Thursday, 11 February 2010

Astra Rotlicht

Just for Cookie, as he asked today about what vagrants in Germany would be drinking. I suggested that, around here at least, Hansa Pils is popular, judging by the bottles left around the station, and Oettinger rates high in most peoples views of beer drunk by tramps (I like their schwarzbier). I reckon Astra Rotlicht, brewed by the Bavaria-St.Pauli brewery (correction: brewed at the Holston brewery, although the brand is still under Bavaria-St. Pauli), would be a good choice though, as it's cheap and stronger than the average Pils at 6%.

I've a good few of these in the cellar as my neighbour seems to buy it now and again. From a glass, it's got a soft mouthfeel with an apparently low carbonation. It gives a bready sweetness, a touch of cardboard (Hah! and that was before I took that photo!), a bit of apple, but overall thin and with a bit of a metallic finish. A bit of an acrid taste creeps up the more you drink too. Having said all that, it's not as crap as I thought it'd be, but a bit meh.
Drinking it from the bottle as I type though, it seems better than when I last had one a few weeks ago. Then again, I do have a cold. I might have another, just to be sure, like.

If I've not bored you enough, you can explore the Astra world, or make your own mind up about the nature of their posters here. That last one with the bearded guy (left) is creeping me out a bit.

Oh, I reckon Lübzer Urkraft would make a damn good ditch dweller beer too.
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14 comments:

  1. The Beer Nut12 February 2010 at 00:14

    Because German mythology doesn't have enough to frighten children, we present: Johann Spunkbeard.

    Is the Bavaria-St.Pauli brewery the A-B InBev one that makes St Pauli Girl? That's always struck me as a weird arrangement: a German brewery making beer solely for the US.

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  2. Barry M12 February 2010 at 00:45

    It's a bit confusing. Astra is brewed at the Bavaria - St. Pauli Brewery, Hamburg, at least according to the label. From what I gather from their Impressum, this is owned by Holsten-Brauerei AG which in turn is owned by Carlsberg Germany.

    Interestingly, the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg contains the red light district, so yeah, that might explain Johann Spunkbeard there. I'm still giggling about that and slutspurt :D

    St. Pauli Girl, the beer, is apparently brewed at the Beck's (AB-InBev) facility in Bremen.

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  3. Barry M12 February 2010 at 00:50

    Oh, a correction. Apparently the actual Bavaria - St. Pauli Brewery buildings were pulled down some time after 2004, when Carlsberg bought Holsten, but it's still stated on the label with an address at D-22755 Hamburg.

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  4. The Beer Nut12 February 2010 at 00:56

    That's Hamburg in northern Bavaria, yeah?

    Thanks for the info, though. My obsession with meaningless macro machinations probably isn't healthy, but I do so enjoy following the trails. Probably because I'm not supposed to.

    Is this the brewery?

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  5. Laurent Mousson12 February 2010 at 09:14

    Well, there's a few "Bavaria" breweries that are not in Bavaria. The most famous of the lot is the Dutch Bavaria of 8.6 fame, who also own la Trappe.

    Those breweries were established in the second half of the 19th Century, surfing on the growing fame of bavarian beer. That was long before the idea of protected denominations of origin crawled its way into German and European legislation. And when that happened on EU levels, there were talks about those breweries called Bavaria which are not on Bavarian soil, but an agreement was IIRC reached with teh Dutch one on the grounds that the brewerys had been around for more than a century.

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  6. Barry M12 February 2010 at 09:18

    "Is this the brewery?"

    LOL! Fucker! Gets me every time :D

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  7. Knut Albert12 February 2010 at 09:59

    I'll nick one of the posters fro my blog. Still not sure which one, probably not the one with leather.

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  8. Barry M12 February 2010 at 10:46

    Good choice, Knut! :D

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  9. Cooking Lager12 February 2010 at 13:01

    Ausgezeichnet. Vielen Dank für die Informationen

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  10. Barry M12 February 2010 at 13:54

    Gern geschehen.

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  11. Bailey13 February 2010 at 11:09

    The poster with Johann Spunkbeard looks to me like the first time a beer company has ever explicity featured a tramp in their advertising. Can't fault their honesty.

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  12. Barry M13 February 2010 at 23:26

    Actually, I know a few German guys who look like that (minus jizz-in-beard I hasten to add!) who are far from tramps. I have to say, I don't quite get that ad...

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  13. The Beer Nut18 February 2010 at 00:31

    I think the caption translates as "Looks like you've blown a seal".

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  14. Barry M18 February 2010 at 09:33

    Did that just come to you now?

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