Landskron Beers

I had these two beers from Landskron Brauerei, Görlitz, within days of each other. The first one I bought, and the second was left as an offering by my neighbour. They like experimenting too it seems. Görlitz is in Saxony, in the former east, so it's always interesting to try beers from that part of the country for a change.

The Landskron Premium Pilsner is a slightly hazy, pale straw yellow. It has a slightly sweet malty aroma with apple-like undertones. It tastes better than i expected, as i just can't bring myself to trust anything with "premium" on the label. It's quite bready with, again, a sour apple note to the finish. To be honest, it verges towards a helles to my taste, and although i wouldn't describe it as premium (whatever that may mean) it's a pleasant enough, medium-bodied session beer. Gassy though! Interestingly, for me, is that although it contains hop extract, I don't get "that taste" that I associate with that ingredient.

My neighbour had left the Landskron Pupen-Schultzes Schwarzes (try saying that fast ten times) outside our door the other day, and having a bit of a taste for dark beers I was very happy to see it. This is a very dark oaky brown with ruby highlights. A 3.9% beer, it feels light and is pretty sweet. Sweet in a malzbier kind of way with a little more of a darker flavour thrown in. Liquid caramel with a strawberry aftertaste came to mind. In fact, it began to resemble a flattish diet coke. And lo and behold, perhaps that wasn't surprising as later I noticed that the ingredients read "water, malted barley, hops, sweeteners E950, E951 and E954". I know I don't agree with the gebot 100%, but this is taking the piss. A couple of days later one of my neighbours came over to observe the last batch of homebrew being made, and without prompting she told me that the beer they had left was awful, too sweet and that she had poured half of it down the drain. I had actually done the same (although persistance got me beyond the half-way mark before I couldn't take it any more).

My neck is sore after my bike flipped out from under me because of ice yesterday. My last physio appointment (for other back problems) today didn't help, but beer is working wonders.