Tag Archives: German beers

Maisel's Weisse Original

Maisel’s Weisse Original

Maisel’s Weisse Original

https://www.maisel.com

Brewed by Brauerei Gebrüder Maisel  
Style: Weissbier – Hefeweizen
Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany

Maisel's Weisse OriginalFounded in 1887 by brothers, Eberhardt and Hans Maisel, Brauerei Gebrüder Maisel is a family-owned brewery located in Bayreuth, a small city on the Red Main River in Bavaria, Germany. The brewery is best known for their wheat beer, Maisel Weisse, and is the fourth largest producer of wheat beer in the country, which is some achievement when you consider how the Germans love their Weissbier’s!

The brewery is nowadays run by Jeff Maisel, the fourth generation owner of the family business.

Review: 0,5l bottle of Maisel’s Weisse Original: 5.2% vol.

A beer that has a very high score in a certain beer rating website, a top 50 beer no less.

A nice brown bottle with a lovely looking logo, nothing particularly amazing but the name of the brewery laid out in lovely blue lettering, surrounded by shreds of wheat and hops. Simple but effective. Bottle conditioned. 

Maisel's Weisse OriginalA cloudy look on pour, producing a hazy orange amber coloured beer, with a decent enough white head appearing. Head is frothy and sticks around. Not a bad looker.

Smell is one of a typical Hefeweizen bier. It is nice and well balanced, getting the clove, the yeast, the fruits and, of course, the wheat! Inviting.

First impressions on the taste was how soft and crisp the beer was, a real lovely velvety feel on the tongue, really smooth and so nice to drink. What a good start!

This beer is so easy to drink and instantly puts you in a very relaxed mood. 

Maisel's Weisse OriginalGetting all the pure wheat beer tastes, the coriander and the cloves, but ever so soft and fresh on the tongue, Very gentle and smooth in the mouth.
I like this a lot!!! The main fruits are of banana and lemon, the wheat, the hops, and the “cellar yeast”, prominent of course, are all easily detected, all well balanced and in perfect harmony. 

Also you get quite a lot in the bottle, love it as I exactly wanted a couple of beers to last a few hours to relax with.

Silky on the tongue, a very solid, well balanced, and highly satisfying beer, liked this one a lot. A perfect beer to relax with. Delicious. Recommended.

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Wulle Biere Vollbier Hell

Wulle Biere Vollbier Hell

Wulle Biere Vollbier Hell

https://www.wulle-bier.de

Brewed by Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu
Style: Helles
Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

The name comes from Ernst Imanuel Wulle, who after an apprenticeship as a brewer in Stuttgart, decided to go it alone and open up his own enterprise, in 1832. Albeit his good wife, Wilhelmine, who came from a very wealthy background, also had a helping hand. 

Wulle Biere Vollbier HellOver time the brewery has changed ownership, and in 1994, saw a coming together of two old Stuttgart breweries, the Dinkelacker Brewery and Schwaben Brau resulting in The Dinkelacker-Schwaben Brau GmbH & Co. KG been formed.

A brief stint with beer giants InBev taking over in 2004 ended in 2007 when the company returned to its status as an independent family-owned company.

Dinkelacker-Schwaben Brau produce numerous beer brands all over Germany with considerable success, multi million sales an average every year.

Review: 0.5l nice red can of Wulle Biere Vollbier Hell: 5% vol.

Wulle Biere Vollbier HellOn the can get a nice logo of the brewery, the Wulle Biere in distinctive red, easy to spot. 

On pour it looks nice, getting a good white frothy head, with a lovely clear and clean golden yellow coloured beer. Not a bad looking beer for sure.

Not much of a smell from the beer at all, pretty odourless, get a slight whiff of sweet malts and that’s about it. Disappointing.

Poured cold from the fridge.

On the taste, got some lovely big mouthfuls that were oh so tasty and full of sweet malts. 

Wulle Biere Vollbier HellA very smooth beer to drink and you get a lot in the can so plenty to enjoy.

This is really a great drink served cold. Lovely. A really good lager that was so gentle with my taste buds, crisp and refreshing. Liked it a lot. High drinkablity.  

Getting the light malts, the barley, grains, all well balanced, a light beer that is very crisp and clean, light bitterness, and very easy to enjoy. 

An easy drinking beer that is not pretentious and gets the simple things right, and a beer that put me in a great mood. I will drink to that. Recommended, a perfect session beer!

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Arcobräu Mooser Liesl 

Arcobräu Mooser Liesl

Arcobräu Mooser Liesl 

arcobraeu.de

Brewed by Arcobräu Gräfliches Brauhaus 
Style: Helles
Moss, Bavaria, Germany

Arcobräu Mooser Liesl Arcobräu is a brewery in the Lower Bavarian small town of Moos, in South Eastern Germany, close to the Austrian and Czech borders. The brewery has been owned by the Arco-Zinneberg family for 450 years and is one of the larger breweries in the region with annual sales regularly hitting the 20 million Euro mark. 

Having a recorded history dating way back to 1567, but it was not until the merger of various family-owned breweries in 1960 that today’s company Arcobräu with its headquarters in Moos was built. In the early 1990s, Arcobräu took over a number of smaller breweries in Eastern Bavaria. From 2014 to 2016 they continued this habit of acquisitions, taking over the brewery Irlbach, and the Eschenbacher private brewery, and in cooperation with the Grünbacher brewery based in Erding. Reminds me of that gag in Only Fools and Horses about Triggers old broom which had 17 new heads and 14 new handles!! 

Review: 0,5l bottle of Arcobräu Mooser Liesl: 5.3% vol.

Arcobräu Mooser Liesl Cool looking blue logo, woman with a pitcher on the nice brown bottle. 

On pour we get a light golden yellow colour, with a small whitish head appearing. Looks not too bad at all, pretty good on the eye.

Head maintains well, some good lacing.

Colour went a bit hazy after a while, but still a looker overall. 

Typical fruity aroma on the nose, very malty, lots of grains and wheat, grassy smell. Not bad.

Arcobräu Mooser Liesl Tastes citrusy and grainy, and very light, clean and easy to drink.  
Get an awful lot in the bottle, which is always good. 

Slightly hoppy, but light and not a bother, and well balanced with the malts and fruits.  

An enjoyable beer without been anything amazing, very easy to drink.

Taste is sweet malts, light hop tastes, mild bitterness, all blended well to give a very well balanced beer. 

Not bad, refreshing and enjoyable, clean and soft on the tongue, and smooth enough. Inoffensive but did the business. Might buy again!

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Mahrs Bräu

Mahrs Bräu

Mahrs Bräu

https://www.mahrs.de

Brewed by Mahr’s Bräu 
Style: Helles 
Bamberg, Germany

Mahrs BräuThe Mahr brewery, with a history dating way back to the 17th century, is situated in Upper Franconia, in the city of Bamberg, northern Bavaria, Germany. The name of the brewery comes from a Karl Mahr who purchased the brewery in 1840. The early brewery changed hands a few times but since 1895 it is owned by the Michel family, now into its 4th generation of ownership under the stewardship of Stephan Michel.

They produce all the usual suspects one would expect from a large German brewery….. a Kellerbier, Pilsener’s, seasonal beers, a few varieties of bocks, a hell, and celebratory beers for local and regional gatherings, and a beer to be opened on New Years day. The beers are sold mostly in Western Europe, but also to the USA where they have their biggest market share worldwide. 

Review: 0,5l bottle of Mahrs Bräu Bamberg, Bamberger Original Helles: 4.9% vol.

Mahrs BräuLove the bottle and the logo, a striking light blue winged man, bit strange but stands out.

The appearance of the beer is one of a crisp golden yellow colour with a small white head. A lot of carbonation on the pour, gushing out, but it all quickly evaporates and the head dies a quick death. Bit flat in the look, not great at all.

Get a general lager smell on the nose, malty, grainy, earthy hops but not much of an aroma, pretty much odourless. Disappointing. 

Mahrs BräuA full bodied beer on the taste, nice and crisp is the initial reaction, all smooth and easy to drink, good first impression. Sweet malts and grains to the fore.

There is a slight aftertaste that is a bit “yuck”, but its ever so slight. Afterwards though, it does gnaw at me. 

Got that bitter taste a lot more in the second bottle. Was too much for me to ignore and enjoy this beer. Overdid it with the hops, powering over the malts, overbearing, and lingers. Could be the spiciness too. 

Overall a disappointing beer.

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Duff Beer

The Legendary Duff Beer

Duff Beer

https://www.duff-beverage.com/duff-beer.html

Brewed by Duff beverage GmbH
Style: European Pale Lager 
Lohnbrauhausen, Germany

“Can’t get enough of that wonderful Duff!”

Who hasn’t heard of Duff Beer? From the TV show, The Simpsons, its Homers go to beer, and a brand that doesn’t need any advertising. Homers love of the beer knows no bounds, “Ah, good ol’ trustworthy beer. My love for you will never die” 

Where the beer got the name “Duff” has always intrigued fans of the show. The actual word is slang in England for “Useless” or “Broken”, but I have never heard it used. I do know it can be a surname (Damien Duff anyone), and in Ireland to be “Up the Duff” means that the girl got pregnant! So perhaps Duff signifies a useless over rated everyday common mans swill, ie like Budweiser? For sure Homer is that beer guzzler who doesn’t give a fuck what he is drinking. 

With the success of the show it was only a matter of time that some real breweries got in on the action and started making “Duff Beer” a reality, and resulting in numerous legal actions and naming disputes. 

Duff BeerIn 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!

Since 2006, Rodrigo Contreras, from Guadalajara, Mexico has sold Duff beer. Registering the “Duff” trademark in Mexico, Contreras designed the bottle to be identical to the one portrayed on The Simpsons TV show. Since its inception, the Mexican brand Duff has spread to other countries in Latin-America, most notably to Brazil, Chile, Colombia, among others.

In Germany, we got the Duff Beverage GmbH rolling out their Duffs in 1999, while the Eschweger Klosterbrauerei, a brewery in Hessen, brewed their version of Duff Beer under the German Reinheitsgebot, under contract for Duff Beer UG. Two Duffs, one country, crazy stuff! Or that’s what I think, it isn’t very clear, and there might have even been a division between the two German Duffs, ex colleagues and partners doing their own versions and hence the two different brands. I am not sure on this one, but all I know is that the Duff Beverage GmbH is the original and authorized German Duff beer!! (For now at least!!) 

In Chile, unauthorized “Duff beer” in the country, was rampant, literally the beer was to be found everywhere. This was the straw that broke the camels back. 21st Century Fox just had to step in. 

Because so many breweries were capitalizing on “Duff Beer”, 21st Century Fox finally relented and decided to sell their own version, the true version you could say, of “Duff Beer”. Much easier to take on the cowboys when you have an actual real life brand at hand rather than something just on the TV screens (Intellectual property laws tend to be hard to enforce for fictional products). Previously Matt Groening, the Simpsons creator, had stated that he did not wish to license the Duff trademark and sell an actual beer as he was worried it would encourage children to drink. Yeah for sure! Cause a drunken half naked beer bellied Homer is something that kids can aspire to (I guess!)

An officially licensed Duff Beer is sold at the show’s themed areas at Universal Studios parks in Orlando and Los Angeles, in replicas of Moe’s Tavern and a waterfront Duff Brewery. They also sell a canned energy drink in a can that is designed to look exactly a Duff beer can from the show. In 2015, they began selling licensed Duff beer in Chile, and in time they hope to expand worldwide.

Duff BeerFor 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.

In the show there are quite a few varieties of Duff Beer. Despite Homer and Barney not noticing, regular Duff, Duff Light, and Duff Dry are the same beer, we have a Duff Stout, “the beer that made Ireland famous”,  a “Scandinavian Düff, the Beer of Danish Kings”, a Malaysian Duff” made of soy sauce, a Duffenbrau, the higher-quality “semi-imported” version of Duff, Raspberry Duff, Tartar-Control Duff, and Lady Duff for women (which is just regular Duff Beer in a pink can!), a Duff Zero, a completely alcohol-free variant with all the taste and flavor of regular Duff, the Duff 200, made of pure 200-proof grain alcohol, with the slogan “NOTHIN’ BUT BOOZE”, a Cuban beer called El Duffo, a bottle of Canadian Duff (or Le Duff avec Codeine on the label in French), which is laced with Cough Medicine, amongst a host of other Duff varieties mentioned in the show. Fudd is the beer enjoyed by residents of Shelbyville, the rival town to the Simpsons’ home of Springfield.

Review: 0,5l red can of Duff Beer: 4.9% vol.

“The Legendary Duff Beer” is how this beer is marketed! From Germany, and they call it a craft beer on their site, cheeky buggers! 

Comes in a can or a bottle. I got mine in a can from Lidl no doubt! 

“The legendary beer”, is written on the distinctive looking can, all red and bits of blue, fairly colourful anyway. But no mention of the actual Simpsons show, Homer, or in fact who the brewery is. Very ominous.

With no real link to the show, its obvious this brewery is taking the mick, but anyhow lets get stuck in.

Duff BeerVery 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!.

On the nose I get a lot of malts, grains and cereals, overall a general clean lager smell. Standard smell, not bad, not great, ok but faint enough.

Get a lot in the can which is great. But whats not so great is the taste, very dish watery, not great at all.

Tastes like a low grade regular lager, the corn and grains are detected, but not as smooth and a bit “urgh” if I am to be honest. Not as smooth as you would like, bit too bitter and metallic for my liking.

Forgettable lager really. No real taste to it. It is ok I guess but overall just nothing for it to stand out in the mass market of boring lagers………….except of course its name! 

Perhaps that is the whole point? Make a light lager that is even worse than most beers. Sure isn’t that what Homer would be drinking? But something tells me that is not what they were gunning for. They really could have made more of an effort I think, they have a great name and are from traditional beer kings, Germany and they produce this? Tsk!

A one off purchase beer, just bought for the name value. A gimmick!

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