Beer Advent Calendar - December 17th

aksounder (57)in #beer • 9 years ago

Keeping in the color scheme of yesteryday’s beer, this one is fit for the cold winter season. We’ll see if the name is true; is this really a “special” festbier?

Das Besondere Festbier

A large head builds during the pour with a long retention period. The beer itself is active, exhibiting a steady flow of bubbles in the glass. The color is rich amber, getting deeper in tone at the center of the glass.

Solid caramel malts make up the body accented by roasted malt similar to a salted pretzel. A hint of chocolate at the edge of the caramel makes me think of milk duds candy. The hop's mild bitterness keeps an edge off the sweetness and provides a nice, strong woodsy profile.

The hops dominate with a strong finish. I enjoy this brew all around. This one comes off like a light beer doing its best to be dark, or the other way around. It’s caught in the middle, unsure which side of the force to choose.

Pulling back another layer of the veil

Privatbrauerei H. Egerer takes hold of another, but for each beer I can’t find an original brewer, I discover a little more behind this conspiracy.

A company called Bayern-Dose is a contract can producer in Grossköllnbach. Legislation in Germany makes packaging beverages in cans very cost prohibitive, so glass bottles, sometimes refillable, are the common method of distribution.

Bayern-Dose offers medium to smaller sized German brewers the opportunity to export in cans. Who fills those cans? Yeah, H. Egerer. Did Egerer think Americans wouldn't be interested enough to know more about these beers? They were wrong!

Shame for putting your name on every single can as "brewer" and omitting the original beer maker. Unfortunately, today another brewer is lost in the Egerer conspiracy, but we’ve pretty much unveiled the truth.

_{Beer photographs by me. Can image via Pixabay.}

_{Previous Advent Calendar entries: Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16}