Märican Biere Bought and Drunk...

It's a tough cycle. I won't buy a lot of imports because they're old and places don't want to get more because they don't sell.

I consume the vast majority of my imports at my local pub, the Bull & Bush. Yet even they've stopped carrying as many German imports thanks to Bierstadt doing them just as well across town. I'd rather support Bierstadt myself, so that's more than fine with me. It makes German trips a bit more special even if we do end up drinking a ton of beers we can technically buy here.

 

Well, I haven't drank this yet, but was encouraged to post this tweet here. It's going to be 'limited' and draft-only. It will be interesting to see how much there is and what markets it lands in:

 

Does the Twitter page give any indication where we may find it? I'll have to check with my local, good beer bar because they're having their Oktofest running now until mid-October -- can't imagine they wouldn't try getting it.

Oh yeah, Spaten making another appearance... renaissance? Guess we have AB-InBev to thank...

 

Not that I could find.

I'd find it hard to believe that this beer wouldn't be readily available all over Chicago-land so I'm sure they'd be able to get it as long as they know they can order it.

They may not be as evil as many paint them to be.

 

Probably depends on how much was made... but since they're providing it to Cincinnati?

 

Ever have a peanut-butter beer?

Very odd take on the style.

 

Well...

I am sad to report I have moved back to the US this past May (the sting is lessened a little by relocating to Colorado) and I am so missing my German biers and biergarten culture.

That being said, I was in a meh mood while halfheartedly browsing the 'craft' beer aisle at my local liquor store and came across Sierra Nevada's Oktoberfestbier. I noticed they had brewed it in collaboration with Miltenberger (FAUST) and my spirits immediately brightened!!!

Brought a 6er of the sad little tiny bottles home and cracked a couple to fill up a proper bierkrug and, at first sip, I was transported back to that ideallyic German town on the Main River and its amazing home brewery, Faust:

My first visit:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/faust-ba-german-meet-up-report-s.171292/#post-2356712

 

Man, photobucket really screwed this website's history up huh?

Assuming you used photobucket for those photos originally of course...

 

They sure did -- I re-posted some past Amber Märzen images in one of the other threads -- I think they lasted a day and now PB wants me to "'update' my account to enable 3 part hosting." I believe "update" translates to $300 a year!

 

Ah ok, that explains it. I just read that post (it's in the amber Oktoberfests at Oktoberfest thread), and you said you were excited you were able to post them, yet I didn't see any images...

 

I followed up my YAY! a day later with a Boo!

 

There are worse places to be At the very least, your German bier needs should mostly be taken care of on the Front Range. Biergarten-wise, we have a few but that isn't something that has caught on as much as I'd like. Ditto with German restaurants. We only have a few.

 

Just had Interhalf Helles (collab between Other Half and Interboro) and Tired Hands Heide Helles (that is dated 5/27/17). Both exceedingly odd. Suspect the Tired Hands is souring. Other Half very weirdly slick (like it contains wheat) and little hop bitterness for balance at all. Anyone else had these? Strange stuff....

 

OH is "50% oats", per the brewer. As for the Heide, couldn't find anything about it. Are you sure it's not from Idle Hands? They have one called Heide. Either way, sour helles sounds like...the next big thing! (I kid, I kid.)

 

Oops...Idle Hands is correct. My bad.

Also...50% oats in a Helles wasn't something I would have suspected. Guess I should do my homework.

 

By the by, had SN's Okto a few weeks back and thought it undoubtedly my least favorite of the series. I've commented to @steveh that I'm sensitive to sweetly malty beers, and this came across as far too much for me. Only 6 weeks old or so. Again, the amber-leaning Oktos aren't much my thing anyway, but I was bummed this one was particularly ill-fitting (to my palate).

 

Haha, I don't think most people would suspect 50% oats in a helles. I certainly wouldn't. You must remember, though -- the obvious solution for a lot of [nouveau] brewers these days for "feel" is just to jam pack a beer with wheat or oats. Everything needs to be soft! Pillowy! Fluffy!

 

I finally stopped at Riggs Beer Company http://www.riggsbeer.com/ Sunday on our way back from Chicago. I tried the Red Lager, which is supposed to be an American/German hybrid. Tasty beer. My wife and my son tried the Hefeweizen and Dunkelweizen, respectively. Both were good with a little less clove/banana character than what one might find in Bavaria.

@MattRiggs came out and I introduced myself and we were taking about Faust's Schwarzviertler (Matt brewed there for a while and I've visited twice) and he gave me a sample from the tank of his version. He calls his a Schwarzbier while Faust calls theirs a Dunkel. He said it wasn't quite ready, but it was excellent. I hope it's still available when we head back that way in November.

 

So... I've tried a few new-to-me German-style, Ami-brewed beers over the past month and am still surprised that brewers want to take the beers so far from actual style.

Great Divide's Hoss Oktoberfest is a well-made beer, but it really isn't an Amber Märzen as much as it's an Amber Ale.

The new incarnation of Baderbräu (one of the first micro breweries in Chicago, let alone the country) is attempting to recreate the original Pilsner brewed by Ken Pavichevich and is failing miserably. This new attempt is all two-row barley and modern Noble hops that lean toward more to resin than herbal spiciness and really don't taste Pilsner-like, let alone anything like the original beer from Pavichevich -- of which I drank a boatload.

Goose Island's Fulton & Wood project brewed a "Munich Dunkel" lager in their Dark Traveler that I had to try -- really liking a lot of the F&W beers previously brewed, but they fell into the "all we need to do is load this up with dark roasted malts and we'll hit a home-run" trap. Really? Go to Munich (one of your brewers already has), taste Munich Dunkel -- it doesn't taste like Köstritzer at all. Of course, if it had been marketed as a Schwarzbier -- or even a Northern Bavarian Dark Lager, this beer would have been a knockout.

Again, U.S. brewers are really becoming intrigued by German styles, but they don't seem to want to take the time to research them or their recipes. They're all looking like the home-brewers I knew in the early 90s.