| At this time of year we tend to think of Mardi Gras or Carnival, but Germany has its own, older version of the pre-Lent celebration, called Fasching. Like Mardi Gras and Carnival, it combines a number of ancient fertility rites, including the driving out of Old Man Winter.
Fasching literally means the eve before the beginning of the fast and was originally reserved as the last chance for hedonistic pleasures. Like Mardi Gras, it involves wild costume balls and parades, orgiastic feasts and copious amounts of fun and alcohol. Sounds a lot more fun than Groundhog Day.
I can’t think of a beer better suited to Fasching than Germany’s Schneider Aventinus. The Aventinus is much like the costumes and parades of the celebration – it is a well-masked, dark ruby gem, streaked with top fermenting yeast, and has a compact but long-lasting head. Its subtle, well-disguised alcoholic strength parades through layers of malty complexity and dances on the taste buds with clove-y banana spiciness. It has a decadent chocolate, fig and raisin fruitiness, with champagne-like sparkle and acidity. And, as if this wasn’t enough of a taste experience, it finishes with a light hint of bitters and leaves a pleasing yet slightly sour aftertaste.
The Aventinus is a truly remarkable beer – the original dopple weizenbock. In other words, it is a double-strength dark wheat beer weighing in at eight per cent of pure carnival fun.
True beer aficionados understand the importance of glassware. The right glass will make a beer taste better. Weiss beers (wheat beers) should be served in a large, bulbous glass with a narrow bottom. This way the beer can develop passionately in the narrow bottom part of the glass and grow its foamy head in the bulbous top.
The Schneider Aventinus is not pasteurized and is stored on live yeast in the bottle, which means this beer continues to grow and evolve. It remains fresh in the bottle until it’s refrigerated, which kills the yeast. I have heard that this beer reaches its peak flavour at four years of age, but I’ve never had a bottle last that long around my house. Because this beer is on live yeast, a health-conscious person will want to squeeze every last drop out of the bottle to enjoy all the benefits of the vitamins B6 and B12 that are in the yeast. The suggested serving temperature is 9 C to 10 C, which lets all the flavours develop.
This beer is complex and decadent on its own, but it also pairs well with some provolone-like cheeses and is amazingly good with bittersweet chocolate desserts. It also makes an excellent marinade for pork and duck. And speaking of decadent, if you ever find yourself in Munich, the Weisses Brauhaus, Schneider’s flagship restaurant in the city, makes a truly indulgent beer ice-cream float from three of their products: the Aventinus and the Schneider Weiss, both in ice-cream form, floated in a filtered version of the Schneider Kristaller.
If you want to try Schneider Aventinus, it’s available at Royal Liquor Merchants (1140 - 17th Ave. S.W.), Kensington Wine Market (1257 Kensington Rd. N.W.) and other better-stocked liquor stores. |
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