Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Malt Liquor

I felt like having a nice light-colored beer after the deliciousness that was Anchor Porter I had Monday, so I pulled a Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse out of the fridge. Now, there are a couple of weird things about this beer. First of all, in spite of being from Germany, one of the country that knows how to make a good beer, they put it in a damn green bottle! Clear and green bottles are a big pet peeve of mine, but especially in this case because I've seen pictures of this beer in a brown bottle. Second of all, I would think that "Hefe-Weisse" would classify it as a hefeweizen, but apparently, in tiny text to the right of the logo on the label, it's clearly classified as a malt liquor. Apparently it's some weird classification thing, but it lumps good beers like this into Olde English 800 and other cheap "high gravity" beers. Third is the naming confusion. I've seen "Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse" (my bottle), "Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier," "Franziskaner Weissbier," and "Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Hell" (the hell is German for "bright"), and I think that these may all be the same things.

The Franziskaner brewery can trace its history back to 1363, when a brewer named Seidel Vaterstetter was first mentioned to own "the brewery next to the Franciscans [monks]" in the Munich Residenzstraße. The fact that it was across the street from the monastery is how Franziskaner got its name. After changing hands a couple times and merging with the Leist Brewery in 1861 and Spaten in 1922, Spaten-Franziskaner-Leistbräu AG has Munich artist Ludwig Hohlwein create Franziskaner's mascot, the "Franciscan Friar," which adorns each bottle to this day. I have no idea when Franziskaner was brought under the InBev name, but probably sometime in the last couple decades. InBev says it was sometime after 2001, and Wikipedia says 2004. My guess is that the weissbier has been brewed all this time, even before the German Purity Law, which this beer follows. (Printable Franziskaner history, About InBev, Franziskaner Wikipedia entry, InBev's Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse page)


Here are the stats:

Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Malt Liquor
BREWERY: Spaten-Bräu, Munich, Germany (under the InBev umbrella)
FIRST BREWED: 1363
CALORIES/SERVING:
BITTERNESS:
ABV: 5.1%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY:
MALTS:
HOPS:
SERVING TEMPERATURE:
FOODS TO PAIR WITH:
AWARDS:

I got my first-brewed date inferred from the language of InBev's Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse page, where I also got the ABV.

The beer poured an exquisite cloudy golden color, meaning that it is unfiltered. The head exploded a white puffy cloud of bubbles from the bottom of the glass, though it reduced over the span of a minute or two. The aroma was very pleasing to the nose, a combination of orange and citrus with a hint of wheat. The taste was a little bubbly at first, but transitioned into a nice wheaty-citrus flavor. It wasn't too strong, but I feel it could've been a little stronger. The finish leaves a nice hint of wheat in the aftertaste, almost clean, without tasting stale.

This is a pretty good hefeweizen, and I still have no idea why it's called a malt liquor on the bottle. Because it's distributed by InBev and imported by Spaten, you can find it in a number of establishments.

Prost!

Radeberger Pilsner

The number of beer bottles in my fridge is dwindling, mostly because I want to clean out my fridge of all the beer I received and picked up before the wedding. I'm down to seven beers, and this is number 7: Radeberger Pilsner. I originally picked it up in one of those "beers of the world" multipacks from the BevMo! store in Sacrament three months ago. Since then, it's been relegated to the back of the fridge, waiting for it's day to shine. Well, today's the day, little pilsner.

The Radeberger Brewery started out in 1870 as the Aktienbrauerei Zum Bierkeller in Radeberg, a small town outside of Dresden in the Saxony region of Germany, by Conrad Brüne. In 1872, they became the first brewery in Germany to produce a pilsner, a style born 30 year prior in the town Plzeň in what is now the Czech Republic; in fact, it was the first beer they produced. In 1907, word of the brewery's success reached Saxony's king, King Friedrich August von Sachsen, who requested to visit the brewery. He must have been impressed, because in 1911 Brüne was designated as a Königlichen Kommerzienrat, or a "royal counsellor of commerce" (my 80+ year old German-English dictionary says that it was an honorary title bestowed upon merchants). The Radeberger Gruppe now owns many German breweries and brews many beers, including Clausthaler (non-alcoholic) and the aforementioned Henninger beers. It even controls a Czech brewery, the Královský Pivovar Krušovice (the Royal Brewery of Krušovice). (Radeberger Brewery Information (in German), Radeberger Gruppe AG Information, Geneaology of the Junod de Neuchâtel, German Beer Institute: Pils)

As a side note, if I were the President of the United States, I would visit breweries on a goodwill tour of our nation's brewing tradition. Microbreweries only, no big three macros. I would give brewers I particularly enjoyed some sort of Presidential commendation. And I would denounce any temperance/prohibition movements publicly.


Mini-rant over, here are the facts:

Radeberger Pilsner
BREWERY: Radeberger Exportbierbrauerei GmbH, Radeberger, Germany
FIRST BREWED: 1872
CALORIES/SERVING: per 12 oz. bottle
BITTERNESS:
ABV: 4.8%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 11.8° Plato (1047.74)
MALTS:
HOPS:
SERVING TEMPERATURE: 46-47°F (8°C)
FOODS TO PAIR WITH:
AWARDS:

The first brewed, ABV, original gravity, and serving temperature came from the Radeberger Pilsner website. I may contact the importer for more.

Once I poured the beer into the glass, the head seemed to explode skyward, with lots of foamy white bubbles filling up the entire space inside the glass. Once the bubbles reduced significantly, a cloudy golden beer was revealed. The aroma that emanated from the thick head that remained was grainy with a hint of metal. That metallic hint carried over into the beer, but it was largely muted by the hoppiness of the beer, making it a fair shake better than most pilsners. It's finish left a slight aftertaste, mostly grainy in nature.

Like I said, it tastes better than most pilsners that I've had, so if that's your style, try the one endorsed by a former King of Saxony.

Prost!

SITE UPDATE: I've updated the Deschutes Black Butte Porter page with additional info I received after placing a phone call to the brewery today. I'd like to thank Jimmy Seifrit, a brewer at Deschutes, for taking the time to answer questions from a tiny little blogger from Reno. Check it out!

Henninger Premium Frankfurt Beer Lager

I needed to drown my sorrows after a heartbreaking loss by my beloved Seahawks to the Arizona Cardinals. Long story short, Matt Hasselbeck fumbled on a hand-off during a 20-20 tie with less than two minutes to go. If there was no fumble, the 'hawks would've probably been within field goal ranger, possibly even in touchdown range. But as it turned out, Arizona was the team that got within field goal range with 0:05 left on the clock and ended up winning the game 23-20. I needed a beer.

So I reached in my fridge and grabbed the first beer I could: a Henninger Premium Frankfurt Beer, a German lager in a spoilage-inducing green glass bottle. I actually couldn't find any information on the beer itself, especially on Henninger's web site. It may be known by a different name over there, I'm not sure. Just like the beer's name states, the brewery is based in Frankfurt. According to the (poorly) translated company history, the brewery traces its roots back to when Eberhard Stein opened his brewery in 1655 Frankfurt, which was the "germ cell of the mark Henninger." After the death of Eberhard's last descendant, Johannes Stein, in 1873, Heinrich Christian Henninger took over the brewery and named it after himself. In 2002, the Henninger brewery was brought under the Binding umbrella, the same company that brews Radeberger Pilsner (what I will be having Wednesday). Like many German breweries, Henninger follows the Reinheitsgebot, or the German Purity Law, that only states water, barley, and hops can be used in brewing beer. (Company history in German or English Google Translation)


Here are the (limited) stats:

Henninger Premium Frankfurt Lager
BREWERY: Henninger-Bräu, Frankfurt, Germany
FIRST BREWED:
CALORIES/SERVING: per 12 oz. bottle
BITTERNESS:
ABV: 4.8%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY:
MALTS:
HOPS:
SERVING TEMPERATURE:
FOODS TO PAIR WITH:
AWARDS:

Like a golden Guinness, this beer had a fantastic head, clean, white and long-lasting, retaining its shape for a full minute. The beer itself was a clear straw color. Its aroma had the odor of wheat and other grains. It's taste, while having an initial carbonated bite, was very light and not really there at all. As a matter of fact, it was kind of blah. It did have some beer taste, but it wasted away in my mouth. However, it also didn't leave much of an aftertaste. Unfortunately, as I drank the beer, one started accumulating in my mouth, but then again, that's what a lot of beers do.

In conclusion, it's not a great beer, but it's a decent lager. Don't get it for the taste, but get it if you want something other than the Big Three at a bar.

Prost!