Beer Advent Calendar - December 13th

aksounder (57)in #beer • 6 years ago

Today brings a third helles style to the series. One a skunk, the other acceptable, both from fascinating locations. Let’s see if today’s beer pushes the average score for this style up or down.

Wittmann Urhell

Today’s beer comes in a … John Deere can? The glass fittingly fills with a deep, straw color. The flavor profile doesn’t hold a lot of surprises: raw wheat malt with fairly strong hops. This is the first in the series with a hop style that reminds me of an IPA; not floral or woody, just hops. It comes across as pretty basic.

The problem I find is copper penny, metallic off flavors creep up in the finish. It’s not as bad as the Grandl helles, but it’s hard to enjoy the simplicity of the beer when these unpleasant characteristics take over. Out of the three helles, Urtyp from December 10th easily takes the win.

Landshut, Germany

^{At 130.6 metres (428 ft) tall, Saint Martin's Church in Landshut is the tallest brick building in the world}

Bavaria is a popular state in this advent, and once more we sample a beer from the region. Landshut is the largest city of Lower Bavaria and a local economic force, boasting the best unemployment rate in the state (below 1.5%). Being so close to Munich--Germany’s third largest city and capital of Bavaria--is a large part of Landshut finding such success. It also means they’re not far from one of Europe’s best soccer teams, FC Bayern München.

_{Walls around the courtyard of Castle Trausnitz}

When Landshut was established in 1204, Castle Trausnitz was constructed. Only a small church was erected when the castle was built, and in 1389 the building of the monumental Saint Martin's Church began. For nearly 110 years, five architects worked on the church, taking 55 years on the tower alone. The entire project was completed in the year 1500.

Today's brewer has held a long tradition in this impressive city. For five generations Wittmann private brewery has been family owned. Their brewing origins hail back to 1616, when two small Landshut brewers combined efforts in an attempt to grow their business. Today, they strive to improve their craft, adopt modern techniques, all while maintaining the old Bavarian Purity Law.

_{Beer photographs by me. Pictures of Germany sources: 1 - 2}

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