German craft beer

The CraftWerk beers aren't all bad. But i dont buy them because i really don't like the Bitburger Brewery.
I moved to the region where Bitburger is brewed a year ago, and since then, well, I kinda transformed from a beer- to a wine drinker, esp. when out because more often than not the only option beerwise is Bitburger Pils and i hate,hate,hate it. Give me a proper Mosel Kabinett Riesling or Elbling .......

As for Beck's, i was always joking that one day even THEY will bring "craft" beers. That one day, there will be a Becks Pale Ale. And now...... lol, that day has really come. I only wonder why AnheuserBuschInbev doesn't distribute their belgian Line Up stronger in germany-I mean given the interest in beer in germany, shouldnt there be a market for hooegarden or leffe?

 

1. The Craftwerk Tangerine Dream was poor, especially when you see the price.
2. Now you can start jokes about Oettinger IPA. It will come sooner or later
3. Inbev tries hard with Leffe in Germany, you can find it in more and more shops.

 

It has been a while back, but I saw the owner of Oettinger doing a TV interview, and even he said his business was more of a logistics and distribution company than a beer brewery.

 

There will come an Oettinger IPA im sure. And i think it will even be better than some of the big boys..
Call me crazy, but... Oettinger gets a lot of negative attention, and rightfully so,for their pils.
BUT i love the Alt and the Kellerbier, even the Bock is ok. Their traditional beers are way beyond the mere coloring of Pils to make a Dunkles, like Krombacher did.
Havent noticed Leffe in many shops though.

 

Very strange to see those Beck's beers. Are those aimed at the German market or the American one? I ask, because the labels appear to be in English. I wonder where they plan to brew them, too. Is Saphir Pils brewed in St. Louis or Bremen?

On the topic of Oettinger, I remember seeing a boatload of their Export bottles in and around Munich a few years ago. I'd never even heard of them a few years prior. What is the general opinion of that one?

 

I imagine the answer to your first question will also be the answer to your second question. I went to their US website and literally could find no information about their beer. You would guess it's the website for an art-and-music project.

As for the English labels, I think Boddhitree pointed out in the Fernseh-bier thread that Beck's non-pilsner bottles often had English labels. He felt it was perhaps an appeal to a "cool" factor. Additionally, my thinking is that anything with an English proper name like India Pale Ale will be called exactly that auf Deutsch - they often keep proper nouns in the original language.

And Oettinger...well, never mind my thoughts on Oettinger, they have been well documented.

 

Ill take a shot at those becks when i see them around.

Köstritzer (Bitburger) actually came out with a really good pale ale last year, and an o.k ish Witbier

 

I live in Bremen and have been hearing rumblings about this for a little while - I've actually heard from someone who tried it that it's not bad. I'll give it a go when I see it and report back.

 

Just opened a bottle of Crew 1.1 (Wet Hop), 40 IBU, 5.6%.
Malts: Pilsener, Crystal, Münchener
Hops: Comet and Cascade wet hops.

Before I get into I'd like to note that my past experience with Crew was only with their barleywine (another experimental) which was okay but tasted too much like a bad Uerige to me. I did hear/read good stuff about other crew beers, though. Particularly some of their more hoppy stuff so I bought 2 of those.


A - Pours a quite bright gold with a quickly dissipating white head.

S & B - Smells very piney and tropical, pretty much like a West Coast IPA. Not a lot of bitter hints in the smell. I'd say it has medium levels of carbonation and the mouthfeel is medium, too.
T - Definitely tastes like a West Coast IPA. I'd actually be interested in doing a blind side by side of this with stuff like Firestone and Sierra Nevada. On the backend the taste almost reminds me a bit of the Polaris hop with the following bitterness that is not too strongly pronounced. I think you can also pick up on the malts but they're more muted than in other German (I)PAs. I can definitely pick on hints of the Pilsner Malt, not sure about the other two.

O - I would reckon that in the grand scheme of things this isn't really anything special for an IPA but for a German IPA that could stand along good West Coast (I)PAs this is definitely nice. One of the upsides is obviously the faster distribution and lower price.
I like it. I think I'll actually do a blind side by side with an SNPA with a friend/some friends since I still have another bottle of this.

Sidenote: It also went quite well with my spicy/mediterrenean tomato-sauce toast with onions and pepperoni.

 

I took note of: “Hops: Comet and Cascade wet hops.”

Since wet hops need to be used very shortly after harvesting (ideally with 24 hours of picking) I am assuming that these hops were grown in Germany. I was not aware that these varieties were grown in Germany. Would you happen to know where in Germany Comet and Cascade hops are grown?

Cheers!

 

Cascade are currently being grown exclusively in Bavaria. Comet are apparently planted only in one field, also in Bavaria -- I believe in the Freising area.

 

On their website they say that the hops were grown in the Hallertau region.

 

This just showed up at the Rewe in Graefelfing. This is significant on many levels. This Rewe has a separate Getrenkemarkt, but this fridge was in the grocery store.... right next to the checkout. There is literally no better floorspace in the entire store. Until today, I literally laughed each time I heard the phrase "craft beer revolution" and "Germany" in the same sentence. Are Germans actually going to pay 3 Euros for 0.355L of 12P beer? Rewe must think so, and I wouldn't bet against Rewe's judgement.

 

I just drank a Pale 31. It was great, but I have a case of Spaten next to my desk that never seems to get old.

 

Matt,

Thanks for that photograph. It sure looks like German craft beer movement to me.

Cheers!

 

Last evening I had a Victory Helles followed by Troegs Nugget Nectar (an Imperial Red Ale) and I enjoyed drinking both of those beers.

Cheers!

 

That cooler is also significantly larger than the ones I have seen.

 

This is the big hurdle. IIRC the Firestone Walker Anniversary ale was €25,00 for the big bottle. How do you sell that to the guy drinking a 10 liter case of Spaten (or other) for the same price?

 

Well, by putting them in a big, fancy fridge in the best position of the store....

The first Braufactum fridge i saw was in Kaufhof in Cologne, must have been ages ago. Years after that they started to appear in bigger Supermärkte and sometimes Getränkemärkte as well.

For me the weirdest one was in Bayreuth,Franconia, in the biggest Getränkemarkt there with lots and lots of different franconian Landbiere. All these Dunkle,Zwickel,Weizenböcke for less than a Euro aiganst this..... they also had a corner for non Braufactum craft pretty early,directly besides it, were Veldensteiner Bierwerkstatt, Maisel and Friends and Pyraser Herzblut were on proud display.