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Apostelbrau First Bavarian Pale Ale

Apostelbrau “First” Bavarian Pale Ale claims to be a pale ale.  This is a bold claim from a German beer.  Don’t get me wrong, I love German beers but creating beers outside the tightly restrained confines of German beer tradition is highly out of character.  When I saw this, I was curious to see what a “Bavarian Pale Ale” would be like.  I’ve included the link listed on the bottle (click on the picture to the left), but the breweries website mentions nothing about this beer.  It’s made with Bavarian pale malt, spelt malt (an ancestral form of wheat) and is dry-hopped.

Appearance: Gold with a light haze.  Fluffy white head with tight. It has tight streamers of tiny bubbles.  It’s a very attractive beer.

Aroma: Clove, banana, pepper, sweet malt.

Taste: Pepper, banana, clove.  The beer is fairly sweet.  There is a bit of funk in the finish as the beer warms.

Overall Impression: I’d call this a failure as a pale ale.  The dry-hopping is nearly unnoticeable. It doesn’t have any of the characteristics of a Pale Ale.  It is a nice Bavarian wheat ale, though.

Availability: Nationally at better beer shops.

5% Abv

7 thoughts on “Apostelbrau First Bavarian Pale Ale

  1. It is a Bavarian Pale Ale and not a Wanna be English Pale Ale. It uses Bavarian continental malts and not Englisch maritime barley malt. It is meant to be Bavarian and thus has nice foam head. It has the alcohol and the pH of a Bavarian Beer and not of an English Pale Ale. It is not a Bavarian Wheat Ale as it starts to use hops. It only seems to be moderate in hops because hops fairly marries with water from the Bavarian Forest which is very soft. It is not extremed hopped as it should let the beer itself talk and not just the hops

    1. Thank you for your comments. I’ll pick up another bottle and give it another try. I liked the beer; it tasted good; I just wasn’t sure of it’s pedigree as a “Pale ale” based on my tasting of the beer. I look forward to trying another one and seeing where I go with it.

      Prost!

      1. It might be for English taste more into the direction of a Bavarian Wheat Ale, for Bavarian taste it is definitely not. A Bavarian Wheat Ale needs 50% of wheat which here is not the case. Yet the bitterness is far more then what people here in the South are used. But I can understand that for your taste buds it is not a Pale Ale. The right beer type is Bavarian Pale Ale, that is what it was baptized to express a new beer style. A Prost from Germany!

        1. Ok. I’ve got a lot of true Bavarian hefeweizen here and am fairly knowledgable about the style. I’ll try your beer side by side with those. Then I can do a true compare and contrast and give it an honest appraisal. Bier is so fun! Mathias, please send me an email at beer@ithinkaboutbeer.com with your email.

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