Beer Tasting

So many things have happened since I last posted. The day after my last post I hopped on a train (again) to return to Tübingen. There I saw my sister Sarah and her husband Nathan as well as my parents. The next day my other sister Hanna arrived, and the weekend was spent cooking for the festivities. What festivities, you ask? Why, my father’s 60^th birthday. Last Monday, the eleventh, my father celebrated six decades of a wonderful, inspiring life.

For the party we served a cold buffet, and my donation to the spread was Köttbullar (Swedish meatballs), a fresh salsa, my German cucumber salad (which gets the most hits out of any other post on my blog so it must be good), and a flourless chocolate almond layer cake with a chocolate frosting and shaved Ritter Sport chocolate (from my father’s favorite cookbook).

After the party Sarah and Nathan came to Radeberg and stayed a glorious seven days. It was a lot of fun, despite the fact that last week was probably the most stressful week at work I’ve had all year. During my free time we ventured into Dresden a couple times for sightseeing, shopping, and attending the Bunte Republik Neustadt (BRN), cooked some tasty meals together, and took a day trip to Leipzig with my friend Creed.

Today’s post, however, is dedicated to my father’s birthday, and once more to beer. My father used to drink much more beer when I was younger, but in recent years he’s switched to red wine. Since the rest of us in my family aren’t large beer drinkers either, we had to figure out what beer to offer my parent’s friends at his party. To make this important decision, we decided to have a beer tasting. We invited over my parents’ American neighbor Ben and did a blind taste test similar to the Amateur Gourmet’s olive oil test. First I placed numbers on the bottles and numbers on the bottom of the glasses. Next I poured the corresponding beers into their glasses. My father then carried them out to the table and placed them on sheets of paper marked “A” through “G” (one letter for each glass). By that point things were mixed up enough that no one knew which glass contained which beer and the tasting began.

We had chosen mainly Pils and Pilsner, one Exportbier, a Spezial, and a Hefeweizen (which was too obviously different to really count and is pictured fourth from the back). Many were watery in my opinion, or not very complex. We all agreed that the Fürstenberger Exportbier had absolutely no flavor, though their Premium Pilsner was a bit more flavorful with that signature bitter taste upon swallowing. I liked the Flensburger very much during the taste test – it had a mild, full taste. However, with dinner it was too strong (so, perhaps a better at-the-bar beer). The Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu Pils was not much better than the Fürstenberger Exportbier. Their Spezial though was the best – mildly bitter and delicious with a meal. The Alpirsbacher Spezial and the Dinkel Acker CD Pils, a bit thinner but also a good balance of flavor, won the honor of being served at my father’s party. Overall the experience itself was simply a great time. Organizing a blind taste for all of us was an interesting challenge and became somewhat difficult to distinguish among the beers towards the end of the tasting though. Sharing all that beer together in one night though made for very cheerful conversations!

Tested Beers:

*Dinkel Acker CD Pils
*Alpirsbacher Spezial
Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu
*Flensburger
Fürstenberg Premium Pilsner
Fürstenberg Weizen
Fürstenberger Exportbier

*winning beers

Note: Many of these beers, especially the Alpirsbacher, are local brews and can’t even be easily found outside of southwest Germany. So, take a note of the name and next time you’re there look them up. Or check out your local import store in the States to see if you can find them!