Woinermer Hausbräu and Michelstädter Rathausbräu

Woinermer Hausbräu and Michelstädter Rathausbräu


So I used a short trip to Weinheim and the Odenwald to check out 2 of the local small breweries the Woinemer Hausbräu in Weinheim and the Michelstädter Rathausbräu in Michelstadt.
I skipped the 1,5h tour around Michelstadt to sample the local goodies instead.

Let's start with Woinem.

The Woinemer Hausbrauerei seems to be a bit bigger as they actually also sell their brew in local Supermarkets and drink shops. While I did purchase 3 of the beers they make for sale, I haven't sampled those yet, thus I can't talk about them so far. While the service was OKish the highlight was that they offer a beer tasting which means that for the price a bit higher than a single normal pint, you get 4 of their beers in a 0,1l glass. Normally that consists out of a Helles, a Dunkles, a Weizen and the special brew, depending on the time of he year. As I loathe Weizen, I asked and had the Weizen replaced with the second of the special stuff they had currently. They had an Irish thing going, so the brews were an Irish Stout and an Irish Red, which were so special that I had to enter them into Untappd myself, being the first drinker of it in the Untappd community. (Untappd being an app I use to log in my different drinks. This is their Internet site, while this is the page at the Google Play Store. No idea about apple... sorry peeps.)

Their Helles was the best of the 4 samples, alas being the best in this case means it was OKish at most.. It had some soft yeast tones and yes it was fresh, but that's the only good things I can say about it.

The Dunkles was weirdly malty sweet with a weird side taste and a general soapy mouth feel.. hell it even tasted soapy...

The Dark Irish wasn't really a stout imho as it tasted nothing like one but came with an almost moldy taste as if it stood in a moist basement for too long.

The Red Irish was OKish with food but was very metallic with strong coppery tastes.

All in all I am afraid to say that I wasn't happy with any of their beers. Of course there is always the odd chance that I simply don't like something or that maybe something went minorly wrong while brewing... but 4 out of 4 that I really went 'meh' when drinking em is a rather high quota I'd say. I did order a large Helles afterwards as it was the most drinkable of the 4 but for a brewpub that even sells their stuff to the mass market I was rather disappointed.

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The Rathausbräu, however, was a full and absolute success. It started with me asking whether it's possible to sample their 4 beers in a fashion of the other brewery and the waitress said that they don't have that possibility, alas when i mentioned that I'm writing about beer and would love to sample all of their magical goodness she said oh well we can conjure something up and then she brought me 0,2l of each of their beers. I was happy and of course figured she would find a way to bill that... in the end I saw she didn't even put them on the bill. Besides that she was the nicest waitress I have had in years. Their beers were a Pils, a Märzen, a Schwarzbier and a Belgium style they called Belle Saison.





The Pils wasn't a Pils for my taste but more of an IPA, which was even better... It came with a full yeasty taste, great bitterness and decent sweet tones. It had an awesome aftertaste.

The Märzen was great too though one could taste the alcohol in it, which was balanced by great rye tones. Generally rye was the main taste element in it

The Schwarzbier had a bit of medicinal sub tones but was very soft and full bodied, while

the Belle Saison was a Trappiste style Dubbel I'd say and the only one that kept the foamy head for a very long time. It had mixed tartness with sweet tones which ended in a great bittersweet composite end taste. I ordered another one of that baby.

I can really say that the Rathausbräu was worth it and I even bought a 1l bottle of their Pils which I still think is an IPA and I'll write about it soon.


Prost!

DMW