Tucher: Nurnberger Rotbier (Germany: Rotbier: 5.5% ABV)
Visual: Hazy amber to red. Large off white head. Lots of small bubbled carbonation.
Nose: Cinnamon. Slight lemon. Slight ovaltine. Lightly earthy. Slight rye crackers.
Body: Rye crackers. Sweet chewy toffee. Slightly earthy. Ovaltine. Peppery.
Finish: Light lemon cakes. Cinnamon spice. Rye crackers touch. Sour dough. Flour.
Conclusion: A lot of red/amber beers have not been my style over the years. Some stand out bangers go against this rule, but in general the style is not one I naturally gravitate to and its not often a must have for me.
This one though, this one is very solid.
It’s very chewy, in a good way. It has just enough lager like easy drinking character but is very malty and chewy real toffee to ovaltine flavoured base.
Around that is sweet cinnamon spice that helps spark that base up a bit, and a mix of rye, earthy and peppery notes that ground it on the other side. While it is heavy set for a lager style of drink it is still surprisingly easy to drink. The flavours really set in to stay after a while, so not one to session but it works perfect as one to savour, bursting with flavor and shows that it can really work the bigger range of flavor and heavier flavours without sacrificing what makes it easy to drink. I feel like so many attempts to make craft lagers should just have looked at this rather than pissing about with hopping them up like an IPA.
This shows the cool notes that can come with red beers, but makes it much more rounded than most I have encountered, and definitely more drinkable. Are all rotbiers like this? I so I will have to dive deeper into the style as I love it.
Background: Darn, googling how this thing tends to be categorised for style online gave so many results and so varied, so I just plumped for rotbier in the end. Screw it, that is what it is. Rot is red in German so, literally red beer, but bottom fermented like a lager so not under amber ale. There are amberish lagers, but, sod it, rotbier seems distinct enough I am happy using that as the style. I’ve had a soft spot for Tucher, since it was a mention of them in a comic that introduced me to weissebiers. This, is not not a weisse, but is a Tucher beer. Another one grabbed from Independent Spirit, they really are getting in such a range of German beers at the mo. Went with Siouxsie and the Banshees:Hyæna as backing music, because, why not? Ok a German band would have made more sense thematically but … LOOK OVER THERE A SQUIRREL!
