A Little German in Me

My beer explorations have steadily continued this week. Monday was my night to cook dinner, and before picking up the food I made a trip to John's beer room for the liquid. One of their knowledgeable staff members was there giving out samples of Weihenstephener Korbinian (a rather tasty doppelbock that I picked up) and their Hefeweizen. It tasted like a pretty good Hefe, but I am not really a fan of those, so I passed on it.

Then we got to chatting about Saisons and Pilsners. I was disappointed to learn that Saisons don't really travel well, hence the reason the three I have had recently were brewed in Kansas, New York, and Iowa rather than on the Franco-Belgium border.

As the weather was a little warm and sticky I asked for some recommendations on a smooth, crisp German Pilsner. He pointed out the Ayinger Jarhundert Bier, which is one of his favorites.
Many of you might recognize the Ayinger name as they are the brewers of that great goat ornamented doppelbock, Celebrator. The Jarhundert was shockingly good. A super clear pilsner that somehow packed in an exhorbitant amount of flavor. I can't wait to pick up another one. It might become one of my favorite summer beers.

The beer man also recommended a Dunkel by Spaten which had just come off the ship and was thus very fresh. This dark lager was quite a shift from the crisp pilsner we tasted first. The intial sips were somewhat dissapointing, but after clearing the pallet (which I should probably do some other way) I found the beer to be sweet and smooth. It had a big malty caramel flavor, quite similar to many Oktoberfests. I will definitely get it again.

While consuming these great brews I was reading Charles Bamforth's Grape vs. Grain, a cultural and historical comparison between wine and beer.

Bamforth is a food science prof at UC-Davis, but is originally from England. He has that wonderful British sense of humour, and he makes no qualms about his goal--to raise beer up to the level of appreciation and sophistication that wine has enjoyed for numerous decades.

And he makes a pretty good case. The book is a quick read, and for anyone who wants a brief but still thorough history of beer and beer making, it is a great place to start. I also found the wine chapters interesting, but I mostly ended up skimming those. They were equally as informative as the beer chapters, but Bamforth's tone is slightly anti-wine (though he still enjoys his fair share of it). So if you want a less scued history of wine, you might want to look elsewhere.

Tonight is date night, and with some damp, rainy weather on the way I'm thinking it might be a appropriate for something Belgian.