It is time for Zurich Beer Tour's Top 3 beers of the month, #November edition. Simona decided to feature a really special beer style this time, a historic ale. Sandro's choice is a hybrid of 2 classic beer styles, an IPA and a German #Weissbier: a hopfenweisse. This month's staff pick is an award winning stout from one of our favorite #Scottish breweries. Let's do this!
Simona's pick: ÜberQuell (DE) - Who the f**k is Knaust?
The Beer:
You may think, what is a #historic ale? No, it's not just beer that passed its best before date. You would call a beer a historic ale if it was brewed according to old #traditions, for example by using old brewing techniques or ingredients. This beer is devoted to Henricus Knaust, a man from Hamburg, Germany. Knaust wrote one of the most important books about beer brewing in the world in 1575. This top fermented beer is brewed with slightly smoky notes, and seasoned with sea salt, lavender, cardamom and juniper berries. A perfect example of the beers from this time. Cheers (or Prosit) to Henricus Knaust and Hamburg!
The Brewery:
ÜberQuell Brauwerkstätten was founded by Axel Ohm und Patrick Rüther. ÜQ is not only a brewery, it is a mix between a brewpub and pizzeria. They are located in the famous #StPauli quarter in #Hamburg on the right bank of the Elbe river. Handcrafted beer brewed in their micro brewery and handcrafted Neapolitan style pizzas, baked in 2 Italian ovens. This place is pure craft.
Our food pairing recommendation:
Lavender Cookies
Sandros's pick: Cloudwater (UK) - Collecting Flowers Hopfenweisse
The Beer:
For some reason wheat beer, especially German #weissbier, is not popular in the craft beer scene. If there is a beer that could change that, it would be this one. The origins of this beer style go back to the year 2007. Back then the brewmaster of Schneider Weisse, the oldest weissbier brewery in Germany, brewed what would be one of the first (and only) collab beers in their history. Together with craft beer legend Garrett Olive from Brooklyn Brewery they brewed a really #hoppy weissbier. So lets talk about this take on the Hopfenweisse by Cloudwater, Collecting Flowers. This beer was brewed with massive amounts of Nelson Sauvin #hops from New Zealand. The beer starts with classic wheat beer notes of #banana and #clove, but then the hops come in to play. Typical for Nelson Sauvin, you can get a lot of notes of #grape, grape must and white wine. The combination of all those aromas is extremely tasty and perfectly balanced. An absolutely fantastic beer. It is even in the vote of our personal beer of the year 2020.
The Brewery:
Cloudwater Brewing Co. was founded in 2014. Located in Manchester, UK they are famous for high quality beers of almost any style. Their extremely solid core range of beers is brewed all year and the IPA from that range is fantastic. They brew a lot of seasonal beers and are always good for a #surprise, just like this Hopfenweisse. Their brewery consists of a 24hL Premier Stainless Systems #brewhouse and a 840hL cellar with 18 fermentation vessels.
Our food pairing recommendation:
German weisswurst #Ravioli with sweet mustard sauce
Zurich Beer Tour's pick: Fierce Beer - Bourbon Barrel Aged V.B.M. Stout
The Beer:
V.B.M. stands for #VeryBigMoose. This beer was originally part of world famous brewery #BrewDog's collab fest. For this event every single one of BrewDog's #pubs collaborates with a local brewery, the brewed beers will then be poured in all BrewDog pubs #worldwide and the customer can vote for the #winner. The team of BrewDog Aberdeen chose to collaborate with Fierce Beer who are also from Aberdeen. The result was this 12% ABV imperial stout brewed with #vanilla and #cacao. And guess what, they won the competition. This version was aged in bourbon barrels which added lots of whiskey and oak aromas to this super #complex beer.
The Brewery:
Founded in May 2016 Fierce Beer is Aberdeen's first micro-brewery. Fierce is known for flavor packed beers of every style you could imagine, from super tropical IPA's to dark and roasty stouts and also extremely complex spontaneous and mixed fermentation sour beers. They also make their own gin, rum and agave (mezcal). They also run pubs in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Manchester.
Our food pairing recommendation:
No food pairing needed, enjoy this wrapped in a warm blanket in front of your fireplace. Or if you don't have a #fireplace, a TV is ok, too.
These are our three beers. Which ones were your favorite brews in November? Tell us in the comments!
Stay tuned for our December recommendations!
Cheers,
Your Zurich Beer Tour Guides