellerbier is a very cloudy beer which I kinda like. All that stuff floating around gives a beer a different personality.
This one has a head. Hint of lemon maybe orange. Tastes like bud but better. Tastes more like a filtered beer than the cloudiness would suggest. Smooth. Slightly bitter edge on the finish. Consistent flavor from sip one to sip done. Goes nicely with the white cheddar from the Cheese Advent Calendar.
Since these cans are for the US market they lack any info about the beer itself and the little app that is supposed to give you is pretty much a waste of tine. I went hunting for their website which I found to be in German and Italian. I was surprised by the Italian because Ingolstadt is located in Bavaria between Munich and Nuremberg.
I found this beer on their site and used Google Translate to find:
“The new beer specialty Herrnbräu Zwickl: A fresh, aromatic beer with fine yeast. Herrnbräu Zwickl, that is pure beer – originally in particularly high quality. The Herrnbräu Zwickl still contains floating protein and yeast particles that give the beer its natural cloudiness.
“The Zwickl still contains all the cloudy substances from the brewing process. These cloudy substances arise from protein substances in the malt as well as from vitamin-rich yeast cells. With the Zwickl, the floating yeast and protein substances are not removed by filtration, which is why it tastes particularly full-bodied.
After it has matured in peace, the fresh beer is poured from the storage tank directly into kegs and into the 0.5l bottles. This means that the yeast and proteins remain in the beer. They cause its cloudiness and give it unique flavor advantages.
A very cloudy Herrnbrau Zwickl Kellerbier
The name Zwickl comes from the “Zwickel”, the sample tap on the beer tank. To the delight of the brewers, the best way to ensure continuous quality control during storage is through ongoing tastings directly from the storage tank. That is why the master brewer regularly takes samples via the spigot tap to check the beer quality – naturally cloudy and beer-like, refreshing. The name Zwickl was adopted as a synonym for unfiltered beer. Alcohol content: 5.0% vol.”
Google doesn’t even attempt to translate Zwickl so I’m glad there was an explanation. But the flavor I mentioned before always seems to come from the yeast and the brewing process rather than the bulk ingredients that people think about going into beer. I make a lot of vinegar from wine and the mother you use makes all the difference in the world. Many of us drink a beer based on what the hops or malts (or added stuff like peanuts and raspberry puree) than the yeast used.
I like the phrase “and beer-like.” Sometimes you just want to drink something that reminds you of the first beer you had or something that tastes like…. well, beer. And this tastes like beer.
So, what’s up for Day 7. I’m a bit nervous because while trying dislodge this can I had to open the top of the box and realized one of the beers is the same as one in the Man Box.
