Friday, October 26, 2012

Anstich tappings tonight and tomorrow: Fresh Franconian lagers from the countertop.

Logistically, our annual Sandkerwa celebration proved impossible to stage this year, but tonight and tomorrow, Anstich kegs filled with delightful Franconian lagers are slated for tapping at the Pizzeria & Public House.

These are 20-liter, gravity-feed kegs with no CO2 used to push the beer. Just as in Franconia, we set an Anstich keg on the counter behind the bar, punch a hole in the top, and use a rubber mallet to insert a tap at the bottom. Once tapped, the 40 half-liter glasses of beer therein must be consumed forthwith, or the remainder will go flat.

The Anstich kegs will be tapped at 5:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

*Friday, September 26*
Aufsesser Festbier (Märzen from the Brauerei Rothenbach)
Importer Dan Shelton's notes:

Founded in 1886; makes 15,000 hectoliters a year. Yet another family-owned brewpub, a picturesque place in the tiny town of Aufsess, in the Fränkische Schweiz -- the Franconian Switzerland. (There's nothing at all like the Alps here, so the name is a little over-blown.) We've never had the Märzen, which is highly recommended by our Franconian connection at the monastery brewery in Weissenohe.

Here are links to the Rothenbach web site (in German), and RateBeer's compendium of Rothenbach brands.

*Saturday, October 27*
Löwenbräu-Buttenheim Kellerbier (a.k.a. Ungespundetes Lagerbier)
To describe this type of beer as an unfiltered golden lager is inadequate. Buttenheim, a small town south of Bamberg with (as I recall) a fair number of farming implements, has a better known second brewer, St. Georgenbräu. Which Kellerbier is better? Who knows? I'm just glad I've had the chance to visit there and experience both of them.

Löwenbräu (Buttenheim) Ungespundetes Lagerbier (Kellerbier)

No comments: