Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

They're all 1/2L bottles. I believe they were around $4 each. Not sure if one was more expensive than the others (I didn't look), but we bough 3 of the pils, 3 of the dunkel, and 1 festbier for ~$30.
A couple stores in the area got them around the same time, so they could be pricier or cheaper elsewhere. I'm hopeful that these keep coming.

 

I have only had the Pils, Helles, and Kellerbier from Schönramer, all were excellent. I would expect the others to be excellent to.

 

someone brought me a bottle of the schoenramer pils recently from a germany trip. is legit. on the hoppier side of things (not herb...just fresh and floral-bitter) for sure but walks that line nicely

 

@Domingo I thought Schoenramer's Saphir Bock was an interesting (and delicious) blend of new and old school. I'd say it's worth a go if it ends up on the shelves in your area.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/5855/62011/

https://www.schoenramer.de/de/produkte/schoenramer-saphir-bock

 

This was the first beer I've had from them, but I remember a friend of mine (who lives in Bavaria) telling me about them years ago. I guess they had a lot of success launching an IPA and pitching it to people who didn't normally drink beer. This would have been 10'ish years ago, so there weren't many back then.

 

Chris, do you own the hops book by Stan Hieronymus?

Below is an extract from that book:

“Toft, a Wyoming native …Since he has taken over as brewmaster at Private Landbraueri Schönram in 1998 he has gradually made the recipes his own, increasing hopping rates 10 to 15 percent on average, going against a trend in Germany. Brewery sales have more than doubled, again bucking a national trend.

Schönramer Pils, brewed with lower alpha aroma hops throughout, won medals at the European Beer Star competition in 2009, 2010, and 2011, and the World Beer Cup in 2012.”

Cheers!

 

He's apparently one of only a few American Weihenstephan grads, too. I think that's where my friend knew him from. Looks like he helped Denver's Tivoli brewing with a dunkel a few years ago, so he clearly still has some roots out this way. That might be why we got these.

 

It is my understanding that Schönramer have been imported to the US for quite some time. The 'trick' is finding it fresh. A few years ago I went to a German bar/restaurant in Philly and I noted they had Schönramer Pils in there bottled beer menu. I gleefully asked the bartender if they had any available. He responded yes and handed me the bottle (before popping the cap). To my dismay I read that this beer was bottled over a year ago (but Kudos to Schönramer for dating their beer). I handed the bottle back to the bartender and ordered a draft Geman beer instead.

I have yet to see a non-old Schönramer Pils but I will be on the lookout for these January 2019 bottled beers.

Cheers!

 

Schönramer was adding some new big horizontal lagering tanks when I toured it 3 years ago. Maybe that is another reason it is showing up in Denver.

On the tour we walked by a lager chalkboard listing the beers in the tanks. Mainly Helles (lots), then some Hefeweizen, Pils, and so on. There were Pale Ale, IPA and even an Imperial Stout on the board, one of each IIRC. Craft beers were bottle only at the brewery.

 

Just curious - are the "craft" segment beers bottle only at most places in Germany? Geisinger was the same way. The traditional Munich-style beers were draft, but everything else was only available in bottles.
The only draft craft beers I've encountered were at the Munich Tap-House and they were mostly Camba Bayern.

 

Any idea who's importing it? Couldn't find any info at their web site.

 

on a somewhat related note, been seeing a lot of riegele beer around here of late. y'all too?

 

Neither Riegle nor Schönramer around here as far as I've noticed. Imported German biers don't seem to do well. I talked a local distributor into carrying Weltenburger and Andechs and both languish on the shelves.

 

I would be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on the Riegele beers if and when you try them, the Augsburger Herrenpils, Commerzienrat and Aechtes Dunkel to be specific. In my opinion those are all top notch beers. The Herrenpils has a wonderfully fresh and bright hop character balanced by the clean malt body. The Commerzienrat is akin to an Export beer deluxe, it shares alot in common with the Herrenpils only with a more pronounced malt character, subdued hops compared with the pils but still having a bright and mild hop flavor. The Dunkel was richly malty and well made from what I can recall, and at 13.5% plato and 4.9% abv it has the heft which I'm looking for in a Dunkel. Then again in my opinion a dark Bavarian lager beer should ideally be brewed to a gravity close to 14% (i.e classical lagerbier gravity), without the abv getting out of hand.

 

http://www.upliftersspirits.com/

TTB COLA's date from 2010-2013.

Hey, "FOX DELUXE" is the Illinois distributor? WTF?

 

Montgomery, Illinois -- straddling the mighty Fox River (you know that distro is a longtime beer fan).

 

Weizendoppelbock popped up in my local shop a few months ago. I was pretty excited to find it. Unfortunately, the bottle I bought was badly oxidized and undrinkable.

I have also seen the Privat in my area but I'm hesitant to purchase after being burned by the Weizendoppelbock. No bottle dates on either of those, I believe.

 

Commerzienrat is a really solid Export, though not quite on Ayinger Jahrhundert level.
Their "craft" range is really nice, but overpriced.
I got a bunch of their regulars like the Pils,Weizen etc. lined up in my cellar for the next few weeks

 

Thanks for that - when I was disappointed by Sixpoint the Vollbier Hell gave be the flavor I was looking for - close to Augustiner.

See if you can get them to add the purple edged label we crave this time of year...

 

Glad to hear that wasn't just me!