Tasty brews stand the test of time

WHEN you have been working away at something for more than 1000 years, you would like to think you would get good at it. Actually, as I sit here, there are not too many things I can think that have actually been around for even half that time, or a quarter for that matter, let alone for a millennium.

There is a brewery in Bavaria in Germany, however, that can date its origin all the way back to 1040.

That is a full generation before Bill the Bastard of Normandy (Guillaume le Conquérant to those who prefer un petit plus formality) put paid to the English King Harold at Hastings and started centuries of French rule in the Old Dart.

Weihenstephan Brewery started life as a benedictine monastery, brewing beer to supply the many monks in communities spread around the medieval world.

To put that in perspective, the Bavarian Beer Purity Laws, the Reinheitsgebot, only date from 1516 so it is fairly likely that those laws may well have been based on what was going on the breweries like Weihenstephan – in all probability they were more a cause than an effect.

The good news for the drinker is that they do know their stuff and that there is a fair selection of their offering available at major liquor palaces such as my local Chapel of St Daniel.

Hugh the neighbour and I sat down to enjoy a couple of their traditional dark reddish-brown lagers, called a Tradition Bayrisch Dunkel (Traditional Bavarian Dunkel). Both HTN and I found this to be a very interesting beer. I certainly tend to equate darkness in beer with heaviness – we get used to stouts and porters – so when you get something that is quite dark but still a lager it is really enjoyable.

It is lovely and malty, but has a pleasant but not overpowering background of hops.

HTN reckoned the finish reminded him of the mouthfeel you get when you drink a Peroni, which, while I couldn’t pick that up, does show you how light it does feel in the mouth.

It is a full strength beer at 5.2% ABV, mildly hoppy at 24 IBU, and the brewery suggests you drink it at between 6C–8C, but, once again Hugh and I erred on the side of coldness which may have lost some of the malt notes.

Weihenstephan Dunkel is a bit on the dear side at $6.60 a 500ml bottle, but really worth a try for something different on a winter’s evening.

THE FACTS: 5.2% ABV, 24 IBU, 500ml bottles $6.60 per bottle; $55 per case of 12