Franconian Beer Message Board

Urban Chestnut Zwickel
Posted by Mark Andersen on 2015-01-16 20:41:44
"I'm confident all would be perfectly lovely and harmonious if we were to share a seidla or two at some of our favorite haunts!"

Of course and perhaps we will someday. 

Even though we may disagree vehemently on certain things it's clear we're both passionate about Franconia and it's beer.  So there is a huge swath of common ground.  Oh and I did not say RateBeer is basically useless.  I said it was almost useless as a statistical tool to rate the quality of beer.  There are many reasons I feel that way and I won't elaborate on that here and now too much but I think when it comes to Franconia in particular I think the beers are underrated on there for probably at least a couple of reasons. 

1.  A lot of people are rating these beers from the bottle and not getting them on their home turf under their best conditions where they really shine.

2.  There's no accounting for difficulty level.  These styles of beer are harder to brew with must less margin for error.  They are more subtle than the army of Double IPA's, Imperials Stouts, etc. that we're awash with here in the USA and that typically rate higher than the Franconian lagers.  I think these lagers deserve a greater appreciation than they get on RateBeer and sadly I think they are often being compared to the far less subtle beers that a lot of the beer geeks on there really appreciate.

3.  Of course the beers that are outright failures are just from lack of effort and/or competence.  However a lot of these Franconian countryside breweries are small family owned businesses that don't make a lot of money, charge very little for their beer, don't have anywhere near the best equipment nor can they afford it, are catering for a local clientele, are probably hanging by a thread financially in many cases, etc. etc.  The ones that manage to consistently pull off good to outstanding beer on a reasonably consistent basis I take my hat off to them and when I run into one that is outstanding I'm honestly in awe.  Mind you I'm not talking about the rich breweries of Bamberg that have a huge captured market.  In their case there is no excuse for less than excellence.  But a countryside brewery run by some guy in his 70's with old equipment charging 1.80 for a seidla that brews a good beer or better.  They have my respect and support.  I can't find it wthin myself to go onto a site like RateBeer or here and have a go at them.  We're lucky they exist at all and in many case they won't for long.  Sadly.

So yeah in summary I do get a little defensive about Franconia when it comes to this stuff.  I hope this helps explain why.

Mark


 
 
Followups:
                   Urban Chestnut Zwickel by barry on  2015-01-17 09:48:25
                     Urban Chestnut Zwickel by Mark Andersen on  2015-01-18 10:28:34
                       Urban Chestnut Zwickel by johnratcliffe on  2015-01-18 14:24:17
                         Urban Chestnut Zwickel by Mosquit on  2015-01-19 00:48:27
                       Untergärig vs. Obergärig by Nick B. on  2015-01-19 02:02:31
                           Urban Chestnut Zwickel by barry on  2015-01-19 02:05:51
                         Untergärig vs. Obergärig by barry on  2015-01-19 02:13:05
                           Untergärig vs. Obergärig by Nick B. on  2015-01-19 02:35:18
                             Urban Chestnut Zwickel by Nick B. on  2015-01-19 02:40:03
                         Untergärig vs. Obergärig - top/bottom fermenting naming + history in Czech by Mosquit on  2015-01-19 03:39:03
                           Untergärig vs. Obergärig - top/bottom fermenting naming + history in Czech by Nick B. on  2015-01-19 05:04:33
                             Untergärig vs. Obergärig - top/bottom fermenting naming + history in Czech by Mosquit on  2015-01-19 05:38:56
                               Untergärig vs. Obergärig - top/bottom fermenting naming + history in Czech by barry on  2015-01-19 06:36:34
                                 Untergärig vs. Obergärig - top/bottom fermenting naming + history in Czech by Mosquit on  2015-01-19 06:43:27
                           Urban Chestnut Zwickel by Mark Andersen on  2015-01-19 07:33:03
                             Urban Chestnut Zwickel by Mark Andersen on  2015-01-19 07:33:31
                               Correction by Mark Andersen on  2015-01-19 07:34:16
                             OT: Urban Chestnut Zwickel - homebrewing franconia beers - books ? by Mosquit on  2015-01-19 07:55:50
                             Untergärig vs. Obergärig - top/bottom fermenting naming + history in Czech by FredW on  2015-01-19 08:03:52
                               Untergärig vs. Obergärig - top/bottom fermenting naming + history in Czech by Nick B. on  2015-01-20 05:09:00
                                 Untergärig vs. Obergärig - top/bottom fermenting naming + history in Czech by Mosquit on  2015-01-20 06:27:18
                                   Untergärig vs. Obergärig - top/bottom fermenting naming + history in Czech by Nick B. on  2015-01-20 07:13:21
                                     Repitching yeast by FredW on  2015-01-20 07:35:41
                                       Repitching yeast by Mosquit on  2015-01-20 09:03:27
                                         Repitching yeast by Nick B. on  2015-01-21 00:52:36
                                           Repitching yeast by Nick B. on  2015-01-21 00:53:26
                                           Repitching yeast + cost calculation by Mosquit on  2015-01-21 02:44:18
                                             Repitching yeast + cost calculation by Mark Andersen on  2015-01-21 07:29:12
                                               Repitching yeast + cost calculation by Mosquit on  2015-01-21 07:53:28