6 Months of München – Battle of Everything

Disclaimer: The selection of things I have sampled is by no means definitive and I am open to considering other products if you can send them to Australia! With that in mind, here is what I have tried and how each of them stack up:

Beers (The Big Six)

These are the six main breweries of Munich: Augustiner, Spaten, Hofbräu, Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner and Lowenbräu. Most restaurants and beer gardens have an affiliation with a particular brewer and will serve only their beer! These breweries are also the only six allowed to serve the beer at the Oktoberfest.

VS.

VS.

VS.

VS.

VS.

Best Helles

The word “Helles” is German for “bright”. These beers are bright, crisp and tend to be a bit more malty. They often share the same spicy hop characters of a pilsener, but are a bit more subdued and in balance with the malts.

Winner: Augustiner Bräu Lagerbier Hell

Augustiner Bräu is a local favourite, and with good reason! It’s everything a top Helles should be: light and crisp, with a subtle but wondrous after taste of smooth malts.
The ones I found to be not as enjoyable were Paulaner, as it was far too harsh and bitter, with Lowenbräu along a similar line. I ranked Lowenbräu worse of the two because I additionally always woke up feeling terrible and with a big headache after a big session on them. I liked both Spaten and Hacker-Pschorr, but they seemed to be universally panned by locals (at least the ones I spoke to). One anecdote that comes to mind is in regards to a free bottle Hacker-Pschorr* I received in the city. When I later proclaimed my excitement at receiving a free beer, a local German commented: “Yes, but if there was a piece of shit on the ground and it was free, would you eat it?”. Needless to say, he was a tried and true Augustiner drinker.

* Yes, free! A Europcar branded van pulled up in the city, and for what I can only presume was a promotion or left-overs from a corporate event, they slid open the van door revealing cases of beer, started announcing “frei bier!” and handing them out. I didn’t speak a lot of German, but I sure as hell knew what that phrase meant!

1. Augustiner Bräu Lagerbier Hell
2. Spaten Münchner Hell
3. Hofbräu Original
4. Hacker-Pschorr Münchner Hell
5. Paulaner Original Münchner Hell
6. Lowenbräu Original

Best Oktoberfestbier

Winner: Augustiner Bräu

The Augustiner Bräu Oktoberfestbier is stronger in both its signature flavour and alcohol content. There’s a big difference between having one bottle of beer and having a session on the beers, and for Oktoberfest a beer has to be truly “sessionable” – Augustiner has this in spades. Upon having his first Maß in the Augustiner Festhalle tent, my friend Patto immediately commented that the beer was “very dangerous” due to how easy it was to drink. We knocked over our first two in little to no time.

While Spaten is a great beer to have a bottle of, I wouldn’t consider it a “sessionable” beer as it becomes a bit too “pissy” towards the end of the second litre – hence the big drop in rankings compared with the Helles list. Conversely, Paulaner’s standard Helles bitterness is subdued in the Oktoberfest blend and allows for easy session drinking (I consumed 4L one night at Oktoberfest with ease)

1. Augustiner Bräu
2. Paulaner
3. Hacker-Pschorr
4. Hofbräu
5. Spaten
6. Lowenbrau

Best Privat Beer

Although largely dominated by “The Big Six” there is still a thriving local brewing and craft beer scene in Munich.

Winner: Ayinger

The flavours aren’t too strong here, with a subtle honey malt shining through the carbonation. Nothing too extreme and utterly pleasurable to enjoy on a sunny afternoon. A work colleague stated that it is the best beer you can have in a radler (beer/lemonade mix), and I wholeheartedly agree.

1. Ayinger
2. Giesinger
3. Auer Brau
4. Tilmanns

Best Discount Supermarket

VS.

Winner: ALDI

ALDI is just a bit more nicely presented, while LIDL gives off a Reject Shop kind of vibe. LIDL is probably the cheaper of the two in terms of shopping cost (albeit marginal when we’re talking prices this low) but you rarely get everything that you’re after. ALDI’s range is much better and we found ourselves doing a shop there for new-found regular favorites quite often. The staff at ALDI also seemed to be more efficient and less intimidating that those found at LIDL. However, LIDL is still worth going to every now and again for some “bulk shop” items.

Best Doppelkeks

Doppelkeks translates literally to “double biscuits” and are little creations of two biscuits with a chocolate filling in between.

VS.

VS.

Winner: Prinzen Rolle

Prinzen Rolle strikes a perfect ratio between the biscuit and chocolate. The biscuit is substantial, yet still crisp and light which combines perfectly with the delicious chocolate layer.

The Milka biscuits are more of a short-bread consistency and have a lot of chocolate filling in between (not surprising with Milka being a chocolate company). The result is a bit of a butter overload and I never had more than one at any given time. Conversely, the ALDI doppelkeks have a very dry biscuit which I liken to an Arnott’s “Milk Coffee” biscuit. The biscuits are far too dry and hard work is required to get some relieving chocolate flowing through the mix when eating it. When it does come though, the chocolate quickly becomes a “too bland, too late” proposition.

1. Prinzen Rolle (HIT)
2. Milka Choco Pause (Tengelmann)
3. Doppelkeks (ALDI)

Best Spetzi

This classic German soft drink is made by mixing cola with orange soda.

VS.

Winner: Scwhip Schwap

Scwhip Schwap struck a better balance between the flavours and the orange tasted more natural than that of Mezzo Mix.

Well done, you got to the end! Here’s a little bonus recipe for you: Reece’s “Deutsche Tee”

Similar in flavour to a Long Island Ice Tea, but without the overpowering alcohol taste, this well-tested mix keeps the sugar content down while still getting you along on your merry way. Best served in an over-sized, tall mug.

30% – Mariacron Weinbrand (Brandy)
20% – Scwhip Schwap
50% – Star Marke (Tengelmann) Ice Tea Zitrone Kalorienarm (Lemon, Low-calorie)