Märican Biere Bought and Drunk...

If you bought a six-pack, look on the bottom of the carton. I picked up a six-pack of their Generator Doppelbock in Wisconsin this last weekend and there was a best-by/drink-by date stamped on the bottom.

 

I sorted out the bottles and recycled the six-pack carrier, but I can dig it out of the bin. Good to remember in the future -- thanks.

 

May of 2016 -- not too shabby. I'm definitely going to check out the Metro beers when I see them, of course, it's rather awkward to hold the sixer up and look underneath, but it's worth the trouble. Thanks for cluing me in on that.

 

I mentioned this the other day, and I'm having one right now; one of my introductions to better beers back in the late 80s and I decide to revisit it now and again -- I should do that much more often. What a very nice beer whose history lies in the popularity of German lager beer brought to N. America in the 1800s.

A great cross between bottom and top fermenting with fruity esters, sweet malt middle and clean finish. Topped off with spicy, bitter hopping and this beer should end any argument between malt and hop heads. I am definitely going to buy this more often.

 

Out here, Bill Eye's Bierstadt Lagerhaus is finally supposed to be opening pretty soon. At least in the next 6-10 weeks. They recently brewed a Spezial-style rauchbier with Zwei Brewing (who also do fine work) up in Ft. Collins.
Somewhat related (German beer), Call to Arms recently brewed a pretty nice altbier that I feel is similar to Schlosser. Definitely not the driest example, but still tasty.

 

Picked up some Trader Joe's German-style beers today (brewed by Gordon Biersch, for those who haven't heard) and I'm drinking a Vienna Lager right now. I used to contract "mules" who were traveling to California to bring me some of this beer (as GB's Märzen) back in the mid-90s because good lagers weren't widely available.

While it used to quench my thirst for a good Märzen in the off-season back when, I'm not sure it fits the same bill these days. Then again, it really is more Vienna than Munich Märzen, something I can probably differentiate more now than I could then.

The big thing is, this beer is a solid drinker. Not in-your-face, not a hop or ABV bomb, just tasty, smooth, and satisfying -- who could ask for more? Well, at least not on a Tuesday evening with the rest of the week ahead.

 

Having another couple bottles of the new Goose Island Four Star Pils (the "four star" represents the 4 stars prominent on the official city flag of Chicago... but you can bet the marketing folks are all gleeful over their double meaning) for my BA review.

IMHO this is another foray into marketing a "new" beer, but tailoring it to the hop popularity (whoa, wait -- speaking of marketing brainstorms...) sweeping beer geekdom. To my palate this is not a Pilsner. There is no real Pils character to this beer other than its appearance and maybe the body. If someone were to drop a glass of this in front of a modern beer drinker they would identify it as an American Pale Ale. It would be an interesting blind tasting between this beer, SNPA, and Trumer Pils. I'd love to hear the comments.

That said, I find this a very easy-drinking beer -- maybe more palatable to me than Nooner. I will definitely keep this one in mind for those hop-craving days I often get. Then again, Goose Island has released their Green Line Pale Ale in bottles too and that's a great drinker too.

 

Huh - a sensible review on a non-traditional 'pilsner' on the Germany forum. This must be the twilight zone.

 

It's the kinder, gentler me.

 

Thanks for the report, man -- this just hit our market, and I was wondering what sort of take on a pils this was. With beers like Nooner and Pivo and such, I admit I'm not much in need of more hoppy pils. Of course, who am I really kidding -- the curiosity will take over eventually, and I'm sure I'll snag a bottle to check it out myself

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2709/208273/

I forgot to mention this a few weeks ago. But we just started receiving this beer in four packs of half liter cans...for $1 per can no less! It was decent, the date on the bottom of the can indicated the best by was April, 2016, so it's possibly a year old.

Anyone heard of this beer?

 

The only knowledge I have of this brand is from a tap handle shaped like a Hefe glass I got on eBay.

 

Uh oh -- one'a those Schwabian beers... careful of the Bavarian fallout!

Who's importing it?

 

Not sure. But I think it came along with the four pack half liter cans of Kostrizer Schwarzbier (also quite old, otherwise I would have snagged them) and Bitburger (I forget the date on these).

Ha, well, I only bought one. It wasn't bad, just muted in flavor. Not sure if this was due to it being 9 months old, or the beer itself.

 

You're right -- I looked at the map and saw Frankfurt, but thought Stuttgart for some reason.

 

The Bitburger brewery group brews it.

 

Looks like one of those deals where the importer doesn't have exclusive US rights since there are recent labels from both L. Knife & Son's import division, St. Killian, using the dba name of "BITBURGER INTL, Everett, MA" on the labels, as well as from BELUKUS, using the same dba with the city listed as College Station, TX.

 

If anybody is interested in this tap handle, there's one on eBay right now.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Benediktiner-Weissbier-Beer-Tap-Handle-German-Germany-/322012514566?

It's not mine.

 

Saw some Summit Maibock in cans last week and it sounded good for a spring-like Friday afternoon in Northern Illinois (our usual Feb. thaw -- expect a blizzard for St. Pat's ).

Cans say best by July. A very tasty brew that takes me back to my early days of hunting down micro-brews. There's a honey-ish, sweet maltiness with a very bready character (@mmmbirra might even say yeasty!) in this beer, balanced nicely by spicy hops to keep it from being a cloying sweetness.

Summit uses proprietary Moravian malts as a base. Grown specially for them (by a relative of the owner) in North Dakota -- and it really shines in this beer. It's rich and bready up front with a clean, spicy, dry, lightly bitter finish. At 6.7 ABV, this one goes down too smoothly.