A bird’s eye on Karlsruhe beers

Vogelbräu is a brewpub on the outskirt’s of Karlsruhe’s city center. Being the selfless fellow I am, I checked it out for you in the lovely (and surprisingly large) beergarden which is hidden in the interior court of the brewpub building. The pils was delicious, but not in the classic sense. When I think of pils I generally think of a clear, light-colored, and hoppy beer with relatively little malt taste, and usually highly filtered.

The pils at Vogelbräu, in contrast, is not filtered, and the hops are challenged for supremacy by a strong malt taste. It’s a good beer, although I can’t say as I would necessarily order it if I were really in the mood for a pils. The most comparable beer I can think of is Victory’s Hop Devil, a fine ale, but hardly a classic pilsner.

I also tried the weissbier, although I generally refrain from drinking pils and weissbier in the same sitting. Karlsruhe is in Baden, where the term weizenbier is preferred to the Bavarian weissbier, but Baden and Swabia probably have an equal claim to good wheat beers. In this case, unfiltered is the rule rather than the exception, and the wheat beer was largely conventional, if unconventionally served. The Vogelbräu weizen was definitely more bitter than most Bavarian weissbiers, but very tasty. Both the pils and the weizen were served in a mug which, at least in Munich, would only have been used for a Helles.

Overall, the beers were good, the beergarden very pleasant, and I can definitely recommend Vogelbräu for the beer lover who finds him or herself in Karlsruhe. Better yet, many of the beergarden tables are framed by a vine-overgrown trellis, which hides a large awning. The result? Beer garden comfort even in the rain, not a bad thing in Germany.

And my favorite touch? On the bottom of the glass, written so you can read it, is printed the words “Oins geht noch,” loosely translated as “You can handle one more.” They were right.