Just when I thought there was no tasty beer in Australia, I stumbled across an invite to half price tap Mondays at European Bier Cafe in the CBD. This was my chance to taste sheer deliciousness at a reasonable price--of course, in moderation--and break free from the boring dirty-water Carlton draught I've grown accustomed to as a budgeting uni student. Per usual, I want to reassure everyone that this visit to the bar had very little to do with consuming alcohol; it was motivated instead by the promise of great company, great flavors, and fancy beer connoisseur talk. (I definitely played the "I brew beer at home" card at least once tonight.) If you've never ventured past Bud Light or a Natty rack, you will probably find this post irrelevant, but if you're an aficionado or at least a casual appreciator, keep reading...
There were upwards of sixteen choices on tap at EBC. According to my Australian "try new things" philosophy, I went for something I had never heard of, but I still stayed comfortably in the realm of my favorite category, the hefeweisen. I can sincerely say the one I had tonight blew the socks off almost anything I've had before:
Erdinger Weisbier (Germany) 5.3% 300ml (1.2 SD) | 500ml (2.1 SD) This well-known German is a traditional wheat beer with a crisp and banana hinted flavour. The colour is hazy golden due to it being unfiltered.
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| A nice glass to compliment an even nicer beer. |
There were distinct similarities between this beer and the batch we brewed last summer--you know, the wheat clone with light malt and orange bitters. The difference: this was even better! The unfiltered banana goodness really came through to produce a memorably crisp finish. Although this really goes without saying, the Germans really know what they're doing when it comes to beer.
Speaking of German, as usual the majority of the gang tonight were non-English speaking. The favored spoken language was probably French (of both the European and Canadian varieties), with the occasional Italian thrown in. I really need to start learning some bits of these languages so I can stop looking like a deer in headlights every time the conversation deviates from English. Then again, it probably sounds better when you have no clue what they're saying.
Anyways, if you're interested in what else was on tap, feel free to peruse the bier (a.k.a. beer) menu here. P.S.: Dad--we need to try to clone the Erdinger this summer.
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