Ankers aweigh

These two German lads have been sitting in Messrs Maguire all year. I guess with competition from the house beers and macros they never really sold, since they were being flogged at a knock-down rate when I picked them up to take away. Both are from Ankerbräu in Nördlingen. An odd choice of name for a brewery in thoroughly landlocked Bavaria.

The lager first: Daniel-Trunk Kellerbier. It's naturtrüb, as the label makes clear: very cloudy, rendered yet murkier by the dark brown colouring. My kellerbier experience is limited, but I thought they tended to be paler than this. Daniel's keller needs a lightswitch. A hit of malteser on the nose is scant preparation for the massive ovaltine flavour. The sweetness is somewhat offset by a tang which I think is down to the age of the beer: I'm drinking it a good two months after the best-before, and it's a style I'm sure isn't meant for aging. Though what it's like when all that residual sugar is in full-flow doesn't bear thinking about.

At the finish up there's just enough of a hop-bite present to prevent anyone mistaking it for alcoholic porridge-water, though it's still hard to shake the sensation of supping some kind of breakfast cereal or nutritious dietary supplement for invalids.

When the sugar buzz wore off I turned to Rieser Dunkles Weizen: another dark one, at the same strength (5.2% ABV) but this time a wheat beer. It's a bit more orthodox: nicely balanced between mild banana tempered by caramel. Smooth and light enough to be drinkable. And although it's several weeks older than the brewer would like, there's no trace of staleness or any off flavours.

For a cold winter's evening it's really quite comforting, but it's a beer I could see working as a summer's day quencher just as easily.

One interestingly odd and the other solidly enjoyable: catch them if you still can at Messrs Maguire.