There are now Three decent beers at my local supermarket

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Well I’m off today so I decided to have a go at 3 beers I got recently at the Centra across the road. I should point out that I live in the arse of nowhere. OK so that's not true as I’m only 76km from Dublin and drive in every day but the town itself is small and only has 1600 or so people so to be able to get some premium beer a short stroll away is great. I just wish my local pub would do the same.
So anyway I sat down at my bar with the laptop and opened up all three.

The first one is one that VelkyAl recently mentioned called Paulaner Hefe-Weisbier. I commented that it was the only decent beer that my local Centra stocked. That changed on Saturday when I found two new beers there. I have seen them floating around before but not in Centra and I have never tried them. Excited, I bought one of each even though I did not need any beer as I still have some good stuff in the fridge and plenty of my own Cider.

So anyway, where to start? I’m writing this on the fly and so far have just quickly tasted each beer.

I will start with the Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse. I’m not up on German but would this mean Franciscan?
On pouring it from the bottle I notice two things, It is very cloudy and there is a strong aroma from a distance before I even get my nose near it. I then notice a third thing, there is a residue at the bottom which looks to me like yeast meaning that this may be a bottle conditioned beer? It does not say on the bottle as its all in German.
The aroma is floral to me and perhaps some Banana. There is a nice amount of carbonation but not too much and it leaves a lovely delicate flavour in the mouth once swallowed. I’m very happy with this beer. I can imagine many of these on a Hot day. The bottle has a happy looking monk on the front which reminds me of Father Jack from Father Ted fame before he possible drank too many of these beers.
Wonderful stuff.

Next I was going to do the other wheat beer, Paulaner but I notice that the third beer is actually from the same brewer as the Franziskaner.
Its Spaten Munchen. This is a lager, similar to a Pilsner but less hoppy? I’m not too clear on the Pilsner versus normal Lager differences when it comes to tasting. Anyway it is very lively on the mouth and starts off very bubbly but this dies away after you leave it for a few minutes in the glass. I have to say I like this beer a lot. It reminds me of one of the beers I had in Prague back when I did not like beer much. Being in Prague and not liking beer is pretty sad, that's where I started drinking alcohol again. If I get to go again I’m going to have VelkyAl bring me to the good places. I’m digressing here, sorry but I do have 3 pints of excellent beer in front of me and all I have eaten today are dry cornflakes. Anyway The Spaten beer is very refreshing and something I will certainly drink again, though I prefer their Wheat Beer as that's just the type of beer I prefer over Lager.

Lastly is the Paulaner. This is interesting because it looks to also be bottle conditioned due to yeast sediment down the bottom of the bottle. It does not have as strong of an aroma as the Franziskaner but certainly matches it in colour, however its not as cloudy. I can see through the Paulaner in the glass but not the Franziskaner. I seem to be mainly comparing this to the Franziskaner. That's fine though as there are differences. The Paulaner seems to have a stronger clove smell to it however I also tastes sweeter and more fruity than the Franziskaner. In times gone by, I would have had a sweeter taste when it comes to beer and the same went for wine. These days I prefer bitter and dry or medium sweet at most.

So of the two wheat beers, I would certainly pick the Franziskaner over the Paulaner. That is just me as I prefer the sharper taste of the Franziskaner over the sweeter taste of the Paulaner. I would not turn down a Paulaner though, lovely stuff all together.

After finishing the initial write up you can see in the image where I left off. You can probably tell which my favourites are from the picture. Clearly the Franziskaner is the clear favourite. Now its time to do a little editing before I post this.

Just a quick note that after sticking on some Thomas Leeb on the stereo and drinking some more, I found the Spaten almost gone, the Paulaner not far behind and the Franziskaner with a little more than half left? I'm not sure the excellent music changed things so i'm going to assume i was keeping the best for last. Oh and if you like guitar music of any style, i suggest checking out Thomas Leeb as well as these beers. He uses his guitar for the percussion as well as the rhythm.