By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food
Set up in 2007, Bavarian craft bier brand And Union is the produce of a father, a son and his business partner, with a focus on rationality and simplicity – the basic principles of modernism – at the helm. Working with brew-masters from four small, family-run Bavarian regional breweries, all of And Union’s craft beers are brewed in a traditional manner, using just barley, yeast, hops, and water. And as a result, the brewing process for the unfiltered and unpasteurised beers is not rushed and can take up to 16 weeks to complete.
From the brand’s core range of biers, NEU BLK is an unfiltered dark lager that’s presented with a contemporary contrast to its old-fashioned brewing method. When poured from the bottle, a hazy dark amber body is topped with a foaming sand head with fair retention, while notes of roasted malts are omnipotent on the nose. Elsewhere, aromas of caramel sweetness are joined by a slight hint of sour berries and underlying traces of chocolate. On the palate, however, the complex roasted malt flavour continues with both prominent richness and a respectable balance between sweetness and hoppy bitterness that continues into a clean finish, alongside tastes of bitter dark chocolate. While NEU BLK is not a groundbreaking brew, by any stretch of the word, it is in fact a particularly pleasing dark lager that’s extraordinarily easy-drinking.
Further information on And Union can be found at andunion.com.
