Fernseh-Pils-a-thon 2013

Yup, Klosterbräu's pils is Bamberger Gold and H-P's export hell is Munchner Gold. I was under the impression that was the name for their normal helles, but I guess we just no longer get that beer here in the US.
As usual, it seems like everything is relative to where you're getting the beer and who it's from.

 

Yup, per their German site they definitely are: http://www.hacker-pschorr.de/de-DE/unsere-biere

We used to get H-P Edelhell over here, but that was later replaced by Munich Gold. Not sure if those are/were the same beer, but either way, we definitely don't get their normal H-P helles anymore. The guess the only time I have (for sure) had that beer was at the now-closed Domisl near Marienplatz.

 

Shocking. Describing Flens as "overly mild" and "how minimal the hop character was". Do you mean the pure bitterness or the aroma of the hops?
There are plenty of hugely popular Pilsners in this country that don't deserve this title anymore, but Flensburger, even as a big nationwide distributing (but private) brewery, doesn't belong to them. There are smaller, regionally distributing breweries like Dithmarscher whose northern German style-Pilsners are a bit stronger in hops bitterness, but still are comparable to Flensburger. For a "Fernsehbier" that is available everywhere in the country, Flensburger is a pretty good northern Pilsner.
Maybe something was wrong with the batch you caught in Munich, may have been exposed to sunlight for too long.

 

I was also a bit shocked by @Domingo s post, for me Flens was always the best northern German pils available near the Weisswurstäquator, maybe things have changed in the last few years, which I would find very disheartening.

 

I have. It's pretty decent beer, even for a Bavarian palate.

 

More of the flavor and aroma as I'm not a huge fan of bitterness in pilsners. Granted, some of my opinion probably comes down to what I had been drinking over the week prior. I hadn't really had a lot of TV beers on my trip, so it was being compared to Herren, Faessla, Jever, Rothaus, Klosterbrau (sadly, the worst of the bunch after being tasty years before), Weihenstephaner, and a bland Warsteiner on the plane over. The Flens was better than the Klosterbrau, which had diacetyl, and Warsteiner, which is bland, but none of those others. Ditto with Prost Pils, which is loosely based on Jever and was my go to last year.
The Flens wasn't old or lightstruck, it just lacked hop flavor and aroma. It wasn't bitter, but that's a plus to me. I'd love to do a side by side with a Bit as that's what it reminded me of, although maybe even less assertive.

 

Interesting. I haven't had a Flens in quite a while, but it seems I have to revisit it, maybe along with a Jever. Both are easy enough to get everywhere.

 

Maybe a side-by-side tasting of Flens and Jever with a 'report' in this thread?

Cheers!