Moosbacher Kellerbier

As a homebrewer, I'm always on the lookout for bottles I can use for my latest concoction. There are several German brewers that use brown half-liter flip-top bottles like the one in the photo. These bottles are perfect! Flip-top bottles are so much easier to use than standard crown bottles. I started out using Grolsch pint bottles, which work fine, but they have the Grolsch logo molded into the glass, so it's not a bottle you want to give to friends, and it's very difficult to put a label on. The bottle in the photo has smooth sides, so it can easily be personalized with your own clever labels.

Now - on the subject of the beer that's in the bottle - it's Moosbacher Kellerbier, brewed by the Private Landbrauerei Scheuerer in Bavaria. A Kellerbier, which literally means "cellar beer", is an unfiltered, highly hopped lager. Also known as a Zwickelbier, it is usually an amber color with very little carbonation. It's normally brewed in wooden casks, with the bung left loose, so that the fermentation gas escapes. This particular example is definitely the correct color, about the color of maple syrup. It was low in carbonation, but was definitely not flat. In fact, it had a decent 1 inch head when I first poured it, but I couldn't get the camera set up quickly enough to capture it in its full-headed glory. I really like Kellerbiers - they have more malt and flavor than a traditional lager. They're also a bit stronger. This one weighed in at 5.2 % abv. The only fault I found with this particular brew was a slight metallic aftertaste. Kulmbacher Mönchshof is another German brewer that makes a fine Kellerbier. It tends to be cloudier than this one, which points to its unfiltered nature. Mönchshof also uses these great bottles!