Mahrs -- Tradition, Newness...and a Falloff?

Scott, I was there last August. Traveled with a friend that is a Brewer, his spouse who is an Advanced Cicerone, and my wife who has a darned good Palate. Disclaimer, we had poured some Herren Pils down our necks before Mahr's.

The Helles was not as good as I remembered. The Mahr's Piks was just OK, but disappointing after Herren. The U-was the best of the 3, but not as stunning as I remembered. This was the consensus.

Please report your impressions on your next trip.

 

Agreed that all the beers seemed better three years ago. The U was great.

 

I was there in October, but I only drank the Bock which was fine.

 

Not sure how far back this goes, but things were fine in 2017. We had the U and ETA Hoffmann. My biggest disappointment was that they discontinued their weissbier. The Gutmann one they replaced it with was okay, but not comparable IMO.
As far as bottles go, while U is always pretty good, I don't think it tastes anything like the draft version. My pub gets U kegs here and there and they're night and day better than the bottles. Could be age, but even fresh bottles seem to simply taste like a different beer.

 

I was there in September (my third time) and the U tasted great to me.

 

Been three times and each time the U has been tremendous to my palate. Last visit my pal kept exclaiming “ooooooohhhhhh” after each sip as he put his beer back into the table.

 

Not what you're looking for, but I had the Mahr's Pils on draft for the first time at a very reputable bar in Boston called Deep Ellum.

I enjoyed it, but I get this sweet honey-like taste that's weird, not exactly the Pils malt, but not really age either. I get it in their Helles too.

While I did enjoy it, I'm not sure it blew me away. The Notch Tenner (Desítka), their triple decocted pale lager, I had before that on draft was better in my opinion.

 

I should have clarified why I didn't think it was age.

I realize this is a quality that can show up due to age (I think it might have been you who pointed this out to me the first time I had bottled Mahr's!).

But what are the odds I've picked up this character in their bottled Helles, more than once on draft with the Helles, and then on draft with the Pils (at a reputable bar that tends to always have fresh imports)?

For what it's worth, I've had the U on draft many times and don't recall noticing this character.

This is all in the US though.

 

When it comes to distributed beer it is not just a case of age but how the beer was handled throughout the entire supply chain. Ideally the kegs would be transported in refrigerated containers from the brewery to the point where they are trucked to the US Wholesale Distributor (and refrigerated there and until delivered to the bar). Just one day of very high temperature can damage of a beer:

 

While true, I'm not sure where this keg would have been exposed to very high temperatures at this time of year.

I don't know for sure, but I assume it came from Germany (where it's cold right now) and then was shipped to the Northeast (where it's also cold).

 

Maybe it sat for a few weeks in warmer conditions at a Customs warehouse? Who knows.

The beauty of drinking beer at a brewpub or a breweries tasting room is you know those beers did not have to go through a multi-tier supply chain.

Cheers!

 

I suppose the 'solution' here is to solely drink on premise at popular brewpubs/breweries who choose to not distribute their beer? This would address the topic of mishandling during the supply chain.

Cheers!

 

It’s not uncommon for a brewery to brew some beer at their own facility and also contract brew at another (as both of you know of course). I was once in a brewery taproom that was serving their flagship via draft. I knew that the cans of that beer that were available in stores were contract brewed at another facility. Curious if they brewed small batches of it at their own brewery for their taproom draft, I asked an employee about it. He told me that all of that particular beer was brewed elsewhere and the brewery had to go through ordinary distribution to obtain the beer in order to serve it in their taproom. I totally understand why the brewing happens that way, but it’s still kind of funny to walk into brewery, ask for their flagship, and get the one beer brewed somewhere else. Not that I have an issue with it at all, but I’d bet that the number of customers who assume that that beer was brewed in the tanks in front of them would be close to 100%. (And regarding “old” beer for sale at a brewery - yeah, I’ve seen that too)