Franconian Beer Message Board

Heinzlein
Posted by Barry Roy Taylor on 2020-05-09 04:34:32
Our in-house brewer (sort of), the much revered Andrew,always says the real art of a brewer is to brew a lower gravity beer that tastes good (please correct if I'm misquoting you Andy, because I quote this all the time!).  As I understand it, the reasoning is that anyone can brew a tasty beer just by chucking in loads of ingredients (one of the reasons why I'm not keen on adjuncts, like coffee, etc.) but it takes real skill to make something that tastes good with just hops, barley and yeast (and water, of course).

My early beer drinking experience was in the late 50s/early 60s in Manchester and the normal bitter was generally between 3.5 and 4.2%, with mild, which I drank as much as bitter, between 3 and 3.5%.  Now it's quite unusal to find a bitter at less than 4.5% and not unusual to find cask beers at over 6%.  I don't realy understand why Franken vom Fass beers are so strong (are any under 4.8%, apart from the Schlenkerla Helles?) and, IMHO, really to strong for a session - but, then, I can't drink as much beer now as I used to be able to.

Conversely, I love Belgian Abbey and Trappist beers and have just ordered my third batch from Beers of Europe, including a few St Bernardus Abt 12's!  But this is for sitting at home and having a couple of bottles in a night drinking not for sitting for a night in a pub!

And I absolutely concur about Czech lagers, so it seems perverse that the new Czech breweries are now brewing high octane ales!  It's the trend, I suppose.
 
Followups:
               Heinzlein by Andrew H on  2020-05-09 12:12:59
                 Heinzlein by Jason  on  2020-05-09 12:29:33
                   Heinzlein by JohnRatcliffe on  2020-05-09 16:37:46
                   Heinzlein by Andrew H on  2020-05-10 03:28:56
                     Heinzlein by Uncle Jimbo on  2020-05-19 02:05:39
                       Heinzlein by Barry Roy Taylor on  2020-05-19 02:48:23
                       Heinzlein by Barry Roy Taylor on  2020-05-19 02:48:24
                         Heinzlein by Mark Andersen on  2020-05-19 05:50:17
                           Heinzlein by Barry Roy Taylor on  2020-05-20 03:01:43
                             Heinzlein by Barm on  2020-05-20 16:00:10
                             Heinzlein by Mark Andersen on  2020-05-20 19:23:25
                               Heinzlein by Barry Roy Taylor on  2020-05-21 01:01:49
                               Heinzlein by Barry Roy Taylor on  2020-05-21 02:44:48
                                 Heinzlein by Barm on  2020-05-22 13:16:52
                                   Heinzlein by FredW on  2020-05-22 13:18:56
                                     Heinzlein by Barm on  2020-05-23 05:40:19
                                       Heinzlein by Barm on  2020-05-23 08:12:41
                                         Heinzlein by FredW on  2020-05-23 08:49:54
                                           Heinzlein is bottom fermented by Uncle Jimbo on  2020-05-30 12:00:37
                   Most Catholic Area in Bavaria by Nick B (formerly in Erlangen) on  2020-06-03 09:33:13
                     Most Catholic Area in Bavaria by Jason on  2020-06-03 13:30:53
                       Most Catholic Area in Bavaria by Nick B (ex-ErlangerNick) on  2020-06-05 11:42:48