Tasted: Munich Dunkel 1.0

Again, as we trace our brewing heritage, we end up time and time again in the Bavarian countryside.  This adventure has lead us to one of the brewingest cities in the world, Munich, Germany.  The beer I'm sampling bears this great city's name as little other is associated with the style than its birthplace.  Munich Dunkel merely refers to a dark colored beer that's made in Munich.  It's described as being a dark colored lager with no overwhelming characteristics of its own.  It's not roasty, chocolately, or particularly sweet or bitter.  The challenge here is to make a beer that matches what's made in the home of the Oktoberfest.

Aroma:  7
Appearance:  10
Style:  7
Bitterness:  4
Maltiness:  4
Mouthfeel:  5
Head:  5
Balance:  5

These marks earn the Munich Dunkel a 47 out of 55 and a rating of 85%.  This beer greets its consumer with a dark brown body with a slightly creamy light brown head which dissipates slowly.  Unfortunately, there's no impressive aroma to draw you in.  You have to dive right in hoping Ze Germans have lead us in the right direction.  The first sip is light and thin, as a lager should be, and waves a fond farewell as its malts slip away down your throat, leaving only the hint of roastiness as evidence that it was ever there.  It's easy drinking that keeps you coming back for more, as its light unassuming balance leads the way.

As tricksy as this style may be, I believe we are certainly close.  I'd say small changes would put us right in the style, as I remember it.  The removal of the "Carafa I" would be my first improvement.  It was only added to keep the color profile in the style guidelines.  Unfortunately for this style to be truley traditional it must be decocted to give it a darker color.  I chose melanioden malt as a substitute.  Maybe next time a longer boil or a small decoction could help the color along and possibly improve on the caramel flavor I remember so well.

Recipe: Munich Dunkel

Tasted: German Pilsener 2.0

In a ode to Deutschland and one of the cleanest beverages of all time, we created our German Pilsener, version 2.0.  After our first attempt at the style missed the mark by a close margin, and the relative success of the beer, we decided to do it again with a few enhancements.  The first version was fairly close flavor-wise, but ended up a bit too malty.  Two changes were made to get this right: mash at a lower temperature and increase the IBUs.  The results are as follows:

Aroma:  7
Appearance:8
Style:  9
Bitterness:  6
Maltiness:  5
Mouthfeel:  5
Head:  6
Balance:  3

These marks earn the German Pilsener a 45 our of 55 and a rating of 82%.  The appearance of this beer lends itself directly to what you think it is, a clean crisp pilsener, despite the overabundance of head.  Its a different story once you get close.  This beer starts out with what would seem to be an uncharacteristic nose.  It teases with hints of banana and spice then smacks you in the face with stiff bitterness as you take your first sip.  As the bitterness fades, light bodied malt rolls off your tongue to reveal the balance of true pilsener.  Personally, I prefer a drier, more bitter pilsener, but I thought this a bit unbalanced as the bitterness seemed to stark.  I think a slight decrease in IBUs can counter this imperfection.  As for the aroma, a lower fermentation temperature should decrease the bananas and spice to create an all around balanced, clean beer.

Recipe: German Pils 2.0