Gold Standard Export Keller Beer

Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver has done it again! For the latest bi-monthly Brewmaster's Reserve he's brewed an "Export Keller Beer" called Gold Standard.

"You can have it all -- Gold Standard!!!"

At just over 6% abv, Gold Standard is a bit stronger than your average Bavarian Kellerbier, though it goes down just as refreshingly. It also has more of a Helles/Pils color and complexion -- clear and golden -- without much haze. Brooklyn Brewery's golden lager also is a bit cleaner/less rustic than most of the Kellerbiers that we've sampled, and it deliberately has a punchier hop profile, with decidedly greater bitterness and hop aroma than the Ur-Kellers.

But the crisp hop attributes and evenly matched by the rich maltiness of the beer, courtesy of a floor malted grainbill. The lager is robust, bold and gold! To hear Garrett's address about his new creation, and a bonus one-on-one interview as well, go to the Beer Hear! podcast!

Happy gold drinkers.

For more photos of the release party, go to the Brooklyn Brewery flickr page (thanks Maia!).

The leader of lager.

Now, those are beer glasses worthy of gold!

Looking For More Beer Blogs?

We recently discovered a beer blog for beer bloggers, and it lists and links almost 1,500 different "citizen" beer blogs -- people blogging about beer who are not blogging for any one particular brewery, distributor, bar, etc.

They also have a healthy list of beer industry blogs.

What's more, they organize an annual conference of beer bloggers -- two, in fact! One is in Indianapolis this year and another is in Leeds, England. Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver is listed as one of the keynote speakers at the American conference!

What's BR Drinking Now?

On a trip to Brewster, N.Y. for a Dieu du Ciel event at DeCiccos gourmet grocery store (which has a fantastic beer selection and an awesome bar inside the store), I discovered a Bavarian beer that I hadn't seen before -- Veldensteiner Zwick'l Bier by Kaiser Bräu. A Zwick'l, or Zwickel, is an unfiltered Kellerbier. As described on their website it's a 5.4% abv "amber, unfiltered, unpasteurized, naturally cloudy, light, sweet, wholesome lager Kellerbier". The label on the bottle also listed "12.3% Stammwürze", which is "original wort" or original gravity.
Kaiser Bräu lists 11 different beers that they produce including:
Pils, Rauch, Märzen, Munich Helles, Hefeweizen, Berlinerweiss and, very uncommon for a German brewery, an English Porter. It's located in northern Bavaria, near Neuhaus, south of Bamberg. The "Veldensteiner" in the name refers the Veldensteiner Forest, which is in their area. DeCiccos didn't have all of these styles but I did also pick up their Landbier.

Smart idea having a bar inside a grocery store; I could see myself doing lots of impulse shopping after a few pints. Luckily, I had the specter of public transportation looming over me so I had to restrain myself.

Chad "Olli" von Schwaneberger

How does it taste? Find out in this week's brief podcast.

You can stream the podcast, rather than download it, at the Beer Hear! podcast site.