Pilsner and Lager Beers

Just skimmed through this thread and didn't see a mention of it but I'm drinking an outstanding new pilsner right now (at least I think it's new, I haven't seen it before). It's Smuttynose "Wunderbar!". And yes, it is wonderful. Maybe someday they will do a Vienna style lager or better yet an Oktoberfest.

 

Pilsners are lagers, the latter word meaning the type of fermentation; the former being a style of lager innovated by a Czech brewer. That said there is nothing that exemplies the style more than an unfiltered Urquell quaffed in a Prague tankova pub. Yum!

 

There are so many breweries with the name Lowenbrau in Germany it would make your head swim.

I remember that Swiss label from back in the early 80s. IIRC it wasn't great, but definitely better than the Miller-brewed take on the name.

 

I suppose, that's true -- if your definition of craft is narrow enough

 

So how did they get around the Spaten ownership and any right to import by Spaten USA?

IIRC the last time Lowenbrau was available here in the Midwest was right after Spaten bought them. Any idea who was importing it then?

All a big mass of red tape, I'm sure, but rather convoluted.

 

Or your definition of Pilsner!

 

I have.

 

I guess you'd have to look at the contract wording re: brands and rights that (at that time and as we've discussed) the two US Spaten importers - Spaten North America and Spaten West - had with the German company.

It looks like the deal with Labatt to brew under license and import Lowenbrau to the US was made and announced the same year as the Spaten-Lowenbrau merger - 1997. Maybe coincidentally, maybe not? But Miller's license would not expire until 1999, so the "new" Labatt Lowenbrau wouldn't hit the states until that year.

Then, in 2002:

And the next year, 2003, Interbrew buy Spaten-Franziskaner-Lowenbrau.

 

Prima Pils is my #1 lager by far. Others that I enjoy are as follows:

FFF Jinx Proof
Schell's Pils
Ayinger Oktoberfest
FFF Evil Power
Great Lakes The Wright Pils
Surly Hell
Surly Schadenfreude
Ayinger Celebrator
the Shchlenkerla line of rauchbiers...

There are many others, but I cannot name them.

 

I recently had Dun King popcorn pils from a 16 ounce can and was really impressed.

 

Lol NICE!...guess I need to clean my spectacles, or vary my search from my usual haunts. With CBC it's never a problem finding the IPA, I just rarely seem to find anything else. Thanks for the update...

 

and on how wide your definition of good is.

 

I too can enjoy a nice pilsner on a warm summer day. I have friends that won't give them another try because they "taste like budweiser" so they stick to IPA's and pale ales - most anything that's not a lager.

 

I'm not a huge pilsner guy but I enjoy Heavy Seas - Small Craft Warning (Über Pils) and Saranac Wild Hop Pils.

 

I've seen it at Warehouse Beverage, Rozi's, Save-On Tobacco, Heinen's, Whole Foods..

 

Anyone who has tried a Sierra Nevada Summerfest and Budweiser and says they taste the same has a serious tasting problem.

 

Some of this is coming back from the day -- for some reason I remember Labatt getting the brewing rights just before Spaten bought Lowenbrau. Labatt retained import license, but lost it when InBev bought Spaten.

I think I was seeing Lowenbrau when Labatt was importing it, but then it dried up after InBev stepped in.

Still doesn't explain why some states get it and others don't.

 

My first reaction when I tried Summerfest was, "It tastes like adjunct!" And that was right in front of the rep. It may not taste like Bud, but it does taste foul. That rank taste is why I don't drink macros in the first place. Remind me of buckets of old Strohs that were served at some "bars" near Ohio State many moons ago (it was something like $5 for the painters bucket--of course, buffalo wings cost 10 cents back then).

 

No, Labatt USA was InBev in the US (well, Interbrew at the time) for most of that period.

They'd bought Labatt in the mid-90's, and by the early 2000's most of Interbrew/InBev's beers were imported via Labatt USA. For example, this early 2000's snip of a rear Stella Artois label:

It wasn't until the AB and InBev import deal that predated by about 1 year their merger, that Labatt USA was reduced to just importing it's own Canadian brands and a few other western hemisphere InBev beers into the US - as noted by the original Press Release in 2006.

That's why - on this chart - Labatt drops 2m bbl. between 2006 and 2007 - AB took over the InBev Euro imports in that period.

Also why Labatt goes up 1m bbl. and Beck's "disappears" in 2004 - InBev folded Beck's importing company into their own Labatt USA. Although, as is typical in the industry InBev often used a 'dba' name on the label - "InBev USA" or "Beck's North America", but "Norwalk CT" was always the city.

That's anyone's guess. I'd speculate that since the newly merged ABInBev announced they were going to stop importing Lowenbrau but never did suggests that some distributors objected and ABI decided to keep importing it but only distributing it to certain states - based on what criteria? I guess that's internal ABI info.

EDIT - I still have a jpeg of that Rebate offer from '12. It lists a number of states it was valid for, but I suppose it doesn't necessarily mean Lowenbrau was available in those states, since it was also good for Beck's or Bass.

 

exactly how I feel.

I'm having a Summerfest right now and thoroughly enjoying it.