Perlenzauber German Pale Ale Beer Review

Perlenzauber German Pale Ale

Review Date 6/22/2018 By John Staradumsky

For Christmas of 2015, my wife bought me a really cool present: BeerAdvent Calendar 2015 from Kalea. In truth, my wife got me a lot of nice presents (she’s the best wife ever), but the nice thing about the Beer Advent Calendar is you get it early. You have to, since it’s comprised of 24 different imported German beers in a box with little doors that you open, one per day from December 1st through December 24th. All of the beers are listed on the side of the carton, however, so be careful not to look and spoil the daily surprises!

I love German beer more than beer from any other country on Earth, so this was definitely right up my alley. Knowing this, my wife got me another for 2016. I told you I was lucky! Last year we got no bocks and doppelbocks and they are back! Overall, this is an amazing way to sample 24 German beers over 24 days, and I look forward to it every year. I got mine a Costco here in Georgia and paid $59.95 for the box once again. That might sound steep, but when you distribute that price over 24 different half liter cans, it only works out to $2.50 per can. Not a bad deal at all looked at that way. It certainly does not stop these from selling; I stopped in at Costco for the first week of November and they had two huge pallets. I was on my lunch break and had to get back to work so did not buy one then. A week later when I went to get one, they were almost gone.

For 2017, there are few differences in the beer advent calendar from last year. Once again, it’s labeled as the “Brewer’s Advent Calendar” but the year is back, it is clearly marked as 2017. Last year it was not, the year before it was called the “Beer Advent Calendar 2015”. Nineteen of the beers are returning favorites from the prior two editions, with five new ones I have not seen before.

Day 15 delivered a can of Perlenzauber German Pale Ale.

Perlenzauber appears to be an Egerer product, as there is no other brewery listed on my can and a web search yielded no other information. This beer was, in my opinion, far tastier than the other German Pale Ale in the 2017 calendar, Bergbrau Pale Ale, although I did enjoy that one, too.

Perlenzauber German Pale Ale has an alcohol content of 5.4% by volume.

Perlenzauber German Pale Ale pours to a bright orange amber color with a thick fluffy white head and a soft grassy herbal hop nose. Taking a sip, the beer has a soft caramel maltiness to it not unlike a fine English pale ale. There is a decided flowery, herbal tea like aroma permeating the beer, again reminiscent of English pale ale, but a zesty lemon citrus character which is not. The beer finishes bitter and herbal and is very good indeed.

They had me at German Pale Ale. I love the herbal bitter hop notes and suggestions of tea with lemon. Excellent!

My can has no production date stamped on the bottom as these generally do, just:

EXP 03/2019

Looks like they got smart and abandoned the European date formatting, which was confusing to Americans. They have also extended the shelf life.

I’m greatly enjoying my Beer Advent Calendar 2017 with the day 15 beer. Here’s looking forward to the remaining 9, and another assortment of 24 in 2018. We’ll be on the lookout next year at Costco once again! Follow them on their Facebook page.

The beers of the 2017 Beer Advent Calendar:

Day 1 Schlossbrau Rheder Original Pils

Day 2 Herrnbrau Tradition Bayerisches Festbier

Day 3 http://Holzknecht Hefe-Weisse Dunkel

Day 4 Bergbrau Pale Ale

Day 5 Egerer Altbayrisch Dunkel

Day 6 Kartauser Doppelbock Dunkel

Day 7 Alpenkonig Gold

Day 8 Ankerbrau Nordlingen Grandl Helles Lagerbier

Day 9 Herrnbrau Jubilaums Sud

Day 10 Lowenbrauerei Passau Urtyp Hell

Day 11 Bierkutscher Edel Pils