Herold Granat

Brewed by Pivovar Herold
Style: Vienna
Breznice, Czech Republic

Bottled (BB 03/2008)
Clear dark amber color, small vanishing tan head. Very lively beer, coming out of bottle by force. Caramelly and buttery aroma with woody Bohemian-like hops and hints of iron. Caramelly flavor but not overly sweet - more like dry and bitterish. Light roastiness (toasted rye bread) and tinkling hops in the aftertaste. Easy going Vienna, good brew in its style as their superb black lager.

Dark amber colored, little light brown head. Aroma has caramelly sweetness with chocolate and some buttery hops, hints of roastiness also there. Medium bodied. Flavor is also sweet with caramel and biting hoppiness, mild alcohol comes also up. Carbonation is rather high. Some metal in aftertaste.

Bottled. Dark amber colour with big beige foamy head. Toffeeish, caramellish, metallic and fruity aroma. Flavour is fruity hops and mild roasted notes. Some sweet malts dominate the whole thing. Refreshing and quite pleasant.

(Bottled) Clear dark ruby-brown with a small, mostly fading head. Toffee-caramely-malty, slightly metallic aroma with slight roastiness. Mildly roasty and sour, sweetish, toffee-malty flavor with medium bitterness. Velvety-smooth, medium-bodied palate with soft carbonation. A very easily drinkable, yet reasonably tasty brew. Nothing special, though, if you’re already past the ’I don’t like dark beers’ phase...

Very attractive malty aroma. Dark brown color with a small head. This beer has both a spicy aftertaste and subtle hops that complement the malt profile very well. This is a very satisfying beer.

From a narrow neck slender 330 ml. bottle with a coded freshness date on the back label. Poured a clear reddish amber with a foamy, bubbly topped off-white head that settled into a thin, slightly sudsy lacing. Aromas of plums and raisins, a subtle nutty banana, floral and sweet caramel bready. Good moderate carbonation and a softly crisp, smooth medium-light bodied mouthfeel. I read on the website that this brewery has it’s own well, a unique water source, and from the lagers I’ve tried from this brewer, I believe it, a subtle mineral quality to go along with fresh plum fruitiness, caramelized sugery, a light toasted graininess, with a metallic edge to the malts, a soft earthy spiciness, and a malty, metallic finish.

bottled. pale shade of copper, steady pale head. bockish aroma of burnt banana, plum and brow sugar. tasted of banana fritters with caramel sauce. hints of cocoa, some alcohol bite, pretty much like a bock with a fraction less alcohol. gets more drinkable as it warms, actually pretty nice

Labled as Bohemian Granát Lager
Pours brilliantly clear, deep amber brown color and is topped by an initially three-finger thick, creamed amber colored head. A predominantly dry aroma, with perhaps a touch of caramelized malt character. This smells like Munich malt, lightly toasted and lots of chewy melanoids. The aroma is quite nice, though it is fairly subtle. Aromatic notes of toffee become noticeable at times as well.

Malty sweet, not cloying, but laden with complex sugars that run the gamut from caramelized through to just lightly roasted. The finish has a drying character, contributed by light roast notes & predominantly toasted notes, that makes you want to take another sip to get back to the up front complex malt sugars. Nicely bitter, though not so much do take away from the dominant malt character. The bitterness, in combination with the carbonation, adds a bit of a spritziness to this beer. Also in the finish the hop bitterness and toasted malt notes seem to combine to give an almost tannic character. Spicy hop notes are also here, but play a subservient role to the malt character. This is a really nice beer, it just drinks so smoothly. It has enough of a body to accentuate the chewy malt character, but is still light enough to be perfectly quaffable. I am quite impressed, this beer is definitely hitting the spot right now.