Following on from a recent visit to Prague and my acquiring a taste for
Kosel Dark (I have found a nice Herold Black lager in my local off
licence to cater for my addiction)...

Any recommendations for German dark beers? I've been to Germany several
times but, apart from Dusseldorf alt beers, I have mainly concentrated
on pils/helles/koelsch styles
I will be visiting in early Sept: Nuremberg 1 day, Bamberg 3 days,
Dusseldorf 2 days, Koeln 1 day.

I understand the "smoke" beers of Bamberg are usually dark. Anything
else to look out for?

Thanks
Bruce

In message , 
bruce_phipps@my-deja.com writes

>I understand the "smoke" beers of Bamberg are usually dark. Anything 
>else to look out for?


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 <www.festivalbruxellensis.be/>

;)

-- 
Paul Shirley: email unwelcome, reply by news

bruce_phipps@my-deja.com a crit :


>Any recommendations for German dark beers? 
>  
>

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


>I understand the "smoke" beers of Bamberg are usually dark. 
>

Nope, they aren't... at least not all of them. The lager at Spezial is a 
nice amber, so are the Mrzen 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  Fssla (called Zwergla IIRC). So there 
will be quite a few to try out whilst touringteh brewery taps.

Cheers !

Laurent




-- 
Warning : you may encounter French language beyond this point.

Les petites galopade matinales font le cerveau muscl ! 
(F'murrr)

Laurent Mousson, Berne, Switzerland

bruce_phipps@my-deja.com wrote:

> Following on from a recent visit to Prague and my acquiring a taste for
> Kosel Dark (I have found a nice Herold Black lager in my local off
> licence to cater for my addiction)...
>
> Any recommendations for German dark beers? I've been to Germany several
> times but, apart from Dusseldorf alt beers, I have mainly concentrated
> on pils/helles/koelsch styles
> I will be visiting in early Sept: Nuremberg 1 day, Bamberg 3 days,
> Dusseldorf 2 days, Koeln 1 day.
>
> I understand the "smoke" beers of Bamberg are usually dark. Anything
> else to look out for?
>
> Thanks
> Bruce


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.

>Andechser Dunkel<


They'll have this at the Kloster Andechs place in Nuremberg... I had a
couple of excellent pints of the Andechser Helles there last year.

Otherwise, I should just look for Dunkel when I am in Bamberg.

Bruce

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 crit :


>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. 
>  
>

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. 
http://www.weyermann.de/eng/produkte.asp?idkat=26&umenue=yes&idmenue=37&sprache=2).
Sinamar can be spotted once you've tasted a helles turned black using 
it. It leaves a treacley, slightly metallic tinge to the beer.

Cheers !

Laurent


-- 
Warning : you may encounter French language beyond this point.

Grwhskt ! Ils font venir des nanas sans m'avertir !! 
(F'murrr)

Laurent Mousson, Berne, Switzerland

David Thornhill wrote:

> 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.


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 crit :


>David Thornhill wrote:
>  
>
>>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.
>>    
>>
>
>This sounds like the awful "Sweetheart Stout" that I once tried a
>can of in Edinburgh.
>  
>

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

-- 
Warning : you may encounter French language beyond this point.

- Un mouton qui ronge des os c'est comme un chien !
- Oui mais, un chien qui vit avec des moutons, c'est pas comme un mouton !!! 
(F'murrr)

Laurent Mousson, Berne, Switzerland

bruce_phipps@my-deja.com wrote:

> Following on from a recent visit to Prague and my acquiring a taste for
> Kosel Dark (I have found a nice Herold Black lager in my local off
> licence to cater for my addiction)...
> 
> Any recommendations for German dark beers? I've been to Germany several
> times but, apart from Dusseldorf alt beers, I have mainly concentrated
> on pils/helles/koelsch styles
> I will be visiting in early Sept: Nuremberg 1 day, Bamberg 3 days,
> Dusseldorf 2 days, Koeln 1 day.
> 
> I understand the "smoke" beers of Bamberg are usually dark. Anything
> else to look out for?
> 
> Thanks
> Bruce
> 

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