Session #25: Yellow fizz just for you

The SessionMemo to Greg Koch: Here’s a fizzy yellow lager you can cuddle up to. Not all that yellow, I guess, and not necessarily that fizzy. But definitely a lager, a puny 3.7% abv beer in the Munich Helles tradition.

A beer I last enjoyed about six months ago, but I remember well enough to feature as my contribution to The Session #25: Lager Love. And since I won’t be around today to keep up with how this plays out on Twitter, I’ll give you a series of thoughts, all less than 140 characters.

– Surtaler Leichter Typ is light colored, although I don’t know I’d use the word yellow. But when your host asks you have to do your best to oblige.

– Private Landbrauerei Schönram in the German village of Schönram-Petting near Salzburg, Austria, brews the beer.

– It earned a silver medal as a European Light Lager in the European Beer Star competition.

– Yes, it’s a light version of the brewery’s best selling helles (65 percent of sales – a dang nice beer at 5.4% abv).

– You can drink this all night, well maybe 5 liters, and maybe blow .04 on a breathalyzer (the brewer and owner did this to make sure).

– A great beer to shift to after several “big” ones. Because you can still taste it. This isn’t water.

– Smooth (lagered for a silly amount of time), bready, grassy, lots of noble hops.

– Goes well with conversation.

– It says 3.4% on the label, it’s really 3.7% and it tastes twice as big as a 4.2% American light.

– I want this beer brewed close to my home. Not a beer meant to travel, so don’t try it more than 20 kilometers from the brewery.

– Twitter pretty much sucks when it comes to describing the pleasure of drinking this beer.

 

Reminder: Drink a lager for Session #25

The SessionWeather on the East Coast has played havoc with our travel plans and — let’s be honest, this is less important — my Plan A for Friday’s round of The Session, Session #25: Lager Love.

We expected to be touristing around Baltimore on Friday, so I was thinking about stopping by Nacho Mamas in Canton, drinking a Natty Bo and writing about the experience. I’ll grant you that many find this place a bit much. The Mexican food isn’t particularly Mexican, for instance. I’ve heard the there can be lines out the door, which is plain silly.

Natty Bo at Nacho MamasBut . . . you have to love a place where if you don’t see a picture of Elvis Presley or a photo from old Baltimore (mostly sports) there’s a National Bohemian item. National Brewing opened in 1885 and resumed production after Prohibition until it was sold to Carling in 1975, then to Heileman.

Natty Bo was still made in Baltimore as recently as 1997. It’s been brewed under contract since, in several different breweries (wish I could tell you where now). But for many it’s still the Baltimore beer.

It’s a light lager. I’m not sure you could pick it out in a blind tasting with Pabst, Lone Star and whatever similar beer you want to include. And when you order it at Nacho Mamas there is no point in asking for a glass. Drink from the bottle or don’t order it.

That said, it would have been great to drink in Nacho Mamas for The Session.

But we won’t be rambling around Baltimore on Friday. On to Plan B.

 

Look out for wheat beers? Well, maybe

If you were writing a book about wheat beers you’d probably think it was good that Anheuser-Busch has rolled out a variety pack of beers brewed with wheat. I do, although I’m not sure this presages a sudden upswing in interest in wheat beers.

I would post this at“Brewing With Wheat” site, but right now that is in information collection mode as opposed to information dissemination.

So, from the press release:

The Michelob Brewing Co. Spring/Summer Sampler Pack, available beginning March 2, includes Michelob Honey Wheat, year-round favorites Shock Top Belgian White and Michelob Dunkel Weisse, and the spring seasonal Hop Hound Amber Wheat. The beers are:

* Michelob Honey Wheat: a silky, smooth filtered wheat ale brewed with orange blossom honey. Brewmaster Kristi Zantop and her team wanted to push the envelope with their newest creation, playing around with different varieties of honey until they found just the right kind to give Honey Wheat a pronounced floral aroma and hints of orange citrus flavor.

* Hop Hound Amber Wheat: an unfiltered American amber wheat ale brewed with Cascade, Willamette and Hallertau hops and a blend of the finest caramel, wheat and pale barley malts.

* Shock Top Belgian White: an unfiltered Belgian-style wheat ale with a naturally cloudy and light golden color, brewed with orange, lemon and lime peels and coriander.

* Michelob Dunkel Weisse: a surprisingly light unfiltered dark wheat ale with unmistakable clove and banana tones, a result imparted from the unique Bavarian yeast strain used.

A-B has sent samples to some bloggers — for all I know one went to our home in New Mexico, but right now we]re trying to figure out where all this East Coast snow came from — so look for reviews online. Here’s one for the Honey Wheat from Jon at the Beer Site.

 

#28 – Where in the beer world?

Where in the beer world?

Where in the beer world?Do you think you know where in the beer world these photos were taken?

Please leave your answer at a comment.

Hint: The photo on the right. Yes, you can figure they don’t sell New Belgium’s Fat Tire Amber Ale because it’s not available to them. Not because they don’t want to.

Bonus hint (since last week there wasn’t a single guess, wild and crazy or otherwise): Don’t go here looking for any Anheuser-Busch, Miller or Coors beers here. Or even some of the other beers generally available in local grocery stores.

Last week’s answer: The photo was taken at the National Brewery Museum in Potosi, Wis., that opened last summer. Worth your time.

Answer added March 8: Owners Scott Shor and Rich Carley opened The Charleston Beer Exchange only a few months ago. The rather small store is packed with only specialty beers. They also have six draft lines to fill growlers, often rare beers that may not otherwise be available in Charleston. There’s a list on their blog.