Rosengarten Maisgold Spezial Bier
Brewed by Rosengarten AG
Style: Sweet Corn Beer/Specialty Beer
Einsiedeln, Switzerland
Rosengarten (Rose Garden) is a family run brewery in the small town of Einsiedeln in central Switzerland. The Brewery is going for over a 100 years now and is well known in Switzerland for its specialty beers, most notably its corn beer, its “Maisgold” (corn gold).
The Obermühle Steinen mill wanted a beer to celebrate its anniversary, so they approached Wäfler, a Lucerne based brewery, with the idea of producing a beer made from corn, as a gift to its customers. Unfortunately, over time, the brewery went bankrupt and so was the end of the special beer. But there was a clamour from the public who had got found of this unique beer. So a new brewery was needed to continue this production. Not least the beer was a financial hit for the mill too! In 1978, the Rosengarten brewery was asked if they would be prepared to produce a specialty beer with the maize from the Obermühle Steinen, and they agreed, and so in 1980 , the brewery launched the Maisgold.
It is by no means their only type of beer that they produce, as they also make lagers, wheat beers, and bocks, but it is their Maisgold that is their number one seller and what they are widely known for.
Review: 33cl bottle of Rosengarten Maisgold Spezial Biere: 5% vol.
The beer is brewed with a share of about 30% corn from the Bruhin mill and from the Linthebene, barley malt and hops. The corn causes it to be tasty, light and rather sweetish.
Intriguing beer, never seen a sweetcorn beer on offer before so just had to buy it. Nice logo of a sweetcorn, making no doubt to whats the major ingredient here.
On pour we get a golden colour with a very disappointing white head. No head at all really, very slight, overall a very flat look. Doesn’t look great at all.
Get a good whiff of barley malts in the smell, also it is quite wheaty and with corn on the nose. Smells like a regular lager. Not a bad aroma.
Initial taste is that its a very light beer, with a lot of malt.
Can taste the sweet corn for sure, it is there! It is very sweet and inoffensive, nothing to get too excited about either way. A strong taste of cereal and grains too, which wasn’t pleasant.
The hops came to prominence after a while, and I found them a little too intense and not particularly nice to drink. Bit of an “urgh” aftertaste.
Overall I thought this beer was rather bland and nothing special, with or without the corn, big deal. Boring.
Not a whole lot in the bottle too which is a bit disappointing. 
In the late 1990’s, the Lion Nathan brewery in Australia produced a beer called “Duff Beer”. 20th Century Fox brought legal action against the company. The product was ordered to be pulled off store shelves and destroyed, even though the beer had no direct relation to the comedy series, or any similar colouring or logo design. A similar thing happened to Duff Brewery in Dunedin, New Zealand who were brewing their stuff well before even the Simpsons were on the box. To escape heavy court cases and legal drama the company changed the name eventually to McDuff in the end!
For the actual show version of the beer, Duff is made by Duff Breweries in Springfield, small town USA. Duffman, a superhero kind of guy, is their always enthusiastic spokesman all the time wearing a utility belt full of cans of Duff Beer. The beer’s slogan is “Can’t Get Enough of That Wonderful Duff”, though there are others.
Very carbonated on pour, all fizzing away no end, resulting in a very nice and white frothy headed beer that has a nice clear golden colour. Some slight lacing going on. The beer manages to maintain its head throughout. Overall its a pretty decent looking beer. A good start!.
Not without problems it has to be said, as Heineken, or more like their Greek subsidiary, Athenian Brewery, were fined £25 million by the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC), for abuse of the market by squeezing out competitors through exclusivity agreements and aggressive practices of domination, over a 15-year period. The company was found to be in breach of Greek and EU competition law. Macedonian Thrace Brewery who initiated the lawsuit are also seeking damages from the parent company, as a small Greek brewery they felt stepped on by the large multinational and its aggressive behaviour in distorting the local market. It is said that Athenian Brewery had used “exclusivity agreements” to force publicans to stock Heineken brands, and by offering wholesalers “significant economic motives” to promote their own specific brands while at the same time to refrain from introducing competing products. Well all is fair in love and war I guess!
Aroma is of sweet malts, but overall it is quite light on the nose. 
One I got on the holiday island of Corfu. 
Barley strong in this one, plus very grainy. 
Pour a pure yellow colour, looks like a very watered down dilutable orange drink more than anything else, or you could say some fruit juice. No such thing as a head on this fella, but then did you really expect one?