Oktoberfest: Wiesn and Märzen

I've seen my Stasi file, or at least some of it. Pretty boring, really. Mostly just photocopied letters and obvious things like that. A friend who lived in East Berlin fior a while has a much more interesting one.

 

If it makes you feel better, this year I bought two of my favorites, Löwenbräu and Hacker-Pschorr. The HP did not taste as good as I remembered and the Löwenbräu tasted much better than I remembered. The HP had a Best Before of 4/2014, presumably meaning it was bottled in April !!! And this was in Germany, for the first retail release of the Munich Oktoberfestbiers! The Löwenbräu had a Best Before date of 7/2014.

Just as an addendum, Beck's has released their pilsner in "Retro Label" bottles. These just recently came out. Best Before date was also 4/2014.

 

I'm gonna seriously start looking into that. Michael Plank ships out 24 bottle boxes to Japan all the time so he should be able to hook me up with both the best courier service for that kind of thing and a way to get ahold of those delivery boxes. Then, I'll just go and buy it from the breweries and ship it out. US Americans could simply pay me through Direct Deposit or ACH TRansfer since I already have a bank account in the US

 

Just make sure you know which states are illegal to ship to! Poor JackH will still have to wait for his fresh beer...

 

I used to drink it at Haus zur Pfauen (The Peacock Inn) in Erfurt.

 

Yeah, Pennsylvania does not permit alcohol shipment.

There are something like 20ish other states which also have prohibitions on alcohol shipment.

Non-Cheers!

 

What about kegs to the US? My go-to bar for German beer in the area has many of the Festbiers/Marzens mentioned in this thread (as I've posted previously), can I "assume" those are fresh(er)?

 

Plus it's way over priced. It goes for 15.00 a 6pack in PA

 

The Augustiner? Yeah, that was going to be my comment too -- it's like they've priced themselves right out of the competition and leaves them to rot on the shelves. I think the price is about the same here in the Chicago area.

There are a couple other German imports that have the same problem, but if Augustiner was more in line with HB or Paulaner I'm sure I'd buy it more. Maybe it's due to size?

 

“ …can I "assume" those are fresh(er)?” There is that word again: “assume”.

I like to believe that when I obtain a beer on draft that the beer (US craft or imported) will not be old. My thought process is that kegs should not be ‘sitting out’ like packaged beer can. Well, the reality is that as a consumer you really have no way of knowing. The only way to know for sure is if the brewery dates the keg and the bar lets you physically look at the keg.

There was a BA who works at a bottle shop which also has some draft beer available as well. He posted on a thread that it was not unusual at his store for the draft beer to be older than the bottled products.

I personally have had a fair number of West Coast IPAs on draft that were past their prime; those kegs either got beat up in transport (e.g., exposed to high heat) and/or those kegs were sitting around at the wholesale distributor too long.

Prost!

 

The Augustiner 6-packs don't cost that much here (closer to $12-13), but I'd never buy one anyway.
Personally, I wish they'd just send over their normal 1/2L single bottles instead. Many other German breweries tend to do that, and they're doing okay. I think it's the perfect size.

 

That would be the recipients problem, would it not ?

 

I suppose so! But if said recipient refuses payment then it becomes a problem for both parties.

 

Non-refundable advance payment should fix such crap. I mean, seriously, it's NEVER the responsibility of the sender to know about customs regulations at the customers end. YOU tell me how to send stuff and I'll merrily comply but I can't know everything.

Well, just these two exchanges have convinced me that this would be way too much trouble. No Märzen for you guys.

 

Sorry everybody. My fault.

 

Stahlsturm, FWIW online beer sellers in the US maintain a list of states that they will not ship to. Whether they are complying to a law/regulation is something I do not know.

Prost!

 

I've been buying a full 24 case of DAB half liter cans for 20, I know it's not great beer, but it's great for guest that aren't into craft beer and I'd rather have this than a BMC product

 

I just got back from my local retail beer distributor; I bought a case of Sly Fox Oktoberfest Lager.

I noticed that they had several cases of Paulaner Oktoberfest Wiesn beer (that is what was labeled on the case). The good news: that case had a clearly labeled production date: 06/05/13 (which is May 6, 2013). The bad news is that this beer is already over 3 months old! I have been asking multiple beer stores all summer long about this beer but they did not know when (and if) they would obtain it. Did the wholesale distributor ‘sit’ on this beer? Was this beer ‘stuck’ somewhere in the distribution chain? No matter what the explanation is just plain stinks that this beer was first produced so far in advance of Oktoberfest (which occurs in late September) and that it was so slow in becoming available to beer consumers.

Thank goodness for US craft breweries making fresh Oktoberfest beer.

Prost!

 

I don't have the "problem" of deciding between older German Oktoberfests and fresher U.S. "craft" ones, as all of the German ones have now been pushed off the shelves where I live. No Spaten, no HB, no Hacker-Pschorr. Just went to 3 stores searching. Nothing. What did I get? Victory. How's it taste? Roasted.

EDIT: maybe should I let it age to mellow out the roastiness?

 

Lowenbrau 1983