27A Kellerbier

Reflects base style. May have an added bready, yeasty character from the yeast. Clean. Pale versions can have a more robust hop character. Dark versions can have a richer malt profile.

Reflects base style. Can be somewhat hazy or cloudy, but never murky. Likely a little darker in appearance than the base style.

Reflects base style. May have an added bready, yeasty character from the yeast. Pale versions can have a more robust hop character. Dark versions can have a richer malt profile, but should never be roasty. May be slightly more bitter than the base style, and be a little heavier in the finish. Fully fermented with a clean fermentation profile; should not have eggy, buttery, apple-like, or similar flaws.

Reflects base style. May have a bit more body and a creamier texture than the base style. Carbonation typical of the base style, but may be lower.

A traditional serving style more than a beer style, yet these beers do have sensory differences from the base beers. Judge these somewhat like Specialty-Type Beers; consider the range of kellerbiers based on Helles to Märzen to Dunkel to be a continuous spectrum, so allow the brewer to pick the closest one without being too picky about strict adherence to the base style. The name literally means cellar beer, and is a natural, gentle handling of fresh-tasting German lagerbier for seasonal, onpremise service. Like British Bitters, best enjoyed locally as the bottled examples may lack the characteristic freshness.

Originally referred to lager beer matured in the caves or cellars under the brewery, and then served from them. First applied to amber lager from Franconia, then later to local Munich styles. More recently used internationally to create specialty Pils variants. By tradition, a serving style for a popular summer specialty in Bavaria, but now adapted broadly as a marketing term for unfiltered lagers.