{"id":4887,"date":"2013-12-20T19:58:45","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T01:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/?p=4887"},"modified":"2013-12-25T01:21:14","modified_gmt":"2013-12-25T07:21:14","slug":"12-beers-of-christmas-7-mahrs-brau-christmas-bock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/lifestyle\/4887\/12-beers-of-christmas-7-mahrs-brau-christmas-bock","title":{"rendered":"12 Beers of Christmas 7: Mahr\u2019s Br\u00e4u Christmas Bock"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mahr's<\/a>I\u2019m drinking too many ales. Not quantitatively, but proportionally. I know, they\u2019re good for what ales you, ales are what\u2019s good for you. But when I occasionally stray from my predominate ale imbibing and down a well-made German lager like Mahr\u2019s Christmas Bock I can\u2019t help but wonder why I\u2019m not drinking these more often.<\/p>\n

Well, why drink an import when there are so many great American beers to drink? Right, and that\u2019s why I drink fewer imports than I used to (with the exception of Belgian beers, perhaps). And then I\u2019m pleasantly reminded of why I shouldn\u2019t be so parochial.<\/p>\n

I need to try more Mahr\u2019s brews, imported by Shelton Brothers, if the Christmas Bock is a typical example of their brewing skills. For our third day in a row, there\u2019s no extra spicing added to this recipe\u2014all the peppery bite from this faintly chestnut-colored beer comes from the assertive hopping dancing with a robust, bready malt character. So as sweet as the beer is, the caramel tones are melded into a heady mix of fruit and perfume. Well-balanced, frothy, refreshing and delicious.<\/p>\n

The little I know about Mahr\u2019s Br\u00e4u is that it\u2019s a relatively small, family- owned independent in Bamberg, into its fourth generation of the Michel family at the helm, though the brewery claims to date back to 1670.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still trying to check how widely the beer is distributed in the U.S. Locally the brewery delivers its goods via horse and wagon, and it runs a popular gasthaus with an indoor saloon (or brewpub), an outdoor biergarten, and a lively Schwemm, which is basically a standing around and drinking area. Just keep in mind that if you dive into the Schwemm you\u2019re not a Schwemmer, but a Stehgammler.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Mahr’s Brau biergarten<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mahr's<\/a>I\u2019m not sure what gave me the idea to even try this one, other than that I saw it on the extensive beer list of Meuleman\u2019s Craft Drafts<\/a> in Rawsonville, Vermont, where I did some Christmas beer shopping a few days ago and had to restrain myself from just saying, \u201cGive me one of everything.\u201d I was thinking of putting it up next to the Rock Art Mountain Holidays beer from Vermont, another dark bock, until I decided I\u2019d already run up the score for east coast brews with a couple more in the dugout.<\/p>\n

Hence our sole lager on the list, but a worthy one, one you could eagerly drink all evening as opposed to repeats of highly spiced ales. This according to my co-conspirator for the evening, nephew Chris Allen, here with his clan and my sister-in-law (his mother-in-law for those keeping score). Chris, Pam, William and Matthew are here from England, so I was considering offering up their home country Ridgeway Bad Elf beers. But thought I might save those for Boxing Day.<\/p>\n

At any rate, Lynn cooked up a hell of a meal featuring some tasty chicken morsels wrapped around parmigiano cheese, and the Mahr\u2019s went with it splendidly.<\/p>\n

We wrapped up the evening playing Christmas Charades\u2014cha-raids or cha-rods depending upon one\u2019s accent\u2014and we\u2019re still trying to figure out how young William guessed the movie \u201cElf\u201d without a single clue from his brother. And modesty forbids my revealing how I enacted \u201cJingle Bells.\u201d<\/p>\n

Name: Christmas Bock
\nBrewer: Mahr\u2019s Brau, Bamberg, Germany
\nStyle: Bock
\nABV: 6%
\nAvailability: Seasonally
\nFor More Information: www.mahrs.de\/en<\/p>\n

< 12 Beers of Christmas 6: Corsendonk Christmas Ale<\/a>
\n12 Beers of Christmas 8: Sixpoint Global Warmer ><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\"MAHRS-logo\"<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m drinking too many ales. Not quantitatively, but proportionally. I know, they\u2019re good for what ales you, ales are what\u2019s… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":4889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[939,627,18],"tags":[764,571907,676069,708480,975715,975760,975761,633,975762,645,975763,667,975764,749],"class_list":["post-4887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer-on-tap","category-tap-beer-of-the-week","category-lifestyle","tag-bock","tag-meulemans-craft-draughts","tag-christmas-beers","tag-shelton-brothers","tag-bamberg","tag-mahrs-brau","tag-lagers","tag-vermont","tag-ridgeway-brewing","tag-rock-art","tag-chris-allen","tag-germany","tag-charades","tag-christmas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2013\/12\/mahrs-biergarten.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4887"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4907,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887\/revisions\/4907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}