Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

Aquired at the WalMart of Europe, IKEA.

 

Sorry, I meant the one in the link I attached (see the blue hyper-link).

 

@-N8 That looks delicious, haven't seen it stateside yet... how about a little description?

 

The monopoly giveth and the monopoly taketh away. Riegele Herrenpils recently got delisted from the monopoly due to poor sales and is now entirely gone, a real shame for what had become my favorite pilsner. Thankfully the importer was able to win a new listing for their Commerzienrat instead, which is an Export lager of sorts at 12.8% OG and 5.2% abv. I had this before as part of a package from Biershop Bayern and really enjoyed it. It's got a fuller body with a distinct malty taste and some nice breadiness, yet the balancing bitterness and pleasant hop flavors/aromatics also gives it a dry impression. An all around solid beer with a well rounded flavor is my verdict.

 

So funny though, as always in Germany, one brewery has a inkling of success with Kellerbier, and suddenly EVERYONE has one. Such a herd mentality, says a lot about the industry and their desperation.

EDIT: just saw that they are charging EURO 15.99 for a case of 20x0.5 liter, which is a deal but a solid 2-3 Euros over "normal" case price. Innovation (or a quasi form thereof) seems the only way out of the deep hole.

 

Oh - that is nice!

 

Not sure it's "desperation" related specifically to the beer industry as it is a common German tendency in may things. Is the German music or television/movie industry in a state of "desperation" because they copy the most popular trends?

 

It's not just copying trends... they all are bringing out the EXACT SAME style of beer. Copying a trend would be if they copied the craft craze and you would see variety of brews. This has been going on for as long as I have been in the biz - 25 years - so I'm not sure it's just my observation or not.

IMO the music & television industry has done a decent job of creating some sense of "own-ness", the resurgence of German pop (songs sung in German) is a clear indication of that direction.

 

I agree that they tend to distill the trend down to what they perceive as its "essence" and then reproduce that ad infinitum. But, again, I'd argue that they do this in many different cultural areas.

 

Anyhow, now it's U.S. "craft" that is copying the German trend of adding various fruit flavored juices to beers (and esp IPAs), so it all comes full-circle...

 

Yes, not but a few years ago, every beek geek in town said "I don't like fruit beers", but maybe they were referring to strawberry wheat beers and not (imperial) IPAs with tropical notes.

 

Franziskaner-Spaten...

Owned by AB InBev.


Or so I've been told.

 

And Paulaner is owned by Heineken -- are you saying the Kellerbier was no good?

 

it was good - I've come to the realization I'm a Weizen/pils fan though.

 

That Franzsikaner Kellerbier seems weird. I mean it is obviously a new beer, designed to follow the kinda recent-ish trend of unfiltered beers of the last years, yet it is marketed as "traditional" with its "Maurerpulle" you'll usually only see these days with traditional, mostly bavarian, breweries. And a label with looks pretty nostalgic and traditional as well.
It even seems to mimic somewhat franconian Kellerbier, wiith its amber color..and well, have a look at what mug it is poured in at their website:

Is it somewhat hoppy or not?....

 

It's odd to me because it's the only bottom-fermented beer marketed under the "Franziskaner" label. All of the other bottom-fermented beer is marked as Spaten. Weird goings-on in the Spaten-Franziskaner front office. It will be interesting to see if this beer is exported across the Atlantic.

Yeah, I linked to it above... filed under "Ich möchte."

 

I suppose it's under the Franziskaner brand because outside of the munich Area, non-beer-geeks have NEVER heard of Spaten, yet Franziskaner is well known due to intense marketing with a long history behind it.
The mug amazes me because it reminds me a lot of the tall mug intented for Bayreuther Aktien Zwickl:

 

Well, the Franziskaner mug looks exactly like the one I drank Ayinger's wooden cask version of Jahrhundert Bier from. Which was last summer, at Ayinger's Speis und trank right across from Hofbräuhaus.

My point being: it probably isn't that uncommon, if one of the other of the somewhat big Munich-area breweries are already using it.

 

Do you have a picture somewhere of that Ayinger-Krug? All Ayinger Krugs I came across are the sort of Stein you'll find all over bavaria, most commonly found in franconia. Those are shorter, stubbier and slightly rounded/narrowed around the top. See: https://cache.willhaben.at/mmo/8/158/371/538_711321061.jpg and compare it to
That's why the Franziskaner Krug caught my attention because it seems taller and straighter than the "standard Krug".

 

Perhaps also it has something to do with the fact that most people associate cloudy unfiltered beers from the Franziskaner label and clear bright beers from Spaten. Just riffing here.