Ranking your favorite German breweries.

How are things in Greensburg? My home town! Hempfield High School or HASH for some!

 

Hey Hottenot . . . I hale from Indiana, PA and when I want an easy drive to civilization, I head for Greensburg. The city seems to be doing ok . . . but the online shopping is having a real effect on Westmoreland Mall. Shoppers appear to be 50% of what they were 5 years ago. Beer Arena on Donohoe Rd. is where I go if I want the best selection. Not sure how long you have been in NC but the Arena opened a bottle shop too and now has a great selection of singles in addition to their large selection of craft and imported sixers and cases.

 

As a result of this, I grabbed a 6 pack of the Von Trapp Dunkel not too long ago and also did a blind side by side with Von Trapp, Warsteiner Dunkel, Hofbrau Munchen Dunkel, and Modelo Negra.

The Modelo was my least favorite. It just wasn't in the same class. I enjoyed the other three beers. The Warsteiner had a lot going on and I was surprised by how much I liked it (Warsteiner has always pleasantly surprised me in blind tastings). The Hofbrau had the most satisfying malt character. The Von Trapp was actually my surprising favorite that day because of it's feel. It had a great silky, smooth texture that separated it and made it hard to compete with. On another day, I could easily see myself picking a different favorite in the same lineup.

The Von Trapp and the Warsteiner had a lot of coffee character. The Hofbrau didn't have this. If I didn't have the Warsteiner in the mix, I would have felt like the Von Trapp was an outlier for this reason. Some days after the tasting, I drank some draft Traunsteiner Dunkel with @TongoRad . Compared to the others, it had a fruitier character. All in all, there was some real variety amongst all of them.

 

Weihenstephaner Hefe. I think you can argue over many beers in many styles as to which one is best, but there’s nothing I’ve had that it’s even close to its equal.

 

Schlenkerla is probably the only one I'm qualified to call a favorite.

And Zoller-Hof stands out. I've had just two beers from Zoller-Hof, but they were world-class brews IMO and the kind of beers I'd buy by the case if I could.

 

An import shop by me carries Zoller-Hof and I picked up two bottles of their Zoller-Zwickel and was really impressed. Definitely world-class!

 

I love the W hefe but there is something about the Paulaner that I love better.

 

I’ll have to look for it, do they use weird codes?

 

No. Case and bottles are marked with a best buy date. However, be wary of the mixed cases and six packs. These are not normally dated on the outside. You have to check the bottles inside. BTW, my daughter lives in Raleigh and does not see Paulaner often. However, sometimes she sees it at Total Wine.

 

Thanks, so how far out is the best by , I suppose I’ll need to count backwards.

 

Indeed, it's fantastic. Have you tried their Old Fred? I think I liked it even more, though both are super tasty. Next time I'm in Houston or Austin I need to make sure Zoller-Hof hasn't found its way to Texas.

 

No I have not tried those, only the Zwickel! I am headed to that shop again today, so I will be on the lookout for any other options they may have had that I may have not noticed.

 

I've just had the zwickel and Old Fred, but based on my experience with those two, I'd try everything of theirs at least once. Old Fred is like a Yuengling dialed up several notches. I can't imagine a much better beer in its style.

Happy hunting!

 

That is an intriguing description. I will have to keep my eye out for this beer.

Cheers!

@TongoRad

 

And I'd say I love Yuengling, so I'm not kidding when I say Old Fred is fantastic. Michael sent me a couple bottles a couple years ago, and like most everything he's ever sent me, he was on the mark.

 

I've definitely never heard of this brewery let alone see it in Texas.

 

My case of hefe that I bought two months ago says to enjoy before end of 09/19. My case of Salvatore doppelbock that I bought at the same time is dated for 01/20. I have purchased some cases unwittingly that were old . . . . like a year. But . . . the beer still tasted great to me!

BTW, this is the first case of Salvatore that I found in western PA for several years. It seemed like the national importer was only delivering the hefe to my area. The manager of the beer distributor that I bought these from told me that they are now getting Paulaner again, which was not available for a long time. Hopefully NC will see a rise in availability.

 

I used to drink a ton of Salvator back in the 1990s. I hadn’t seen it in a while either. I just got back from two weeks in Germany and grabbed a couple of bottles of various beers from a supermarket on my last day. They had bottles of Salvator dated for 06.20 so I had to add that to the basket even though I was mostly looking for dunkels to bring back.

 

Just bought a 4 Pack of Paulaner Munich Gold in the Pint size cans yesterday. Stamped on the bottom of the cans are 2 dates. First date is 02/05/2020, Second date is 02/05/2019. Does this mean it was canned on 02/05/2019 and they are advising best by 02/05/2020?