Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

Oh yeah...didn't mean to say they were solely or even primarily focused on the Scandinavian markets. Just that the German one is going to be a very tough nut to crack. Can't see huge inroads being made in Czechia either (though I may be wrong). UK is a different story; friends of mine already saw a bunch of Stone product in pubs there this summer.

 

From my recollection Brew Dog used to praise the Swedish monopoly back in the day for helping them with financing their brewery, since they purchased and paid for predetermined volumes of beer in advance instead of paying as you go for actual volumes sold. So I wouldn't be surprised if Stone has learned from Brew Dog in this sense, of being able offer their product to Vinmonopolet in Norway, Systembolaget in Sweden and Alko in Finland.

 

Yeah, this came up last year when "auslander" labels were shown. No pig food in the Spaten.

 

I love this quote from Stephan Michel:

“It took me eight years to become a brewmaster,” he says. “I had someone come up to me at a beer festival in the U.S. ‘Hey, we’re both brewers!’ I say: ‘Where’s your experience? What do you do when you have this and this problem?’ I’m a little scared that our culture of experience and knowledge is at risk. There’s so much crap out there.”

Not that I think everyone necessarily needs an 8-year apprenticeship, but there are way too many brewers out there that desperately need some more technical training beyond throwing tons of strong adjuncts into everything.

 

Too many guys that have just a few batches of homebrew under their belt opening breweries. They've been told by family and friends that their beer was really good and they believe that.

 

I learned a long time ago to not believe family and friends. No brewery planned by me.

 

In Denver we had a 2-3 year span where I swear every single place was being opened by a novice homebrewer. Everyone has to start somewhere, but we're talking people that had never even sat in on a brew day at a production brewery. I know some great homebrewers, but IMO, for every 1 of them, there are 3 that have no business brewing beer for a living. That mango chili gose might go over great at homebrew night, but good luck turning something like that into a career without some training first.

It has come as little surprise that a huge wave of brewer churn (with a lot of pros coming to town) followed soon after most of those places started opening.

 

Adjuncts? Or hops? Okay, both.

I remember going to Portland, OR in the early '90s and you couldn't swing a mash paddle without hitting a brewery -- mostly started by home-brewers.

Trouble was, a lot of the beers were pretty good, but I think that was from a perspective of much fewer beers available on shelves.

 

That's one of those fun dilemmas. How good was that beer from 10-15 years ago really? Was it good compared to Red Dog and year-old Canadian Lowenbrau...or was it actually good?
Obviously some places like Sierra, Pete's, Redhook, and Victory were without a doubt really good. Tough to say about the others. I tend to think Portland was probably making better suds than most cities, though. I have no proof of that, but the fact that it has sustained for 20+ years is a pretty good sign.
Up until 6-7 years ago, Denver only had a handful of breweries. Wynkoop, Rock Bottom, Great Divide, and the now long closed Zang.

 

Weren't there other micros and brew-pubs outside of Denver proper? I visited back in late 2000 and remember a few good pubs making good beer.

 

Yeah, there were a couple in the 'burbs. The Bull & Bush started brewing in 1998. The CB & Potts restaurants started brewing in 1996. The Hops chain was around in 2000.
Boulder has been home to Boulder Brewing, Walnut, Twisted Pine, and a few others going way way back. Left Hand and the Pumphouse have been around since the first wave.
Odell, Coopersmiths, and Z-Street were old Ft. Collins breweries. New Belgium would have been open in 2000, too.

 

The distributor I work for picked up Aktienbrauerei Kaufbeuren ... anyone have any experience with these beers? These are the 1st 3 beers available

ABK Edel Spezialbier 16.9oz
ABK Hell Das Blaue 16.9oz
ABK Rose Frisch single 11.2oz

Thanks for any input!

 

Here's the BA listing for Kaufbeuren. Just southwest of Munich, beers look good on the web site.

 

Oh, I had several of ABK beers years ago, many years. I don't remember those though. There was a Weizen and a Märzen labelled "Fendt Dieselross Öl" which was pretty good, so I'd assume those are also worth a try for sure.. I think the Kellerbier was also fine.

 

Thanks @steveh and @Lurchus , looks like the Spezial and Helles are worth a look, not sure why they're exporting the "Rose" which is a Biermischgetränke (Radler/Shandy). not my style personally, but I have seen a lot of the Stiegl Grapefruit locally, who knows if something like this actually has "legs" in the US market.

 

I'd say that most of their beers are worth a look, depending on what you can get. I've had several of their offerings and if I'm recalling correctly, most have been solid to very good--I'll need to look at my notes tonight to double-check.

I do remember that I enjoyed their Doppelbock quite a bit.

 

I had ABK's helles and weizen last summer in Germany. Both were quite good and went well with a plate of rouladen.

 

Rouladen was made for pairing with beer.

 

So, I recently had a bottle of Benediktiner Hefeweissbier in my hand, and on the front of the bottle, in big letters non the less, it says: Brewed with Etal yeast in Lich.
And honestly, as long as it is this prominent on the front of the label, I have no problems with it anymore not being brewed in bavaria...

In other news, tried Franziskaner Kellerbier. Kind of bland, drinkable, but meh...

 

Why does Hofbrauhaus have to put their beer in green bottles? I have a six pack of their Oktoberfest and it's just a little skunky. Not Heineken skunky, but it's there nonetheless. It's still drinkable and you can tell that there's a good beer under there. It's just a bit distracting.