American craft in Germany

That AAFES for ya, giving the troops all the best, not. I remember when I was stationed in Korea (95-96), some craft beer showed up by mistake (was supposed to go to Okinowa (sic) ) and when asked for more I was told that was impossible. I'm guessing there was no blackmarket for it
I visited that Cora quite a bit & seemed to buy a lot of Belgians when I hit Battle of the Bulge sites. I used to buy quite a bit of German Beer at Real. The class 6 at Vogelweh used to have the best selection of German stuff for on-base options.

 

I hit up the Real in Homburg and the local Lidl and Wasgau for German beers. The class 6 at Vogelweh and Ramstein don't have much, if anything different. One thing about Vogelweh that is better is they have the beer at the back of the shop vs Ramstein which puts many of the beers in the front window getting crushed by sunlight. I mentioned something once but that went on deaf ears.

 

Probably thing I miss the least about the Military, beside the shitty hours; AAFES awesome customer service.

 

Civilian jobs in the military and customer service don't go hand in hand except maybe rec services.

 

You could never be a BA Enforcer. 100,000 hop heads from Beeradvocate would throw you in a Sierra Nevada-esque hop torpedo the moment you claimed they were all "thrill seekers" more interested in bold flavor than actual beer.

 

That sounds a lot like "600 Million Chinese can't be wrong". They were and so are thrill seekers. But as long as they leave me alone I'll be that old guy on the porch, snickering about the flooy of youth.

 

Was at Sierra Nevada recently. Started talking to the young German guy setting next to me. He had been in the USA for 6 months, with his brother and their wives/girlfriends. They had another year to go on their trip, as they were heading south through CA on their way to South America, driving. They were on the adventure of a lifetime, which is what I told them! Maybe they will be on the porch in later years.

 

I lived in zweibrucken in the 80s and parkbrau and karlsberg were the go to breweries. Are the still around

 

Both are still around. The pub that is a block from my house is tied in with Park. I do enjoy their Valentine Weiss. Karlsberg seems to be the most popular beer in the town I live in. The UrPils is ok, but I don't usually have any of their brews in my fridge.

 

The following beers were available as regular imports most of the year 2013 : Sierra Nevada, Adams, Flying Dog, Anchor, Left Hand, Anderson Valley, Victory, Alaskan, Brooklyn, Firestone Walker, Rogue, Hoppin Frog, Kona, Red Hook & Widmer.
Some others are available occaisonally due to private import activities. For example at the Berliner Biermeile, there were these beers: Ballast Point, Boulevard, Cisco, Dogfish, Epic, Odell, OscarBlues, Shipyard, Sixpoint and Woodfour.

 

I can't get a lot of those in St. Louis!

 

Me either. Man those Germans have it good for U.S. craft beer!

 

Where at in Germany?

 

Sierra Nevada: Torpedo is available in at least some Galeria Kaufhof stores. Boddhitree has reported seeing it in Frankfurt and I have seen it myself in Mannheim. I think Mahruhn's in Darmstadt has SNPA.
Brooklyn and Firestone Walker: Anywhere BrauFactum has a refrigerator.
Sam Adams and Anchor: Seen at Maruhn's.
All others listed: I have never seen them, although I do not doubt LBerges. I assume he carries them - or has the opportunity to import them? - in his shop in Berlin.

 

As an American who has just settled in to living Germany (had been living in France for the last 3 years, now in Germany for the next 3 years) I have to admit, I was thrilled to see that I could grab a FW Pale for 3 euros at the grocery store in my area (bottled 3 months ago at that)! I've been to Germany a dozen times in the last 3 years and it was mind bowing for me, to see this, at a Globus no less!

I was aware of Braufactum's beers (fancy Italian bottles, Barleywines, etc.) before I came over here, but after seeing their cooler, I got very curious. So, I did a bit of research, figured out what was going on and decided to buy a few of their beers to see what they were doing, aside from importing and distributing some nice beers you would have never seen in Germany before.

I agree with you, they are pricing themselves too high, so high, that I only grabbed the 2 12oz. bottles (bitter, pale) and a couple of the bombers (Roog, Schwarz) as a starting point. I wasn't about to pay, 10 or 15 euros for an IPA that was (from what I could tell) bottled 6-8 months prior. Their beers, were decent. I actually really liked the Roog though (a super creamy and balanced dunkel with a nice body and a bit of smokiness). I would buy it again and think that their 5-6 euro bomber price is more than fair.

What isn't, is the Italian bottle for their IPAs, Scotch Ale, and the price point that comes with it of an average of 13 euros. Granted, I haven't tried them, so I don't know if they are worth it, but at this point, I have had so many IPAs over the years, I rarely have to spend more than a couple of bucks to get a great one when stateside.

Other than their high pricing for a good amount of their own beers, I don't have any gripes with them or what they are doing. I think the beers they've imported are all (aside from Sorachi Ace) of a fair price (Brooklyn Local 1 and 2 generally go for 10+tax bucks in the states, FW beers are all right on par dollars to euros, the Belgians are reasonable, granted uninteresting to me) and so on.

I had the exact same thought as you in terms of Braufactum realizing (most likely based on sales or the lack there of) that their price-points are just too high and hopefully will adjust accordingly. If they do that, I think that they will be better received by everyone.

Just out of curiosity, how long have the Braufactum coolers been around and have you ever seen fresh Double Jack in them? I would have no problem paying the 12 euros for a bomber of it, if it was as fresh as the Pale31.

 

Why even bother bringing up RR, The Alchemist, and HF. Of course we won't see this in German. Shit, you will never see them in GA. CCB just now started sending some stuff to GA again this fall and you're the state over...btw, CCB is occasionally available in Scandinavia, I think we will see more of it in Europe considering they started to brew huge batches down in Puerto Rico.

In terms of the beers imported by Braufactum, you said "with a few exceptions, most of their US craft isn't that great". They only import two US breweries currently and they are Brooklyn and FW.
From those breweries, we are seeing:

Brooklyn
Local 1 (12.50 euros)
Local 2 (12.50 euros)
Sorachi Ace (20 euros a bottle, compared to US pricing, this is pretty high)
Lager and EIPA (3 euros a bottle, sure it's high compared to the US, but what do you pay for a Chimay or Duvel in Georgia? Shit costs, .89 in Belgium)

FW
Pale31 (again, 3 euros a bottle)
You mentioned the "you might see a trickle of their best stuff, please tell me what you consider better than Parabola and the Anniversary Ales from FW Lineup".
Parabola (20 euros, on par with US pricing ignoring exchange rate)
Anniversary (25 euros, on par as well)

I'm sorry, but I just had so many problems with your post that I felt the need to address them. Unless you've lived outside of your country (maybe you have, I don't know) you won't know the feeling of seeing something you miss from your own country and the joy you have seeing it available, in a grocery store no less. Do you have any idea what something as simple as cornbread mix costs in Paris? Or what you would be willing to pay for a Dr. Pepper in Europe (if you like that soda, I personally think it's garbage and don't drink soda in general).
Seeing some beers that I really love, available to me at a grocery store in Germany for a fair fucking price (Parabola is 15-20 bucks in the states) is awesome.

So yeah, I'm happy with what Braufactum is doing, aside from pricing their own beer so highly. It really doesn't affect me though, I just won't be buying them. I just feel bad for all the perfectly good beer that should be drank fresh, that is probably sitting in grocery stores all over Germany and may or may not be sold before the expiration date. However, given all of the old hefeweizen and pils I have been seeing in Grocery stores, it seems like Germans aren't drinking enough of the beer produced (the opposite problem we have in the states with "craft beer").

 

Do you live in Mannheim, or have just seen Torpedo there?

 

For those of you familiar with Maruhn's, what are the odds that their on-line list of US beers is current?

They've got numerous beers on there that would warrant an hour drive for me.

 

I live in Heidelberg, but I've been over to Mannheim a few times on shopping excursions. The Galleria Kaufhof there has some nice things - British beer, some big name Belgian stuff (Leffe), and Torpedo. They also have one of the aforementioned Braufactum beer refrigerators in their wine section. Are you nearby? I ask because I am also an hour from Maruhn's.

Re: Maruhn's online selection, I'd guess it is not up to date, however it's always worth a trip up to see what they have in my opinion. Some Belgian stuff like Orval & Chimay, some American stuff, and some other things you'll have trouble finding in Germany. Lots of good German stuff, too - that Ayinger Ur-Weiss, Schneider's Aventinus and Eisbock, Weihenstephaner's line-up and others.

Re: Braufactum, I've never really checked their dates. More often than not I just walk on by. I can never justify the price tag.

 

I live in Hochstetten, basically an hour south.
That's good to know about stuff like Weihenstephan, Schneider, Ayinger (I love the Ur-Weiss!). Belgian/most American stuff won't be of much interest to me because for the time being I intend to go back to Paris twice a month for work (I work at a beer shop there) so I can easily stock up whenever I need to.

I'm more interested in discovering what's going on in Germany (the country as a whole, as I have a car here and not a whole lot to do for the time being). Hour-long trips are nothing, so I plan to take as many weekend trips with my wife as often as possible.

I plan on making my way up to Heidelberg now and again as well because there is a solid skatepark (skateboarding was the previous/younger passion of mine, that I am still trying to hold on to), so maybe we can meet up some time!

I can imagine that for most Germans, or people living in Germany and used to the low price of beer, that Braufactum's stuff is too expensive, but after living in Paris for 3 years, I'm used to a much higher price for beer, among other things.