Franconian Beer Message Board
St. Louis at Schanzenbraeu, Nuremberg |
| Posted by DonS on 2011-08-25 09:17:22 |
| It's not saccharin-like - it's actually saccharin, which is also very much a "Reinheitsgebot-unfriendly" additive. That's one of the dirty little secrets of Belgian brewing, especially those sickly-sweet fruit beers. The big Whole Foods supermarket chain in the USA recently dropped the entire line of fruit lambics from the largest Belgian lambic producer, after discovering that they, too, employ saccharin as a sweetener. The reason is simple and obvious: throw in a non-fermentable sweetener, and you have a relatively stable product, at least for a while. If you keep a saccharin-sweetened beer around for a while, saccharin, like other artificial sweeteners, will break down, and instead of sweetness, on of the breakdown byproducts is a mild smoke phenol. Odd but true. I've tasted it myself. If you stick to strictly traditional Oude Gueuze from Belgium, those are much more in the line of Reinheitsgebot-compliant; in fact, they almost comply with the original letter of the law, since it didn't specify yeast! But the non-compliancy there is the use of malted and unmalted wheat, or in the case of a properly made fruit lambic, fruit. Which is why Café Abseits gets the nod, assuming Gerhard still has any of the 3F Oude Kriek in stock. Otherwise, if you're gonna have sour and stick with the Reinheitsgebot, Ritterguts Gose and Talschänke's Weisse do the job quite well. |