Especially for Bailey:Herforder Weihnacht, a 5.8% Christmas beer, pours quite a nice ruby-tinged amber, and has very little aroma to speak of. Perhaps a touch of bubble gum.
The flavour is odd. Like the Schussenrieder Festbräu, there are toasty notes, but more a bready, yeasty kind of toasty, with a scrape of burning credit card wafted over it. Once swallowed it leaves behind a thin, sickly cherry residue, but the lasting impression is of sweet malts on a woody backdrop. And by woody I mean licking a piece of plywood. In fairness, it does have a touch of a nice, floral hop in the finish. An odd one to be sure, and for a brief moment I was undecided if I liked it or not, but on balance… Meh!
My feelings exactly, although I don't think I got even as much from it as you did. Wish I'd had another mulled wine instead. Lovely colour, though, as you say!
ReplyDeleteI love your plywood licking comment and the burnt credit card whiffed into the air. To be honest, that burnt plastic aroma kind of turns me off from even trying this brew. However, since I've yet to try this one I've got to give it a try!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up though.
Mike
Mike's Brew Review
Hey Mike. There's quite a few German beers that have that plastic/resin aroma that I don't much like, and in my head i keep associating it with the use of hop extract (which this beer also uses). Still, it's worth trying everything, don't take my word for it :)
ReplyDeleteBailey, I was given two bottles of this over a year ago by my neighbour, and they got forgotten on a shelf (well past best before now). Then before Christmas I got two more from him, and thought I'd better drink them. In a way, I was hoping it'd be good, so perhaps was looking for more out of it :D
how can you get herforder to the USA?
ReplyDeleteHi Michael, no idea, I'm afraid. You could write to the brewery and ask if they export to the US, and if so, who the importer there is.
ReplyDelete