25 November 2010

Vibrant hybrid weizen

More off-kilter wheat beer today. Herr Unertl of the eponymous brewery in eastern Bavaria visited Ireland a few weeks ago and scattered bottles of Unertl Ursud wherever he went. This one was left in The Bull & Castle and given to me by Geoff the manager.

It's a strong dunkelweiss at 5.8% ABV and really quite interesting. It shows lots of the fruity yeast character you'd expect from a weiss, plus an added layer of caramel from the dark malts. So far so normal, but there's more. The carbonation is higher than a typicial weiss, adding a carbonic bite to the flavour. There's also a dry roasted crispness much more typical of a schwarzbier, plus a light body to match -- surprising for a weissbier of this strength.

I wouldn't say the two flavour profiles harmonise exactly, but they don't conflict either. Think of it as two beers for the price of one.

5 comments:

  1. Sounds great to me. Doesn't really sound like a weissbier (although not my favourite type of beer, I do like 'em now and again). Must see if he's been visiting these parts...

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  2. Oh it definitely had the caramel bananas of a good dunkel.

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  3. The Bloody Tan2:37 pm

    Talking of perry you don't happen to know if there are ANY independent cider maker in Ireland do you ?
    Even if it's only a small farmhouse venture.

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  4. Of course: Double L in Lusk. Up north there's Mac's and Carson's.

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  5. The Bloody Tan11:06 am

    Thanks for that.
    An endless diet of Murphys becomes extremely boring after a while.

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