Graute Käörns

23.06.2019 -- 0.33l bottle from rewe in münster. pours a cloudy pale golden with a steady head. aroma of funk, balsamico, herbs. flavour of unripe apricots, funk, apples, lime. tart, with some grassy hoppy bitterness in the finish.

Keg at innis and Gunn. Pours golden, nose is funk, lime, toffee, taste is zesty, funky, fruity.

Spelt beer by this new and non-traditionally German microbrewery in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Gusher, but with enough care and patience, I managed to reduce the loss to a bare minimum. Egg-white, thickly mousy, regular, extremely stable head (still standing after an hour) over a misty, warm ochre-tinged ‘old gold’ coloured beer with fierce yet refined sparkling. Decidedly non-German aroma – I was expecting a traditional, Weissbier-like and fully German style Dinkelbier – of strong old apple, overripe pear and fermenting apple peel, spice bread dough, cider, dried citrus fruit flesh, baked banana, bread crust, cloves, white grapes, spicy phenols (even mint-like!), yoghurt. Mild banana, strong apple and medium pear sweetishness in the onset, but surrounded by yoghurt-like lactic tartness, probably the result of a Lactobacillus metabolism, which in this case – J. Kemker profiles itself as a “farmhouse brewery” – is apparently intentional; lively carbonation, ‘fluffy’ bready middle with indeed a clear and very pronounced spelt graininess and spiciness, while this yoghurty sourness and strong apple ester continue into a bready finish with a weird metallic tone and a floral, hayish hoppiness providing mild but welcoming bitterness. Assuming the lactic acid infection is indeed intentional, this still needs finetuning, clearly, as it comes off a bit odd and ‘dirty’, with a strange metallic effect to it that clashes with anything truly ‘farmhouse’. Still, after the beer settles a bit and the yeast adds its bread crumb-like effect in the end, it becomes highly drinkable and sessionable, with a good balance between sweet, sour and bitter. Conceptually, it is highly interesting to see – still relatively shyly in comparison with e.g. the United Kingdom or the Low Countries – modern, U.S.-inspired microbreweries pop up in a self-protective, utterly traditional beer country like Germany; farmhouse ales of mixed fermentation like this one, and apparently a string of others by the same brewery, clearly aren’t Germany’s forte yet, but beer traditions are mixed and hybridized or torn apart everywhere these days so who knows what may come out of this kind of experiments in the long run. In certain ways, and I may become a bit too lyrical here, these J. Kemker ‘saisons’ could announce a return to German beer from before the Lager revolution, who knows… Not the best modern ‘mixed fermentation ale’ I had – see e.g. Belgian Alvinne for that – but a very interesting case without a doubt, sparking my interest to find out more about this brewery.

03-04-18 // 750ml bottle shared at Lager Lager Berlin. Hazy amber brown. Foamy head. Bread malty with Brett nose. Wild grainy body. Mild brett. Mild bitter.

Bottle at home, but if a gusher. Hazy golden with big fluffy off white head. Since this gushed all over my table it now smells like French farmhouse cider and lambic in here. Aroma of bitter herbs, grassy, light funk, a bit of burnt rubber, lemon, creamy grains, light caramel, cane sugar, fresh baguette, apricot, plastic, cream. Medium sweet, solid medium bitter and over light sour. Medium bodied with creamy feel and soft and creamy carbonation, but even though it’s soft there’s a lot of it. Very nice, would be really outstanding without the burnt rubber notes. Kemker strikes again.

Bottle. Color: Reddish amber, yellow-ish off-white head with nice lacing. Aroma: Malt, fruity, Brett yeast funk. Taste: Light to moderate sweet and sour, very light bitterness. Bread, grain, wild yeast funk notes, subtle fruity notes. Can't exactly define the fruity notes, grape-like, maybe some sweetish and very lightly sour berries. No pronounced flavors, yet nicely balanced and pretty complex wild ale. I love the Bretty touch in this beer. Nice one.

0,33 l Steinie bottle from Getränkefeinkost, Münster. Unclear pale golden in the glass with a more than one finger frothy white head. Smells sourish fruity. Taste starts with a short tart part, followed by a more dry grainy section. Increasing mid bitterness. Above average carbonation. Enjoyable stuff.

Dumpf getreidiger, wenig säuerlicher Antrunk. Süffig, geringfügig herb, nur wenig würzig. Spritzig getreidiger Mittelteil, kaum säuerlich, monoton. Okay.. 10/8/7/8//8

On tap at 'Braukunstwerk'. Hazy, dark reddish brown with a large, frothy, slowly diminishing, off-white head. Sweetish-malty, slightly roasty, moderately yeasty-spicy and a little fruity aroma of caramel, nuts, cherries and light vegetables. Moderately sweet, slightly bitter, a little sourish, malty, a bit roasty, quite yeasty-spicy taste of caramel, nuts, citrus, cherries and light vegetables, followed by a short, moderately bitter, a little tart, quite dry and moderately yeasty-spicy finish. Medium body, slightly creamy and quite effervescent mouthfeel, average carbonation. Very interesting, not too deep but quite refreshing, much going on here, quite unique.