Franconia Beer Message Board
Knoblach in Schammelsdorf |
| Posted by Barry on 2016-03-19 03:26:29 |
| No, I think that I do get your point. I understand that hops can add a wide range of tastes and aromas to beer (think that I already said that) and, amongst these tastes and aromas, bitterness can, but not necessarily must, contribute. As Mosquit helpfully points out, the level of bitterness in Knoblach's beers (and all other beers) is, to a great part, defined by the brewing process. I appreciate that having spent so many days in the Brauhaus in Eschawo and noted how carefully the addition of hops was timed to coincide with different stages of the process. As an aside, this answers the question that, given the quantity and type of hops used in Eschawo, why isn't the beer more bitter? Largely, I suppose because the hop adding comes pretty near the end of the process. This discussion is impossible to resolve because, in the end, the answers lie in part within the bounds of personal taste and experience. Here we have a good example: our friend Juergen really dislikes Knoblach beer, as he has pointed out. Now I don't want to presume too much but I know that his local brewery when he starting beer-drinking was Loewenbrau in Vestenberg. They are now sadly closed, so we can't personally sample their products but they were still alive when Steve Thomas produced his GBGG. I see that they brewed a Vollbier, a Pilsner, a Gold Export and an Export Dunkel (plus a wijnter Doppelboch). None of these beers were likely to be excessively bitter (or even 'mildly' bitter? Juergen can answer this one for us) and almost certainly at the other end of the bitterness scale from Knoblach. I know also from drinking and talking with Juergen that he really likes the beers found in Franken Schweiz, particularly the Dunkels, and also the Maerzen of Scharp in Heilgersdorf. These tend to be maltier beers, with less of a bitter character. On the other hand, I was brought up drinking beer in a place where bitterness, in varying degrees, was a prized quality of many beers. Another example is the oft demonstrated differences on this Forum between British and American beer drinkers about acceptable levels of CO2 in beer, which largely seems to depend on our previous experiences. Sorry to have used your name here, Juergen, only for illustrative purposes, and because, in spite of these differences, we have enjoyed many different types of beer together, showing that it is never to late to open one's mind to new experiences. I wonder what a 'blind test' would reveal about our preferences? Probably (possibly?), if it was only comparing Knoblach with Schlenkerla Rauch, for example, most of us would guess correctly. But, if we were to include a range of different beers, how accurate would we be and what cherished concepts might be destroyed? I recall reading that most people find it difficult to differentiate between quite widely ranging liquids, when deprived of sight and pre-knowledge. Certainly marketing experiments have shown that blind tests between previously favoured high profile brands and supermarket's own products have produced results that often favour the latter. If it was me that mixed up Schammelsdorf with Schlammersdorf, I apologise and will try to do better! I blame it on predictive text, which is why I'm typing this on my PC. |
| Followups: |
 Knoblach in Schammelsdorf by Jürgen Wening on 2016-03-22 02:35:26 |
| Löwenbräu Vestenberg by Nick B. on 2016-03-22 03:45:18 |
| Löwenbräu Vestenberg by Jürgen Wening on 2016-03-22 03:50:42 |
| Knoblach in Schammelsdorf by Barry on 2016-03-22 04:15:54 |
| Knoblach in Schammelsdorf by Mark Andersen on 2016-03-22 05:51:32 |
| Löwenbräu Vestenberg by Nick B. on 2016-03-22 06:00:18 |
| Knoblach in Schammelsdorf by Nick B. on 2016-03-22 06:12:18 |