Meckatzer: Original Hell (Germany: Helles: 4.9% ABV)
Visual: Pale gold, with about a centimeter of off white bubbled heads. Lots of small bubbled carbonation in the body.
Nose: Cake sponge. Mild sulfur touch. Mild hop oils. Vanilla custard.
Body: Vanilla custard slices. Cake sponge. White crusty bread. Soft apricot touch. Light pineapple. Some hop character.
Finish: White crusty bread. Hop oil sheen. Mild bitterness and prickle. Light pineapple. Soft apricot.
Conclusion: Oh this is very drinkable. Initially I thought this was going to be a simple, clean, but drinkable helles. Nothing wrong with that, a nice easy drinking lager can be a good thing, but the thing is this started defying my expectations.
Quickly though you realize it has a clearer sweet backbone than you initially perceived or expected. Not something overwhelming the lager character but there are clear vanilla and custard slice notes backing the clean, slight hop oil sheen main character of the beer.
Then, even more unexpected, there is a very lightly used set of fruity notes. Not fruity in a hoppy way like an IPL, just subtle grapefruit freshness and apricot sweet touches that feel so naturally layered into the base beer without disrupting the easy drinking lager style.
It doesn’t feel ashamed to be a lager, just accentuating the main lager character with these fresh and slightly sweet notes.
I am super impressed with this stonker of a lager.
Background: I don’t know much about Meckatzer as a brewery, but German beer tends to be high quality in general, and trying out a new brewery is rarely bad, so when I saw this at Independent Spirit I grabbed a bottle. Googling it seems they have the “Slow-Brewing-Gütesiegel” or Slow Brewing Seal Of Approval, which is a good sign. Looks like they have been around for a while as well, founded back in 1738, so seems like a few good signs there. Went with KLL MRR IMG: Kill Mirror Image! as backing music, a local band I am a fan of.
