St. Georgen Bräu Keller Bier

Brewed by St. Georgen Bräu
Style: Zwickel/Keller/Landbier
Buttenheim, Oberfranken/Bayern, Germany

Aroma was herbal with floral hops, courant and an iced tea sensation. Taste was smooth but quite watery with courant and floral hops. Overall a descent beer.

Pours out dark and cloudy copper with small white head. Aroma is pretty tame but there’s a little bit of grassy hops in there. Flavor is mild, much like a pale lager but there are definitely hops in here. The hops are mainly just bitter and don’t add much to the flavor. It tastes like a medium bodied and pretty pale lager. Mouth is pretty watery but not filling which would make this a decent session beer or good for eating a bratwurst. Not as refreshing as a good hefeweisse

Bottle. Clear amber coloured with an off white head. Aroma of malts, caramel and grain. Sweet flavour of malts, caramel and hops. Dry hoppy finish.

Keller bier as a style, is an unfiltered, unpasteurized, unkraeusened, very fresh tasting hop accented beer, with a very soft carbonation. This beer is also ungespundet or "unbunged". When this beer style was first brewed, the brewer would allow this beer to lager in oak barrels, in cold rock caverns unbunged, which would allow carbon dioxide, a natural by product of fermentation, to escape. CO2 is what makes a beer naturally carbonated, so keller bier has a very soft to virtually no carbonation. To ward off infection, the brewers would aggressively hop this beer as well, giving it lots of hop aromas and hop bitterness. St. Georgen Brau Keller Bier pours to a murky, amber to red color with a tight white head that fades, and a very soft, very gentle carbonation. The nose on this beer is wonderful with vibrant, herbal/grassy saaz hop aromas. The palate is soft and fresh on the tongue with good flavors of dry and toasty malt flavor. St. Georgen Brau Keller Bier finishes with more toasty malt flavor up front, then ends with a very zesty, herbal hop bitterness that lingers. This is such a wonderfully fresh and drinkable beer with wonderful hop character. The soft carbonation makes it so, so drinkable, and it is the type of beer you will drink a liter or more of before you know it. It is a very popular beer in Bamberg, and can be found pouring at a number of different places. I enjoyed one of the most memorable and delicious meals of my life when I paid Zum Kachelofen a visit. A kachelofen is a green tiled coal fired oven you will find in all of the older German gasthauses and restaurants. It isn’t an oven to cook with, but an oven to heat the place in the winter. I enjoyed a local specialty called krustenbraten. This is a delicious pork roast where the top fat is scored in a box pattern, and as it roasts the fat forms a crunchy and crispy crust like that of cracklings. Under that crust you will find the most succulent and tender pork meat you will ever taste. Served with saurkraut, gravy, and a potato dumpling the size of a soft ball, this is German comfort food at its very best. I could not think of a better beer to enjoy before, during and after this meal, than a few cold steins of St. Georgen Brau Keller bier.

"Okay not knowing what to expect in this style i was surprised at how good this was. Poured a cloudy amber color with a nice light head. Smelled of citrus and apple. Taste confused me a little, oak and vanilla for sure, some citrus and something. Very creamy mouthfeel to it. Solid beer. "

Pours a golden maroon color with a medium frothy head. Really hoppy nose other notes of sweet bread and a very slight roasted scent. Hops again in the taste is forthcoming, and a chocolate and caramel undertone blends nicly. Bitter palate rounds out this Keller. Really drinkable.

500 ml flip top bottle: poured clear amber with a medium white head. Lightly hopped aroma. Light roasted malt flavor with slight hops. Fairly low carbonation. Clean finish. Very drinkable but there isn’t a whole lot here.

i/2 liter bottle poured a hazy amber with a small, quickly diminishing off white head. Aroma was malty, a bit musty, and smelled like bread. Palate was light bodied and smooth. Flavors of bread, yeast, and noble hops with a smooth, pleasently bitter finish.