Friday Cheer! German Beer Tasting

A local party supply store, which has the largest selection of wines, spirits, and beers I've ever seen, began their annual Thursday night series called Burgers and Beers. You sample several beers and enjoy a gourmet burger centered around a theme.  Last night's theme was German Invasion, so we sampled 7 different German-style beers and devoured burgers with saurkraut, a potato pancake, thousand island dressing, and Swiss cheese.  It was sheer genius to put a crispy potato pancake on a burger - crunchy, starchy, meaty - perfect with some beers!

I went with my roommate and we relaxed in the sunshine on the patio, listening to live music and sipping our brews.  A tray of raw milk cheddar continued to stop by our table, so I had to have a cube. Or three. Don't judge!

Here are the brews we tasted, along with our opinions:

1. Steigel Raddler -  light, detectable but not overpowering grapefruit flavor, refreshing.  Best beer of the night! 

2. Warsteiner Lager - Kayleigh put it best; it's a classy Keystone Light. Very light lager and an odd malty aftertaste. 

3. Weihenstephaner Heffe - hefewizen from the oldest brewery in Germany. Deliciously balanced, but I am partial to heffe's.

4. Great Lakes Doppelrock - malty, caramely, balanced, but not heavy. I've loved this before and loved it again.

5. Rivertown Bock - mildly malty and not heavy. Not my favorite bock, but not too shabby. I'd choose other brews from 

Rivertown over this one, though.

6. Avery Schwarzbier -  dark, rich, very malty and noteably hoppy. 

Tasty enough that I'd go back for seconds.

7. Ayinger Celebrator -   also dark and rich, full of malt and chocolate

flavors, but less noticeable hop. Balanced. Loved the goat charm on 

the bottle. We named him Steve. 

There was also a raffle with the chance to win free beer. Obviously we entered it, a ticket for each of us. Before Kayleigh even finished saying "I never win anything", her ticket number was called. She chose a 64oz growler of the Steigl Raddler, our favorite beer of the night. Awesome!  

So the growler of Stiegl Raddler had a friend in the fridge, I also purchased a growler of Bloody Show, a pilsner with blood orange produced by Against the Grain and Mikkeller.  I bought it because the words "blood orange" lured me in. My first taste of the brew proved to be good but not as great as I'd hoped.  It had an indistinct citrus flavor and a very bitter note, which was surprising considering it is a pilsner and not a pale ale.  Maybe my expectations were high because of how awesome the Stiegl Raddler was.  I'll still drink it, no worries!

Against the Grain/Mikkeller's
Bloody Show
A pilsner with blood orange
5.5% ABV

Stiegel's
Grapefruit Raddler
A light beer with grapefruit
2.5% ABV
That's Steve the Goat from the Celebrator bottle
He wanted to come with us

We'll get to work on those growlers.  I hope you have some refreshing Friday cheer in your near future!

Happy Friday!!!