Märican Biere Bought and Drunk...

For those of you that don’t know, there’s an American named Eric Toft that is doing great things as the Brewmaster at Schönramer Brauerei. His Pils won the Gold at the 2014 WBC. He’s also putting out some cool new beers.

….Dude’s got a sick Bavarian accent….

 

Matt, I have posted a number of times in past threads about Eric Toft (see copied below); he sounds like he is a very talented brewer!!

Best of luck in your continuing studies at Doemens Academy in Munich.

Cheers!

Jack

Below is something I have posted previously:

I just finished reading the book For the Love of Hops by Stan Hieronymus (an EXCELLENT book!). There was a nice write-up towards the end of the book on Private Landbraueri Schönram which I thought would be of interest to others; the head brewer is Eric Toft:

“Toft, a Wyoming native …Since he has taken over as brewmaster at Private Landbraueri Schönram in 1998 he has gradually made the recipes his own, increasing hopping rates 10 to 15 percent on average, going against a trend in Germany. Brewery sales have more than doubled, again bucking a national trend.

Schönramer Pils, brewed with lower alpha aroma hops throughput, won medals at the European Beer Star competition in 2009, 2010, and 2011, and the World Beer Cup in 2012.

Cheers to Eric Toft and Private Landbraueri Schönram for their success!

 

What form(s) do you see the use of modern hop varieties (and techniques) taking in Germany? Similarly, what types of improvements do you think we'll see on the U.S. side that will lead to "perfecting" styles like Helles? Or is that asking too much personal opinion?

 

And this would probably explain why their beers taste like beer -- not hop juice.

Promise?

 

From what I have seen it will definitely take 10yrs for multiple German breweries to make a good ipa. Now many have gotten good at putting wax on beer and/or using large formats and selling them for stupid prices...

 

Don, have your tried any of the hoppy beers from Pax Bräu like Pax Bräu Cissy IPA? If so, what do you think of those beers?

Cheers!

Jack

 

I’m still blown away by the number of German brewers who add hops to horizontal lager tanks for multiple week long dry hopping at 1°C. They then think that they’ve mastered the art of a dry hopped pale ale, but what they’ve actually done is made a great lawn clippings pale ale. Others, that have concial tanks, will add dry hops to a beer before adding kräusen. They then do a great job of making their fermentation celler smell great for a couple of days as all of the hop oil is blown out of the spund valve.

I’m still getting my ass kicked by helles, so don’t take this as the holy grail…. but I think that a Helles requires at least the following:

-very precise water treatment

-malt analysis (from each malt delivery) that drives the election of a mashing regimen with the end goal of ensuring the perfect amount of high, middle, and low molecular weight soluble protein as well as the right amount of Free Amino Nitrogen in the production wort

-very, very low oxygen uptake levels in the brewhouse

-correctly sized additions of freshly propagated lactic acid (sauergut) during the mash and boil

-obviously, a well executed cold side process

Again, I’ve tried my hand at Helles a few times in the past couple of months. I’m not there yet. I think I’ll drink a Spaten now.

 

Cissy is one I have not tried and I would like to. Though I do find some of their beers overpriced. The chocolate mint stout was OK, but not worth 10€ or whatever it is, the Bitter was pretty decent, but nothing has really impressed me. Nothing bad, but nothing Ive thought I need to drink again.

Ive found in general ipas and stouts in Germany tend to be from downright awful and I only took a second sip to confirm it was that bad (see recent batch of opaque, cloudy abomination of an ipa at Braustelle) to average.
I feel a lot of the brewers are trying to emulate other breweries in the UK, the US, netherlands etc... but do not know what they are doing, or have horrible consistency. Alemania (Fritz Ales) has made some good beers, but I have noticed some inconsistencies.

I do feel that the breweries in the US spending time on lagers are doing them pretty well. Probably bc they really know how to brew, its easy to cover up a shitty stout or ipa by dry hopping it to hell or adding more sugar or whatever other shit they throw in nowadays.
Heater Allen is making delicious German beers, Occidental is also solid, Upright makes an amazing pilsner, Commons makes some good German beers too. OK maybe something unique to Oregon? no..Victory's prima pils is delicious, Live Oak makes great beers.

 

Have you made it down to really explore the beers of Franken, the Oberpfalz, and Bayern?

 

Good call on them. I have had 3 beers of theirs and they were all good. I actually bought one of their barrel aged stouts, aged for 14 months and thought it was rather solid. It was also laughing at the stupid ass price tag, wax and wood block on the Braukunstkeller beer (14€) vs 4.5€

Also, New Glarus is amazing thats all.

 

Absolutely! and I would put the likes of Heater Allen, New Glarus and Upright Engelberg pilsner against them. I was in a unique position, perhaps, in Oregon bc people seem to really love the finer elements and the work that goes into brewing a good lager. There are a multitude of breweries in the US that brew a Kölsch or pilsner or something to do it, and it ends miserably.

I was at a brewery in Jacksonville in December and a brewery I think is making some great beers had a Dunkel on tap, or maybe it was an Alt, either way it was not good and I told them as much. One of the brewers came over a few minutes later and asked why I didnt like it, and we started talking about German beers. I was highly impressed he wanted the feedback and said hes exploring German beers a bit and is working on them.

 

@mjtierney2 havent had that yet, Ill have to look out for it.

 

“I do feel that the breweries in the US spending time on lagers are doing them pretty well.” I share your opinion here. There are a number of breweries local to me that make quality German style lagers: Victory (which you already mentioned), Sly Fox, Troegs, Stoudts, Neshaminy Creek, …

Even the local brewpubs make quality German style lagers: Triumph, Iron Hill, and others.

I have not had the pleasure to drink beers from Heater Allen, Chuckanut, or any of the others you mentioned. One of the west coast brewed lagers (Pilsners) that I thoroughly enjoy drinking is Trumer Pils which is brewed in Northern California.

Oh, have you tried any of the hoppy beers brewed by Camba (e.g.,Camba Bavaria Camba IPA)?

Cheers!

P.S. I have had Live Oak beers and I really like them; my favorite is Live Oak Hefeweizen.

 

heh hell even Cologne has Kölsch that is not good, though I have not had any that is that bad. I just usually hang out around Heumarkt and hit the 3 best, in my opinion of course, Kölsch breweries.

 

EDIT: Actually, @MattRiggs , I'd like to hear your opinion, too, if you've had this one.[/QUOTE]
I’ve only had the Hop Gun and Black IPA from Camba. Both were very good examples of their respective styles. I’ll have to pry myself away from my Spaten Helles and Faust Hefeweizen and give their other beers a try sometime soon.

Everything from New Glarus is amazing.

 

My recent favorite, very slightly hoppy beer in Germany has been the Schumacher 1838. Their alt with a little extra hops in it. some nice hop aromas, but you still smell the malt and a nice hint of bitterness, but it is still an alt beer.
Good stuff! Ive picked up several bottles over the last few months. Life in Bonn is much better for beer than Kassel lol

 

"Everything from New Glarus is amazing." AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A couple of days ago I drank a bottle of Two Women Lager and I had a smile on my face as I did so!!!

Cheers to New Glarus!!