Bavarians at the gate

Every once in a while I happen across a well-known classic beer which, inexplicably, I've never taken the time to try. I blame the absence of Augustiner Heller Bock in my repertoire on the excellence of the brewery's other beers. Why would I ever need to switch from Helles, Edelstoff, Oktoberfest or Maximator? It's a poor excuse. Time to get this bottle open.

It's no lightweight at 7.5% ABV and I feared a cloying syrupiness. It looked worryingly dense as it poured too, finishing a dark orangey shade of golden. The aroma does have a little syrup going on, but there's a promise of cool crispness and fresh damp grass as coolant. The texture is as heavy as one might expect from the strength, however, and there's a rising malt stickiness which isn't as severe as I feared, but is still along the same lines. The hop side is herbal and savoury -- spinach and kale -- which doesn't do much to counterbalance the malt. I guess this is a good example of the style, but it's a style I tend to avoid, and here's a reminder why that is.

While I was buying this in the Fresh supermarket in Smithfield, I picked up a few other Bavarian bottles which took my fancy.

Andechs, like Augustiner, is another giant of the greater Munich area. I've had a few of theirs before, but I don't think Andechs Spezial Hell has crossed my path. Spezial is one of those well-defined categories of German beer that never really got appropriated into a "style" by the anglophone beer world, existing too close to the likes of Helles and Märzen, I guess. This is 5.9% ABV, bright golden and with a steady stream of fine bubbles: pure class in a glass, essentially. A vague breadiness is all that the aroma offers, and I thought the flavour would make up for that, but it's very bland. A heavy spongecake texture, fluffy to the point of chewy, is about the most interesting feature. The taste gives me the dry carbonic fizz and a certain generic cereal malt sweetness, but no more than that. There's no balancing breadcrust or grass, and no intriguing yet accessible depths. While it's pretty easy to get through given the strength, it has little to say for itself along the way. I'm underwhelmed, overall, and thought better of this outfit.

A total randomer to follow that. I had never heard of Flötzinger, nor seen their beer in Germany, but there are a couple of them around Ireland at the moment. I picked Flötzinger Weis'n-Märzen, so another strong golden lager, then: this one at 5.8% ABV. It's a bit dusty-looking in the glass, not the usual brilliant gold. It's a little on the light side too, lacking any of the chewiness I associate with good Festbier or Märzen. There's the right sort of bready heft to the flavour, plus a spoonful of golden syrup for good measure, but really it could do with more of everything. If I'm drinking a lager at this strength, I want to feel it. Letting it warm up doesn't help. It just becomes estery, adding unwelcome apple and apricot. I fear this just isn't an especially good beer. It was the only one of the set under €4, and I guess that shows sometimes you get what you pay for.

It's back to the known quantities of greater Munich brewing to finish, and Ayinger, whose Lager Hell is another beer I have inexplicably never drank. It's very hell indeed, looking a little watery, in fact, though the ABV is only a little low for Helles at 4.9%. They haven't skimped on the aroma hops either, and there's a beautiful meadowy floral waft. Texturewise it's perfect, leaning into the malt's smoothness as a key feature, and sprinkling that with a flaky-pastry sweetness and more of the flower effect from the hops. There isn't much else to build a review around, and one could argue that it's a bit bland, but one would be wrong to do so. The term I would use is "magnificently drinkble", slipping down with indecent ease leaving an empty glass and an instant desire for more. Buying one bottle is terribly unGerman and not something I recommend.

Trust the establishment, seems to be the lesson of these four. Andechs, Augustiner and Ayinger may have some not-brilliant beers on the periphery, but their core product cannot be argued with.