I've been searching far and wide for American lagers that stack up to the originals from Bavaria. I've heard about some legendary lagers from the likes of Chuckanut, Von Trapp, Bierstadt, Prost, and Jack's Abbey to name just a few but have not been able to get my hands on any here in NC...until very recently when I stumbled across the House Lager from Jack's Abbey at my local craft beer shop.
The beer is described as a "Helles Landbier" - check out the description and video at the their website:
I had a few on their own and thought that they really capture the traditional Bavarian style with notes of sweet, fresh-baked bread, and a delicate floral bouquet that I've rarely seen in American attempts at the style. But how could I be sure...
I decided to do a blind taste test vs the traditional Munich Helles from Paulaner. I did the test on July 30, 2022 and had some concerns due to the fact that the can of Paulaner was considerably older (canned Nov 2021) than the Jack's Abbey (May 2022), and who knows how it was treated on its long journey across the pond. Anyway, my wife poured the beers behind my back and presented them:
The aromas were almost identical and the colors were very similar - maybe just a hint more clarity for the one on the left. I was immediately struck, however, by the stark difference in head retention (I'll get back to that in a second...).
Now for taste - without going into a long-winded description with lots of flowery adjectives, suffice it to say that both were outstanding and great representations of the style. I though the one on the left tasted a bit "crisper," although admittedly the difference was pretty subtle. I could (...and likely will) see myself drink several litres of these under the trees of a nice biergarten!
Ok, so now the moment of truth. Which was which? And here is where I let my visual biases get in the way...I thought for sure that the one on the left was the Jack's Abbey and attributed the better head-retention and "crsip-ness" to the fact that it was canned just 2 months prior vs 8 months for the Paulaner...except, I was wrong! Low and behold, the older can of Paulaner held up really well after all that time. The Jack's House Lager had nice carbonation overall, but just not much in the way of head retention.
In any case, these are both exceptional beers and I highly recommend that you try the Jack's Abbey if you can find it - I'm really looking forward to trying some of their other styles now that I can get them here in NC!
Prost!
Maybe the head retention is due to a fresher malt right from local German maltsters, step rests for protein or possibly decoction mashing???
Does the Jack's Abbey do a decoction mash?
Nice job on the