The Intl. Lager Challenge - Germany Quarter Finals 1 & 2

Quarter Final 1
Spaten 5.2% abv
Veltins Pilsener 4.8% abv  €2.99

I do like Spaten, I had some recently at a gig (Hey! I'm not so old), and I really enjoyed it. I've only had Veltins once, on a recommendation from some guy in an off licence. It was OK; pleasant but unremarkable. Sounds like this match is a no-brainer, let's see...

Spaten
Pale yellow in the glass, decent head. It's not bad, but not great. Some decent malt present and it's smooth, dry and drinkable but  nothing exciting here.

Veltins Pilsener
This is nice. Decent malt  and a little hops. Again not massively exciting but pretty decent.

Winner  - Veltins

Quarter Final 2
Kromabcher  4.8% €2.95 (Dunnes)
Warsteiner 4.8% abv

Back when we used to drink in the Stillorgan Orchard on a regular basis, they used to have Krombacher on tap and I bleedin' loved it, but I haven't seen it on draught it since. I buy it occasionally in bottles, but it can be pricey - three yo-yos for a bottle of lager isn't that clever. I'm sure I've sampled the Warsteiner before but I couldn't tell you when, I guess I must have tried it at least once? Anyway, here goes...

Krombacher
Amber in the glass with a long lasting head, this is pure class. Well balanced, sweet and slightly creamy (?) with a long luscious finish, this is utterly delicious. I suspect this will be a hard ask for the opposition here.


Warsteiner 
Tennis ball yellow in the glass, the head on this rapidly disappeared (baum). Not bad, a little bitterness but not much else going on. Fine on a hot day but not a winner here...

Winner  - Krombacher

The Lager Challenge - Intro, Updated*

After the success of the IPA Challenge (so the voices in my head tell me, anyway), I have decided to attempt a larger (and lager) challenge.  This time things will be different. With the IPAs I bought pretty much every one  I could find, which wasn't that many, both cheap(ish) and dear. The problem with that method, however, was that the IPAs that won both Round 1 and Round 2 were expensive and not readily available in Supermarkets or Off Licences.

For this competition I decided to remove both the top-end and bottom-end of the spectrum. No craft lagers and no cheap muck. I intend that every lager in competition be fairly easily found, most, I hope are available in Supermarkets, which is where I think most people are buying their beer these days.

The other big wrinkle is that I am going to do initial rounds by country. So far it looks like this:
Note: all priced Beers from Molloys and are 500ml bottles unless otherwise stated.

Germany - 8 Lagers. There appears to be more decent quality German lagers about then from other territories. I picked 6 "premium" lagers and decided round out  the 8 with a couple from Lidl to mix it up a bit. The eight purchased to date are:

Spaten 5.2% abv
Veltins Pilsener 4.8% abv  €2.99
Warsteiner 4.8% abv 
Kromabcher  4.8% €2.95 (Dunnes)
Beck's 4.8% abv  €1.75 (can)
Holsten Pils 5.0% abv  €1.75 (can, 440ml) 
Grafenwalder 5% abv €1.09 (can, Lidl)
Finkbrau 4.9% abv €0.75 (33cl, Lidl)


Czech Republic - 4 Lagers. Already selected and purchased. The usual suspects I guess, and one beer from Slovakia as follows:

Pilsner Urquell 4.4% abv  €2.99 
Zlaty Bazant  5.0% abv  €2.19  (Slovak)
Budweiser Budvar 5.0% abv  €2.49 
Staropramen 5.0% abv  €2.49

Poland - 4 lagers. All four decided on now... 

Lech 5.2% abv
Tyskie 5.6% abv €1.65 (Lidl)
Zywiec 5.8% abv €1.65 (can, Lidl)
Warka 5.7% abv €1.84 (can, Dunnes)

Netherlands - 4 Lagers. Three* definites so far. The last one might be a bit dodgy...

Heineken 5% abv
Grolsch 5% abv   €1.89 (can)
Bavaria 4.3% €1.39 (can, Tesco)
Dutch Gold  4% €?.?? (can)

The idea is that one winner from each group will be blind tasted, in an ultimate final. This may take a while, so please be patient...