Beer Styles

What is a Landbier? The name describes less a specific style than an attitude: a simple, easy-drinking, usually pale beer from a village brewery, close in type to a Helles. In the Coburg area, it's the flagship beer for most breweries, as seen in Itzgrunder Landbier.

Helles is bottom-fermented and moderately hopped. According to BJCP guidelines, it has an original gravity of 11 to 11.9 degrees Plato, 4.7 to 5.4 percent alcohol, and 16 to 22 IBU. It tastes of bread crust and grain, with a delicate hop character, and finishes smooth. This is also where the term Vollbier comes in, a label many village breweries print on their bottles.

The Pils stands alongside it, as in Storchen-Pils. It too is bottom-fermented, but drier and noticeably more hop-forward. By the same guidelines, a German Pils has 22 to 40 IBU. You can taste the difference from the very first sip: the Pils cuts through, the Helles rounds things out.

There's also Bockbier as a seasonal offering. Under German beer regulations, a beer only qualifies as a Bock if it has at least 16 percent original gravity. And the smoked beer Lorenz' Meistersud is a special case: the Bamberg style, adopted in the Coburg region.

Weissbier and Kölsch aren't really part of the picture here. Ask for Coburg beer and you'll get a lager in various strengths, pale, fresh, no experiments. A lager is called that because it's stored (gelagert) for a long time after fermentation, and with Landbier you can taste that rest in its soft, round drinkability.