Got my goat

I missed January's Session because I was away, but I wouldn't have been able to find any new doppelbocks to try anyway. Recently I encountered Celebrator for the first time, though I'm kinda glad I didn't find it in time, since ten other Session bloggers did this one as well.

Anyway, I was a little bit wary on approach: while I thoroughly enjoyed Salvator, Triumphator and Maximator, they all arrived in half litre bottles. The 33cl of Celebrator put me immediately in mind of Aventinus Eisbock, a beer I didn't particularly enjoy. The pour to a thin, short-lived head had me on even more of a syrup-alert, and the ultra-dark opaque brown-red body didn't help. My fears evaporated on the first sip. Celebrator is actually medium-bodied: full, but with none of the chewy texture of super-strong bocks. The flavour is exceptionally complex and very well balanced, running between savoury smoke, sweet caramel and bitter liquorice, and all the way back again. I think I could quite happily drink a couple of these back-to-back without feeling put-upon. I could definitely handle it by the half litre. Great stuff.

And Celebrator isn't the only Ayinger beer around these days. I've also picked up a bottle of their Jahrhundert-Bier. My German being essentially non-existent, I mistook the warning to store in a cool dark place (kühl und dunkel lagern) for a description of the beer as a dunkel lager. Yes, yes, I know. A moment's holding the bottle up to the light would have shown how pale it is: a limpid straw colour once out of the bottle. The carbonation is quite sharp and goes well with the kölsch-like dry grainy character. There's a bit of astringency about it as well as, conversely, a banana-ish fruitiness. It's only 5.5% ABV, but with its weighty body it could probably pass for a bit more. Well made, but not something I'll be hankering after.

There are a couple of Ayinger weisses around at the moment as well. I'll get to them eventually, but I might have to go back for another couple of Celebrators first.

Max power

It's another dark and dreary evening, calling for another dark and comforting beer. I'm going with Maximator, one of the famous -ator doppelbocks from Munich. I tried both Salvator and Triumphator, from Paulaner and Löwenbräu respectively, when I was in Munich a couple of years back. Maximator is by Augustiner, a brewery I particularly associate with exceptionally smooth lagers and it's this smoothness that is a hallmark of their doppelbock too.

If memory serves me, it's lighter in colour than the others, being a coppery red rather than the usual caramel brown. On the palate there's a fair bit of sugar -- but not too much -- and a faint wisp of smoke, but not really a whole lot else. Coupled with a full but not heavy mouthfeel, this slips down easily in the right sort of filling and satisfying way. Gemütlichkeit from a bottle.

More from Munich

A couple more notes on the beers I discovered in Bavaria last week.

Double bock beers are produced by the main breweries at Easter time each year. These are very sticky, rich, dark beers, not dissimilar to the Trappist dubbel style. Löwenbräu's version is called Triumphator, and has a sharp, burnt taste to it. Paulaner make Salvator which is extremely sweet and obviously loaded with sugary calories: a beerbelly in a glass. At the brewery-run pub in Erding, I discovered Erdinger make something similar, a "weizenbock" called Pikantus. This has all the rich flavour of the double bocks, but incorporates a wheatbeer softness that is very pleasant. And it comes in a clay mug: always a plus! Lastly on this front, I happened on Moncshöf Schwarzbier. As the name suggests it is stout-black and tastes something similar, though lighter and with more of a charcoal character.

In a town so dominated by big beer brands, I was lucky to find a brewpub, even if it is run by giant Löwenbräu. Unions-Bräu Haidhausen was independent until 1921, when it was bought by the big firm and closed down. It was reopened as a pub in 1991. They had two beers on tap: Helles and Dunkel. The former was cloudy, unlike any other helles I've found. It had a dry, light taste and was good but unchallenging. The dunkel had a satisfying richness to it often missing in German and Czech beers of this sort, though it was let down by a metallic tang.

The main impression I'm taking away from the beer scene in Munich is the absolute dominance of a few big players, and this, no matter how good the product is, will always rank it below somewhere where lots of operators make a wide variety of products: Belgium being the prime example. Munich the Beer Capital of Europe? I don't think so.