German craft beer

Interesting - Jeff Erway (La Cumbre Brewing Co) talks about his love of dextrose in how blog this week in the last paragraph when discussing his latest Project Dank.

http://blog.lacumbrebrewing.com

 

Tony, you might be interested in knowing that Gordon Strong (noted homebrew author) is now an advocate of using Munich Malt vs. Crystal Malt. It was discussed in this homebrew thread:http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...-ipas-replacing-w-munich.155557/#post-2188762

Cheers!

Jack

P.S. I do remember (and appreciate) that you desire a beer to have a substantial body.

 

So, Berlin is apparently "over" http://www.dw.de/berlin-is-over-but-so-what/a-17492413

Wonder where this leaves German "craft" beer?

Maybe all the hipsters will now move to the Fraenkische Schweiz and Oberpfalz where things are still cheap and open their breweries there

 

Not beer-related, but out of all places in Germany, the NYT recommends Frankfurt!

 

The beer related place: Yorkshire!


Strumming on the streets of York. Andrew Testa for The New York Times
22. Yorkshire, England
A photogenic (and historic) ale trail.
+
The sprawling northern county of Yorkshire is becoming a big destination for beer lovers, thanks to a recently published guidebook called “Great Yorkshire Beer” and a renewed interest in historic breweries like Samuel Smith (founded in 1758) and Timothy Taylor (from 1858). Spend an evening crawling through the Fat Cat, the Kelham Island Tavern and other award-winning pubs in Sheffield — recently called Britain’s best beer city by the connoisseur Adrian Tierney-Jones — then travel to Leeds, whose compact center is home to the Victoria Hotel, the Cross Keys and other public houses that pull pints on traditional hand pumps. A final stay in the photogenic city of York offers a Tudor-style pub at the end of every cobbled lane, as well as modern beer temples like York Tap, Pivni and the House of Trembling Madness. — EVAN RAIL

 

Can't say that I'm looking for "hip night life."

 

Not that there's anything wrong with Frankfurt, but it's probably the least "German" city in the whole country. If you're only going to visit one city, I'd probably want one that better personifies the country. IMO, that's like taking your one and only trip to the US and randomly choosing to go to Indianapolis or Salt Lake City.

 

I think audience was maybe the jetset crowd who go where the "cool" places are. FfM is indeed a boring city for tourist, IMO, but it's a great city to live in and of all German cities, probably the most cosmopolitan and hence not German. It's kinda NYC of Germany but really really compact where it feels almost a small town. It's got only 500,000 pop. And almost that same amount commutes into FfM daily. Anyway, it's still a beer wasteland.

 

“Anyway, it's still a beer wasteland.”

More reason to go to Yorkshire!

Cheers

 

but its kind of a cider paradise, so its not too bad.......

 

More confirmation that Berlin is no longer cool, Brodog are opening a bar there.

 

Saw this on Twitter today. First REWE in Berlin is now offering "craft" beer from Crew Republic.

 

Good price too

 

That's pretty expensive isn't it? I remember most local half liter beers being about 1/3 of that price...although I'm guilty of buying a Schorschbock Eisbock for something like 4 euros. The guy at the Hit seemed to think it was a mistake.
Looks like the Crew Republic brewery isn't that far from where we usually stay in Munich. While that certainly isn't why I visit Germany, I'll definitely stop in next time I'm there. It might take care of those c-hop cravings I randomly get.

 

No, it's not expensive. The craft-brands are usually about that price. The price for those beers ordered online is about the same. Much more expensive than the usual beers, but a Pale Ale by Crew for €1.79 is way more reasonable than some (I)PAs or other styles that some breweries offer in .75l-champagne bottles for about €12-15 or even more.

 

Very interesting. Does the general public seem receptive to those prices compared with the normal (non-value) brands? I'm intrigued as those prices are pretty close to what we pay for craft beer over here, too. I assumed that bottled beer was always dirt cheap and that my Schorschbock was just some kind of oddball. I guess not!

 

As far as the standard styles (pils, export, hefe, dunkles, etc.): The cheapest I've seen beer for sale so far was 0.52 euro/L at Aldi. Value brands such as Oettinger have a price point of around 0.70 euro/L. Most regional German breweries are around 1.30-150 euro/L. "Premium" brands can go as high as 2.00 euro/L.
Recently, I conducted two blind taste tests; a pils test and a hefeweizen test. Both tests were done with four examples of the same style from brands that ranged the entire price spectrum.
In the Pils test, I found that there was virtually no difference between Oettinger and the "premium" brand, which was a Krombacher. I actually preferred the Oettinger. The variances between all of the pils were all allowable within the style and no beers had actual defects.
In the Hefeweizen test, the super cheap Norma beer was easily distinguishable. Frankly, there was so much wrong with it, that I couldn't easily pick out the specific defects. It was probably a mixture of oxidation and warm aging that I've never encountered before. The other three Hefes were all very good. My buddy, who's a student at Weinstephan, actually picked the Oettinger over Weinstephan.

I've noticed that the price point for German "craft" beer styles seems to be around 5.00-7.00 euro/L. That means that I could have 10 very tasty Oettinger hefe's for every 1 pale ale. I definitely don't enjoy pale ale 10 times more than hefeweizen, and I would venture to say that the vast majority of Germans don't either. So where does this "craft" beer thing find its entrance into the German market? Braufactum is betting on the "craft" market being an ultra premium market, hence their pricing at 7.00 euro/L. Crew and a few of the others are being a bit more moderate with their pricing. Why is nobody trying the value strategy with the craft styles? Would we be seeing much faster growth if there was a very good example of a pale ale at the 2.00 euro/L price point?

 

The pricing strategy for Italian craft beers seems to be very similar, though I always assumed it had a lot to do with the fact that Italians generally aren't big beer drinkers and as such aren't very educated consumers. Combine that with the fact that there aren't many decent or good cheap options that are regularly available and fresh for most and I can see why a brewer would want to take advantage of the situation and charge exorbitant prices for their beer.
The fact that it's happening with German craft is very interesting, and has me a little perplexed.
Though I suppose I should add that I have seen the prices of a few of the craft mainstays come down in the last couple of years.