Franconian Beer Message Board

Landbier
Posted by Fred Waltman on 2003-02-05 13:32:50
Jos, I'm not going to disagree with you (well, maybe a little) but I don't think the diference is all that cut and dried. One problem with (primarily American) homebrewers is that there often is need to place each beer in a particular category. I think this arises from brewing competitions, where you want to taste like with like (not judging an Imperial Stouts after a Bohemian Pils). But brewers often don't follow this convention and old, established, generational brewers certainly don't. They call the beer whatever it has always been called. I don't think your average Franconia brewer, after changing the hopping rate is going to say "Oh, my landbier is now too hoppy, I must now call it kellerbier." Now I fully admit that I have a Bamberg area bias -- I have not sampled all that many beers in other regions. But breweries seem to call their beer just "Lagerbier" or "Vollbier" (which is not all that descriptive.) Franz Rittmayer, Hallerndorf is the only brewery that comes to mind that has beer labeled "kellerbier" and "landbier" (I'm sure there are many others) and I have not tasted them side by side. This brings up another point. Can you have a true kellerbier that is bottled. I lean towards "no" but some of the larger breweries to have bottled "Kellerbier". We can even buy St. Georgen Kellerbier here in LA. Similarly with Leikheim and their Landbier -- I think this is were Josh's German friends got the idea about it just being a name. If you're outside the immediate area the only beers with this name you get are from larger breweries, and they *do* have marketing departments. So while there may have been some historical difference between the two, I think that it had blurred somewhat. My rule of thumb is, if you are at a bier keller, its kellerbier, if in a country brewery, its landbier :) One final thought. You know the saying that your perception of another person intellegence is directly proportional do how much they agree with you? When this thread started I asked my friend Frank Wetzel from Bamberg (owner of http://www.biermarkt.com ) what the difference was between "landbier" and "kellerbier" and he said they are the same. The man must be a genius :)
 
Followups:
         Landbier by John Conen on  2003-02-05 14:21:57
           Landbier by Bronstein on  2003-02-05 22:16:36
             Landbier by Tom C on  2003-02-05 22:37:02
             Landbier by Josh Oakes on  2003-02-06 08:34:12
               Landbier by Tom C. on  2003-02-06 22:05:19
               Rauchbier varieties (was: Landbier) by Jos Brouwer on  2003-02-07 04:09:38
                 Rauchbier varieties (was: Landbier) by Josh Oakes on  2003-02-07 08:35:07
                   Rauchbier varieties (was: Landbier) by Fred Waltman on  2003-02-07 11:10:53
                 Rauchbier varieties (was: Landbier) by Bronstein on  2003-02-07 11:59:31
                     Rauchbier varieties (was: Landbier) by Jos Brouwer on  2003-02-07 12:23:52
                   Rauchbier varieties (was: Landbier) by Jos Brouwer on  2003-02-07 12:34:02
                       Schlenkerla Lagerbier (was: Rauchbier varieties ) by Fred Waltman on  2003-02-07 12:56:18
                         Schlenkerla Lagerbier (was: Rauchbier varieties ) by Jos Brouwer on  2003-02-07 13:08:21
             Landbier by Andreas on  2003-02-10 00:10:50
               Landbier by Bronstein on  2003-02-10 02:19:46
                     Rauchbier varieties (was: Landbier) by John Conen on  2003-02-27 14:55:27
               Landbier by Robbie Pickering on  2003-03-05 10:24:14
                 Landbier by Gerhard Schoolmann on  2003-04-17 12:16:58
                   Landbier/Landbierparadies by Fred Waltman on  2003-04-17 17:53:31