Opened cold and poured hard from draft into a straight half. Brilliantly clear pale gold, carbonation fine enough to be almost invisible.
The munich / pils bill carries the structure and Hallertau Mittelfrüh does the seasoning. At 5.2% and 32 IBU it sits where the style should, and Mahrs Bräu have resisted the urge to push it anywhere else.
It drinks better than it smells, which is the right way round. The Hallertau Mittelfrüh shows up as flavour rather than perfume, and the finish is clean enough to make the next sip inevitable.
The whole point of a beer at 5.2% is the second and third glass, and this survives both. There is no cloying edge, no fatigue in the finish, and the hop character stays legible right through. That is harder to achieve than a big beer, and it gets a fraction of the credit.
Whatever the decoction schedule costs them in time, it shows up in the malt. There is a depth to the grain here that no amount of specialty malt shortcuts its way to.
Against the rest of the lager shelf this holds its own comfortably. It is not the beer that will convert anybody to the style, but it is the one you reach for once the converting is done, and at $6.20 / 500ml it is honestly priced.
Bought at Import shelf (rotating at the time of writing). If you see it on gravity pour, cancel your plans.
A beer for the door of the fridge rather than a shelf under glass.
