From all directions

This bottle of Meckatzer Weiss-Gold was a surprise arrival, delivered by blog reader Sebastian who picked it up in its native Allgäu in southern Bavaria. It's a pale lager, of course, bright gold in colour though with a slight haze through it. This, coupled with the 33cl bottle and a bit of English on the label, suggests that Brauerei Meckatzer, if not bitten, may have been at least nibbled by the craft fairy. No particular style is given but it's 5.2% ABV so I was thinking broadly helles when I opened it.

After pouring, the noble hops sing from the aroma: a hard waxy greenness. Mercifully it's softer to taste, the malt puffing out, by turns candyfloss, honeycomb and spongecake. There's a herbal, medicinal quality to the hop flavour, running in parallel: mint, eucalyptus and fennel. A slightly sharp, almost metallic, tang finishes it off. My guess about the style is borne out by a classic helles smoothness.

It's a jolly nice lager, perfectly balanced between the malt and hops. At the same time I didn't think it's particularly special: I imagine there's a brewery producing gear of this quality in every corner of Bavaria.

Cheers to Sebastian for dropping it over.