Beer Radar

Here’s a new holiday treat: Samichlaus Helles. I just got word from Karl Stohr, whose family runs Castle Eggenberg brewery in Austria, that this “lighter” version of the classic Santa Claus beer was made especially for the American market. “I don’t want to cannibalize Samichlaus in other countries,” Stohr writes. “America is the best market for Samichlaus.”

I’ve read elsewhere that this is he first time this version has been made in 20 years - I honestly don’t remember that one. The Helles pours much paler than the original Samichlaus. And by original, I mean the 10-year-old bottle from Hürlimann (its original Swiss brewer) that I compared it with over the weekend. It’s still quite strong at 14 percent alcohol, but the body is just a bit lighter; it’s a sipper but dangerously drinkable.

Here are the German technicals from brewer Thomas Lugmayr:

• MALT: Variation aus Pilsner-, Münchner- und Karamelmalzen
• HOPS: Gehopft mit Hallertauer – (Magnum, Perle), Mühlviertler- (Malling) und Tettnanger Hopfen (Tettnanger)

I didn’t dig up my notes from my visit to Eggenberg last year to see how that varies from the dark Samichlaus.

By the way, Thursday is St. Nicholas Day, which is the one day of the year when they brew Samichlaus. Here’s my report from last year. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 5:22 am and is filed under Beer etc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.