I’m glad to see that the weather decided to calm down a bit. It’s been a blustery couple of days and the snow has been wreaking havoc on the roadways. The beers the past couple of days have been great, and combine that with all the great stuff happening in the beer community here in Winnipeg, it’s hard to let that weather keep you down.

I’m looking forward to getting back in and following up with many of the breweries open and opening to see how things are progressing. The new year is looking up for new beer. The 8^th beer of the Craft Beer Advent Calendar comes to us from Austria once again. It’s Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg’s Silver bottle Märzen Beer.

Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg is located in Vorchdorf, Austria. While beer has been brewed on the same site since the 14^th century, the current brewery was founded in 1803 by Johann Georg Forstsinger and has been family run ever since. They take great pride in having been run by the same family for over 200 years and you can see a timeline of those who ran the brewery on their website here.

Currently the brewery is being run by Hubert Stohr who took over in 2011. Hubert has a M.Sc in Food and Beverage Management and has used these skills to continue to modernize the practices of the brewery and continue to produce high quality beer. Following three core values: Respect our past, innovate for the future, use only the highest quality ingredients, Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg has built a reputation for itself as being well trained, well brewed, and provide exemplary service to its customers.

The beers themselves are brewed by Brewmaster Thomas Lugmayr and two assistant brewers. All three were trained at the Doemens Academy in Munich and use these skills to brew what they describe as “liquid gold”. Always considering what other beer styles they can create, the Thomas and his team have access to barrels, a long storage cellar, and the latest technologies for quality control and brewing.

Once again we run into a bit of an issue with determining the style of beer. So, I’ll explain the two most likely possibilities. From my research it is either a Pale Lager (like a Helles or an Euro version of an American Lager), or it is a Marzen beer.

There are quite a few differences between these two styles. If the bottle was not made of aluminum and impossible to see through, colour would be a good help at making the determination. While Pale Lagers are typically light, clear and golden in colour, Märzens are typically a more amber colour due to the greater malt content.

Pale Lagers may often have adjuncts in them like corn or rice. Think Molson or Budweiser. Märzens are a beer that was traditionally brewed in March due to the lack of refrigeration, and aged until the Oktoberfest celebration. Both will follow a lagering process of cold conditioning. The term “lager” means “storeroom” or “warehouse” in German.

The bottle is pretty cool. I’m curious to see what this beer looks and tastes like.

Appearance – Pale straw colour with a 1” white head that leaves some lacing on the edge of the glass.
Smell – Grainy pale malt, grassy notes, smells a bit like corn.
Taste – Moderately sweet with a grassy hop bitterness.
Mouth feel – Light body, medium carbonation, off-dry finish that leaves a slight grassy bitterness lingering.
Overall – Basically tasted like Budweiser or Molson. Typical macro style lager.
Do I like it? – Nope. To me it was basically like drinking a Molson or a bud. I do not enjoy those beers at all and I certainly did not enjoy this one.