Maxlrainer Schwarzbier
Brewery: Schlossbrauerei Maxlrain
Town: Maxlrain
Style: Schwarzbier
Color: deep mahogany
Head: creamy, tan
Nose: slight chocolate
Body: medium-bodied, medium-carbonation
Palate: roasty, dark bitter chocolate, nice undercurrent of hops
Finish: long, dry, bittersweet
Served: on tap at the brewery’s Bräustüberl in Maxlrain
Impression: I’ve always enjoyed the Maxlrainer beers in bottle form. Living in Munich, you are not exactly blessed with a huge variety of beers at the shop so these are at least some kind of departure. I’d never made it out the brewery as it wasn’t well-connected but on looking for hiking trails in the area, I found a great one going right to the brewery. The complex was impressive and the Bräustüberl atmospheric. The beer came out a dark beauty with a dense creamy tan head. The slight dark chocolate in the nose was enticing. As much as I’ve enjoyed this from the bottle, the tap version was a step above it. Schwarzbier is not really a southern Bavarian style and this one is a bit of a hybrid with the roasty bitterness mingling well with the dark chocolate notes. The finish is drier than most Munich dark beers, too.
This is one of my favorite dark beers in southern Bavaria but my favorite beers hail from Franconia.
