I think they are similar too, Shawn. I find that the Ayinger is sweeter, but that could be attributed to the age or storage. The Sudwerk Harvest Fest also gets sweeter as it ages. Coincidentally, the last time I checked, the Sudwerk Harvest Fest is the fastest selling beer that Sudwerk makes.
Lacing (the foam rings left behind in a glass) are an interesting point of debate. Assuming no wash chemicals or lipids (oil from lipstick for example) remain to break down the beer, a truly clean, smooth glass will not lace as well as a dirty glass or one with a rough surface. Cleaned equally, with my German made Sahm glassware, the lacing doesn't hold because the glass itself is smoother versus a standard pint glass made by Libby (USA) or TG (Taiwan Glass - they make logo glassware for many breweries, even German ones) for example. We're not talking like brillo pad cleaned type rough, we're talking on the microscopic level here. If you were to fill a few of the many different glasses that I have with beer, and observe them, you'd find that the ones with the best lacing are also the ones with the most nucleation sites on the sides of the glass. When you see a stream of CO2 bubbles forming on the sides of the glass and rising to the surface, that's a nucleation site, essentially a rough spot. It's also something for the foam to cling to. My cheap Libby pint glasses do it like crazy. My Sahm glassware doesn't.
Best lacing I've ever seen was in a red solo cup. The inside surface of those is so rough it's nuts.
The beer itself also plays a factor. You have a beer with leftover proteins in it (hefe, oatmeal stout), that thing will have a head like concrete and lacing to match. Get a beer with nothing left behind (pils, kolsch), it won't have much.
So, I guess what I'm saying is, that in light of all that, I don't personally feel that lacing is an indication of anything significant.
And really, after the 2nd beer, who really cares anymore?
Thunder.Gerbil wrote:
