Herrnbrau Zwickl Kellerbier Beer Review

Herrnbrau Zwickl Kellerbier

Review Date 1/29/2022 By John Staradumsky

For Christmas of 2015, my wife bought me a really cool present: BeerAdvent Calendar 2015 from Kalea. In truth, my wife got me a lot of nice presents (she’s the best wife ever), but the nice thing about the Beer Advent Calendar is you get it early. You have to, since it’s comprised of 24 different imported German beers in a box with little doors that you open, one per day from December 1^st through December 24^th. All of the beers are listed on the side of the carton, however, so be careful not to look and spoil the daily surprises!

I love German beer more than beer from any other country on Earth, so this was definitely right up my alley. My one criticism of the calendar is there are not enough bocks and doppelbocks (not fair!), but otherwise it’s just an amazing way to sample 24 German beers I’ve never seen before. I get mine at Costco here in Georgia and pay on average $59.95 for the box. That might sound steep, but when you distribute that price over 24 different half liter cans, it only works out to $2.50 per can. Not a bad deal at all looked at that way.

Last year was a difficult year indeed, as Covid ravaged the world and it was not a sure thing that the Kalea Advent calendars would reach our shores. I braved Costco every week in September, masked with an N95, and finally scored my prize. For 2021, challenges of a different kind arose. Inflation and supply chain woes, thanks again to the persistence of Covid and the way it turned the global economy upside down in 2020, threatened once again to disrupt calendar distibution. On their Facebook page, however, Kalea promised that the calendars would arrive, and arrive they did. I found one at Costco in the second week of September, bought an extra for my future son in law, and stored mone safely away until December. The calendars sold for the same $59.95 they almost always have. Perhaps this was true in other years and I simply did not notice, but this year there were two box styles. One shows all of the included beers on the side, and the other does not, in case you want a true surprise each and every day.

On December 6th (we're a quarter through folks!), behind the Day 6 door I found a can of Herrnbrau Zwickl Kellerbier, an unfiltered lager from the Herrnbrau brewery of Ingolstadt, Bavaria. Herrnbrau is one of the few breweries in the calendar that have not been new to me, as I had enjoyed their beer prior to my first calendar in 2015.

From the brewery website:

Ein frisch aromatisches Bier mit feiner Hefe. Herrnbräu Zwickl, das ist Bier pur - ursprünglich in besonders hoher Qualität.

Im Herrnbräu Zwickl sind noch schwebende Eiweiß- und Hefeteilchen enthalten, die dem Bier die natürliche Trübung verleihen.

Diese Trübstoffe entstehen sowohl aus malzeigenen Eiweißstoffen, als auch durch vitaminreiche Hefezellen. Beim Zwickl werden die schwebenden Hefe- und Eiweißstoffe nicht durch Filtration entfernt, daher schmeckt es besonders vollmundig.

Nachdem es in Ruhe ausgereift ist, wird das frische Bier vom Lagertank direkt in Fässer und in die 0,5l-Flaschen abgefüllt. Dadurch bleiben die Hefe und die Eiweißstoffe im Bier enthalten.

Wichtig: Beim Einschenken abgesetzte Hefe leicht aufschwenken. Dadurch werden die Schwebstoffe gleichmäßig verteilt und verleihen dem Bier seine Trübung.

Der Name Zwickl stammt übrigens vom „Zwickel“, dem Probenhahn am Biertank. Zur Freude der Brauer ist die kontinuierliche Qualitätskontrolle bei der Lagerung am besten durch laufende Verkostungen direkt aus dem Lagertank zu sichern. Deshalb entnimmt der Braumeister regelmäßig Proben über den Zwickelhahn zum Überprüfen der Bierqualität - naturtrüb und bierig erfrischend. So wurde die Bezeichnung Zwickl als Synonym für unfiltriertes Bier übernommen.

Or, if you don't speak German:

A freshly aromatic beer with fine yeast. Herrnbräu Zwickl is pure beer - original in particularly high quality.

Herrnbräu Zwickl contains floating protein and yeast particles, which give the beer its natural turbidity.

These turbidity substances are produced both from malt's own proteins and from vitamin-rich yeast cells. With Zwickl, the suspended yeast and proteins are not removed by filtration, so it tastes particularly full-bodied.

After it has matured in peace, the fresh beer is filled from the storage tank directly into barrels and into the 0.5l bottles. As a result, the yeast and proteins remain contained in the beer.

Important: Gently swirl the yeast that has been deposited. As a result, the suspended solids are evenly distributed and give the beer its turbidity.

The name Zwickl comes from the "Zwickel", the sample tap on the beer tank. To the delight of brewers, continuous quality control during storage is best ensured by ongoing tastings directly from the storage tank. That's why the master brewer regularly takes samples over the Zwickelhahn to check the beer quality - naturally cloudy and beery refreshing. Thus, the term Zwickl was adopted as a synonym for unfiltered beer.

You can read the full text here.

Herrnbrau Zwickl Kellerbier has an alcohol content of 5% by volume. Ingredients on the can are listed as water, barley malt, rye malt, and hops. My can is stamped EXP 2023/05. The first six beers in the calendar have been a Hefeweizen, two Helles, a Festbier, a bock, and now a Kellerbier. I think again this year we are heavy on the Helles style as so far we are at 33% Helles. Just for fun, I decided to go back and look at the 2015 calendar. It was heavy on Helles, too, but after tabulating to my surprise there were actually more beers in the Oktobefest/Märzen/Festbier category, though granted that is really two styles. In the next review I will add the 2016 calendar in, but looking at the 2015 and 2021 combined we have so far:

Dortmunder	3	10%
Munich Helles	6	20%
Oktoberfest	7	23%
Munich Dunkles	2	7%
Hefeweizen	3	10%
Dunkelweizen	3	10%
Zwickl/Kellerbier	2	7%
Kristalweizen	1	3%
Pilsner	2	7%
Bock	1	3%

Herrnbrau Zwickl Kellerbier pours to a hazy orange color with a thick fluffy white head and a nose of bready malt and yeast. Taking a sip, the beer is medium in body with yeasty, dough like bready malt and a balancing, gently bitter grassy hop finish. The extra body in these bees added by the yeast, which Herrnbrau mentions above, adds something that I like too think of as a "meaty" character, as in being full and satisfying.

I’m greatly enjoying my 7th annual Beer Advent Calendar with the day 6 beer. Here’s looking forward to the remaining 18, and another assortment of 24 in 2022. We’ll be on the lookout next year at Costco, and following the beers on their Facebook page.

The beers of the 2021 Beer Advent Calendar:

Day 1 Herrngiersdorf Grantler Hell

Day 2 Hoamat Weissbier

Day 3 Egerer Alms Hell

Day 4 Rheder Husarentrunk

Day 5 Kraftbierwerkstat Der Schwarze Bock

Day 6 Herrnbrau Zwickl Kellerbier

Day 7 Kurpfalz Bräu Helles

Day 8 Egerer Wiener Lager

Day 9 Teisnacher 1543 Festmärzen

Day 10 Käuzle German Pilsner Style

Day 11 Marie Hausbrendel Hell