Top Tastings 2009, Beer sellers: Landbierparadies
ABV: 5.2%
Origin: Forchheim, Franken/Bayern, Germany
Neder Schwarze Anna
Franconia is still the secret garden of beer appreciation. There are about 300 breweries in the three districts that make up modern day Franconia, a culturally and historically distinct region of what’s now the German “Land” of Bavaria. Most of them are in Upper Franconia, which boasts a staggering concentration of one brewery to every 1,000 inhabitants. The beers span a range of styles, many of them locally specific, unusual and still brewed by traditional methods, and standards of quality are overall impressively high. But despite these riches, many of the beers are unknown and untasted outside their brewery’s immediate locality, let alone the wider world. Breweries are mainly small and rural, only supplying their own pub and maybe a couple of neighbouring outlets. Some beers only appear on selected summer days at outdoor beer gardens tucked away in the countryside.
A few outlets in the bigger cities specialise in making some of these obscure delights available to a wider population. Last year I went to Nürnberg to investigate one of them, Landbierparadies (Country Beer Heaven), for Beers of the World magazine. Sadly the magazine folded; the resulting piece was eventually posted here. The enterprise is run by expert enthusiast Joachim Glawe, who actively seeks out smaller breweries in the more rustic reaches of the region, persuading them to bottle their beer or put it into small casks, which are then sold through a shop near the station and in a mini chain of pubs around the city.
Black beer Schwarze Anna was among the most impressive of a range of excellent beers I sampled on the trip, recommended to me by Joachim’s daughter Sabine, who turns out to have been brought up on Tyneside. It’s from Neder, founded in 1554 and now the oldest of four breweries in the important and historic town of Forchheim. Neder makes some astoundingly good beers, some of which are now popping up at UK beer festivals. Its Erstes Forchheimer Braunbier (first Forchheim brown beer) also earned a near-maximum score from me.
The town is known for its Annafest, a folk festival on and around St Anne’s Day, 26 July. It’s now a massive visitor attraction but has its roots in an annual pilgrimage to a nearby chapel dedicated to the saint. All four breweries brew a Festbier for the occasion. Schwarze Anna is not one of these — it’s a Franconian Dunkel in the clothing of a northeast German Schwarzbier — but its name invokes the local saintly connection. By tradition Anne (Channah) was the mother of the virgin Mary, grandmother of Jesus, and the label with its silhouette reminded me of the numerous historical depictions of members of the holy family as black skinned.
It’s a very dark amber-tinged brown with a fine light beige-grey head. The sweetish malty aroma has notes of cola and an unusual and beguiling perfumed and slightly fruity whiff. The roasty, malty and slightly smoky palate is wonderfully grainy under the tongue, with rich chocolate emerging. The beer finishes lightly dry with more of those perfumed notes, a gentle whiff of smoke and subtle hops. All in all a delight, especially when supped in a leafy beer garden on a sunny July day while grazing on Obatzda, the local cheese-based delicacy pepped with paprika and raw onions and served with black bread.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/neder-schwarze-anna/26205/
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