7.1/10
—
Appearance 7
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Unfiltered Helles from Bavaria, so almost by definition a Kellerbier - or indeed Zwickelbier, as these two categories are more or less interchangeable. Comes from a stubby bottle of 33 cl - rather atypically for Germany - with ringcrown cap or 'Pull-off-Verschluss'. Hisses when this ringcrown is removed. Thick, eggwhite, foamy, very moussey, almost pillowy head on a lightly misty, yellow blonde robe with deeper (old) golden tinge and thin strings of sparkling rising up from the bottom. Aroma of white bread dough, parsley, cold chamomile tea, dry cereals, crackers, grass, chopped celery, raw button mushrooms, damp straw, turnip juice, unripe banana, old 'herbes de Provençe', white soap, moist kitchen towel, plaster. Some subdued yeasty fruitiness in the onset, sweetish almost, reminiscent of unripe pear and green banana, with minerally, sharpish carbonation (in fact a tad too sharp for the style); rounded, smooth mouthfeel, white-bready and sweetish-grainy pale malt sweetishness, a tad blunted by the carbonation. Floral, herbal (thyme) and grassy hoppiness in the finish, with sweetclover-, straw- and chamomile-like aromas as well as very gently drying, slightly earthy bitterness, even if that sweetish white bread dough effect keeps prevailing, even becoming a little bit brioche-like. Slight yeasty fruitiness lingers faraway in the background. This Maxl Zwickl lacks the finesse and sophisticated balance a true Franconian Kellerbier (Tuntenhausen is not located in Franconia, for that matter); feels a bit too cloth- and soap-like to fully shine. In itself decent enough, but I had many better Keller- and Zwickelbiere than this, to be honest.
Tried
on 06 Sep 2024
at 21:12