Kellerbier

ABV Base style, usually 4.7-5.5% · IBU Base style, usually 20-45 · SRM Base style, 3-17 · Serve 45-50F · Glass Seidla mug

Identify

Hazy rather than bright, and sometimes properly cloudy, but never muddy. The colour runs from pale gold to amber depending on the beer underneath. The head is often thinner than you expect, and the beer looks almost still in the glass. Softer and rounder than the filtered version of the same beer, with a bready note from the yeast. Low carbonation, so it feels smooth rather than sharp. The bitterness can be a shade firmer, and the finish sits a little heavier.

Place

Franconia, in northern Bavaria. Beer stored in cellars cut into rock and served straight out of them

Cause

Most lager is filtered before packaging, which pulls out the yeast and leaves the beer bright. A Kellerbier skips that step, so yeast is still in the glass. Some strains drop out of the beer easily and some do not. Brewers call that flocculation, which just means how well the yeast clumps together and sinks.

Confused with

A faulty or infected beer, which it is not. Hefeweizen, which is also cloudy but tastes of banana and clove. A hazy IPA, which is cloudy from hops rather than yeast. Witbier, which is cloudy and tastes of orange peel.

Numbers

Kellerbier is not a recipe. It is a way of handling a lager: leave the yeast in, keep the carbonation low, and drink it young. The beer underneath can be a Helles, a Pils, a Marzen or a Dunkel, and the guidelines expect you to be told which. Tilt the glass and look through it at something with an edge, like a doorframe.

Will you like it, Order and Try

Fresh bread and bread dough. The yeast puts that flavour directly into the glass. Drinks that are soft rather than sharp. Low carbonation changes how a beer feels more than most people expect. Cloudy apple juice over clear, or unfiltered olive oil. Same instinct, same reward. A beer you can drink slowly.

Pair, Judge, Myth and Remember

What does not work: very hot chilli, and delicate fish. This beer works by sitting alongside food rather than scrubbing it away, so it needs something with a bit of weight and it flattens anything too fine. Hazy but not muddy, so light still comes through. A modest head.