Sunday 15 October 2017

Erdinger beers in 2017

Someone asked after my recent series of posts on Bavarian Weizen: why no Erdinger?

I did contemplate being a smartarse and saying; "Because their beers are shit." But that isn't the real reason. Which is that I just hadn't looked up their website. I thought I'd put that right. And luckily they give both the OG and ABV on their website.

They brew quite a range of wheat beers, eight in all. Excluding the alcohol-free versions.

Most have a very high degree of attenuation, which must make them quite light in the mouth. The Urweiss is an amber-coloured version, in case you're wondering. There are a lot of beers around 12º Plato, which I guess is to be expected. German brewers still mostly stick to the old gravity bands. Habit, I guess.

There was one intersting point I noticed. The website also lists the ingredients. For the Dunkles and Pikantus in includes Röstmalzbier - roasted malt beer. Which I'm guessing is either Sinamar or something similar. Effectively it's a type of malt-based caramel. So no actula dark malts in the grist. I told you lots of this goes on in Germany.

Oh, and do you see what it says on the top of the label? Brewed according to the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot of 1516. Which is a downright fucking lie. The original law sys that beer can only be brewed from barley, hops and water. No mention of wheat.

Erdinger beers in 2017
Brewer Town Beer Style OG Plato OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation
Erdinger Erding Weissbier Hefeweizen 12.60 1050.7 1010.1 5.30 80.19%
Erdinger Erding Urweisse Hefeweizen 11.90 1047.8 1010.1 4.90 78.87%
Erdinger Erding Dunkles Hefeweizen Dunkel 12.80 1051.6 1010.9 5.30 78.87%
Erdinger Erding Kristall Kristallweizen 12.50 1050.3 1009.7 5.30 80.82%
Erdinger Erding Pikantus Weizenbock 16.70 1068.3 1012.6 7.30 81.63%
Erdinger Erding Leicht Hefeweizen 7.90 1031.2 1009.6 2.80 69.26%
Erdinger Erding Sommerweiße Hefeweizen 11.30 1045.3 1009.9 4.60 78.13%
Erdinger Erding Schneeweiße Hefeweizen 12.90 1052.0 1009.1 5.60 82.50%
Source:
https://de.erdinger.de/biere

3 comments:

@scne59 said...

They receceived an adhortatory letter from a german consumer organization in 2016 and signed a coventant against using that 1516 bullshit again. They now claim it to comply with "Reiheitsgebot" only, which means the 1993 version.
https://www.verbraucherzentrale-bawue.de/pm-bayerisches-reinheitsgebot-von-1516--nur-ohne-weizen-rein

Sebastian said...

Erdinger was forced by Verbraucherzentrale (Consumer Direct) Baden-Württemberg to remove the year: http://www.lebensmittelklarheit.de/produkte/erdinger-weissbier

Barm said...

The standard Erdinger Weißbier is pretty bland but Urweisse is a very nice beer, I think.