It's beer v beer time!

Any beer blogger with respect for himherself occasionally does a beer test. The advanced version of this is to test two beers at the same time, and compare them. The usual trick is to pick an awful and a really good beer and then slag off the awful one whilst praising the good one. That seemed a bit predictable (as well as a waste of liver damage where the awful beer is concerned), so I went for the adventurous approach: comparing two of my all-time favourite beers. Very exciting.

Having at the time of writing just drunk these two beers, I simultaneously have the advantage of being creatively drunk and the disadvantage of missing every second key on the keyboard, so I may well be sober before I finish this. Unless I have another beer, of course. Anyway, you're probably dying to know which two beers I have just compared. It's Meckatzer Weissgold and Wernesgrüner Pils Legende. Note the two dots over the u in Wernesgrüner. That's a German letter, folks. It's pronounced "ü".

I went about this momentous task in a very scientific way. First I went for a cycle ride in the sunshine to make sure I was really thirsty. Then I washed two beer glasses exactly the same way, even though both were already clean, just in case they had been washed differently, at different times or by different people. I used the same soap, the same tap water, the same brush, the same technique and I whistled the same tune whilst washing. Then I let both glasses air-dry until they were no longer wet.

The beers were stored in the fridge so I took them out 10 minutes prior to pouring time and opened the bottles to let the beer breathe. Well, if wine needs this why the heck shouldn't beer? I proceeded to pour 2/3rds of the bottles simultaneously into separate glasses, without tilting the glasses (which would in any case have been difficult since I only have two feet). Then I paused for exactly 97 seconds to let the head stabilize before I poured the rest.

I now had two beautiful looking beers in two extraordinarily attractive beer glasses from the wonderful Aass brewery. I waited two minutes to see how the head developed and multitasked by studying the colour at the same time. The Wernesgrüner was a smidgeon lighter, whilst the Meckatzer could be said to be a tad darker. The next step was to appreciateively sniff the beers in order to detect smells such as wet dogs, pine trees and Welsh footpaths. To me, both smelt a bit like, erm, beer, and I must admit that I couldn't at all tell the difference. Perhaps I need a nose transplant.

Undeterred, I proceeded to taste the beer. After all this time faffing about, you can imagine what a delight it was to finally let these great beers hit my frustrated taste buds. And the taste buds sure were happy. The Wernesgrüner is a very hoppy beer, and therefore extremely refreshing. A bit like a gin and tonic without the gin and the tonic, but with a lot of great beer. The Meckatzer, as I have previously described in an earlier post on this very blog, is both hoppy and malty. It has a more full-bodied mouthfeel, but lacks perhaps that extra sting in the bitterness department that the Wernesgrüner supplies so nicely.

After I had tasted my way down to the halfway point of each glass I moved on to the next stage in the comparison test, which was to see how the beers paired with food. More specifically, three day old Thai curry which had been combined with the leftover rice, reheated and now looked more like porridge. Potent porridge, bordering on deadly. As expected, the curry removed most of the taste of the beers, as well as any other taste sensation left in my mouth, quite efficiently - though I was still able to enjoy the way beer soothes the tonsils. Next time I'll try and pair the beer with food that doesn't require a two-week spa holiday for the tongue afterwards.

So, what's the conclusion? Which beer is best? There's no doubt that these two beers are both very good, perhaps even classic examples of their styles. The Wernesgrüner has been a favourite of mine for many years, and it is simply one of the most refreshing drinks you can imagine. It doesn't need to be accompanied by anything except myself. The Meckatzer, on the other hand, is a bit more of an all-rounder since it goes better with food and has a slightly richer, more satisfying taste.

Therefore it's a draw. 9 out of 10 points for each. Go and buy a crate of both, and if they're not available in your local supermarket then consider the fact that the German economy is booming, so there's no excuse for not moving here, unless you can't pronounce the letter "ü". Good lück.