Franconian Beer Message Board
Biolégère & Session Beer in Franken |
| Posted by Nick B. on 2012-01-11 23:05:03 |
| Indeed it is superb. It is a bit thinner than the better bottled English session beers of similar strength and colour though (Jarl, Wild Swan, Mary Jane). It seems more like a watered down saison, more like it's lacking something whereas those others don't. Of course a 3.5% pale ale is "watery" compared to a 5 - 6% pale ale, or even a 4.2% one. But the English seem to have a better talent for getting more character into their low-gravity beers. The Biolégère is dominated by a light bubble-gum note, whereas the others are dominated by hops. It's a very pleasant alternative, and actually, the 25cl bottle is a perfect serving size to go with a salad or second course, or as a quick end-of-workday splash. If I could get these four session beers affordably at home, I wouldn't really need to brew at home. Though the missus has grown very fond of our überhoppy homebrew. (The English ones can be delivered for about 4€ per 50cl bottle, about 8 times what my homebrew raw material costs are.) Which brings me to low-gravity Franconian beer. I've yet to have a low-alcohol Lager that comes close to the quality of these English & Belgian treats, let alone my homebrew. Mahr's and Löwenbräu both exhibit a nasty, vegetal character rendering them undrinkale for me. There are a couple of drinkable low-alcohol hefeweizens around, most notably Schneider (not Franconian though) and Gutmann, but as a non-weizen-drinker, this doesn't really help me much. So is low-gravity lager more difficult to brew than low-gravity ale? I think one of the secrets to the success of the better English versions is the hoppiness. The brewers don't seem to cut the hops in half like they do with the malt, making these very hoppy. Biolégère isn't as hoppy, but does have a strong yeast note. The Franconian ones have strong notes resulting from procedural problems. Could more hops simply cover these up? |
| Followups: |
 Guineu Riner a 2.8% ABV pale ale from Spain by Uncle Jimbo on 2012-01-12 12:06:51 |
| Guineu Riner a 2.8% ABV pale ale from Spain by Nick B. on 2012-01-12 12:43:59 |
| Guineu Riner a 2.8% ABV pale ale from Spain by Uncle Jimbo on 2012-01-12 16:00:41 |
| Biolégère & Session Beer in Franken by DonS on 2012-01-13 06:02:41 |
| Biolégère & Session Beer in Franken by Nick B. on 2012-01-14 02:25:35 |
| Guineu Riner a 2.8% ABV pale ale from Spain by Nick B. on 2012-01-16 07:33:43 |