Fall Beer Sightings (2019)

Before you know it, Celebration will be out.

 

Certainly so for an import.

I just know that particular retailer runs the gamut of fresh stuff and pretty old stuff -- especially in their import section.

 

They sure do. It's disappointing! Same with Binny's.

 

The Binny's in Lake Zurich has pretty good beer people -- they listen to their customers. When I pointed out the over-year-old HB Maibock the distro had saddled them with they jumped on it right away and had new stock replaced within a week.

OTOH, the Buffalo Grove Binny's beer guy looked at me and all but shrugged and said, "Whatever." I haven't been back to that one since.

Then there's the stack of year-plus old HB Festbier at the Gurnee Mariano's... looked for the liquor manager and couldn't find him to point it out, but he never seems responsive to his beer customers anyway.

 

Old German brewed beers. Sounds like my local beer retailers (which still carry a few German beer brands).

Cheers!

 

Great to hear!! I'll be visiting family up in Cleveland in a few weeks and look forward to trying it!!

 

Just picked up a 4-pack of the Ayinger 330 mL bottles with this year's date code. Bottled April 4th. I usually opt for the 500 mL bottles but those had a date code of L9066, a full month before the other ones, so I went with the little guys instead.

 

What did you pay for that 4-pack?

At lunchtime I was a local beer shop and they had this 4-pack on the shelf and underneath it was listed $15.99. I didn't even waste my time taking a bottle out of the pack to note the date.

@nc41

Cheers!

P.S. Bottling beers in March/April intended for the Oktoberfest season (end of September - October) is simply nuts!!

 

Ouch! $10.99 for the 4-pack. It's one of my favorite Oktoberfest beers but I probably would have passed too at the price you saw it for. Gotta remember, they're 330 mL bottles. That's a hefty $/oz.

 

Well, 11 bucks for four small beers will be a pass for me. Especially considering the fact these beers were 'off' last year.

Cheers!

 

Understood. In my mind, it's a world class beer that's only available for a few months each year so I don't have a problem paying $11/4-pack. I would draw the line at the $16 you saw today, probably well before that actually. Also, I should note that I typically buy this beer in its larger format (500 mL bottles) which go for $3.50 each. I bought the smaller bottles this year because of the later bottling date.

For what it's worth, I didn't notice any decrease in quality of the beer last year. A lot of people did though, so I don't doubt it was real. I had 3 or 4 of the larger bottles last year and they all tasted great to me. Maybe there was some batch variation, who knows.

 

Yup, maybe.

The fact they bottle these beers 5-6 months before the season does not help at all.

Cheers!

 

I also picked up a 4-pack of the Ayinger for $10.99 yesterday. We had one last night and I really liked it, better than I recall last year. It was better than the Sam Adam's and Great Lakes I enjoyed last night as well. Friends also agreed that I was splitting beers with.

Great Lakes Oktoberfest was promising, except for a harsher/boozy thing going on which hindered it. Both friends agreed on my "boozy" note when enjoying the beer, so it wasn't just me. Aside from that though, it would have been awesome. It's also up there at 6.5% for the style, so may be why, but it still came across harsher than I would have wanted. Bummer, as the rest of the flavor profile is really good. Probably pick up another single later on to see if I think the same.

Sam Adam's was "ho-hum"... Boring, perhaps? Nothing wrong with it, just didn't have any stand out qualities in terms of he malt profile and such. We had it quite a lot last year and enjoyed it, but it didn't do it for me last night. I have another bottle though to see if it's just the day.

Weihenstephaner was really good, as expected. I may prefer the Hofbrau though, head-to-head. Getting closer to our blind tasting for the year, so I will be curious on those results again.

So far this year, I think Paulaner Wiesn (and Marzen), Hofbrau and Fat Head's may be my top picks... With perhaps Sierra Nevada just behind. Ayinger I need to have another bottle on a fresher palate to decide!

 

Thank goodness for that! Last year's (the ones I purchased) was a disappointment.

Cheers!

 

It would really be a shame if they didn't have a proper fall pack. I liked that spruce lager, too, and liked the maple red they released a couple of times.

I agree. SA was definitely my favorite overall brewery, but I guess I'm a dinosaur. Either that, or they're reading the market poorly. No more Irish Red, no more Cream Stout (I don't think), forcing '76 on everyone instead of a true seasonal in their variety packs, releasing White Christmas as a 6-pack each year instead of Old Fezziwig....

But, I did see through MyBeerBuzz that they are releasing Old Fezziwig again, along with a couple of the other usual suspects. But, they small shred of originality of the artwork on the bottles (it went from that great Victorian winter scene from Dickens, then to the bland label with just a top hat on it, to now where the only original thing is the color and the name of the beer) is gone.

 

Looks like Ayinger is doing date codes. I think this would be May 7, 2019

 

Way to get after it and not be afraid that it's August!

I plan on digging in my heals this weekend, although I already started with Sierra Nevada's.

Weird, three different batches. Two for the 330 mL size.

I hope my store gets the May 7th bottling date!

 

Been at it for weeks now, @AlcahueteJ !

Could drink them year round, so as soon as they hit I'm buying. When they are not available, I just brew my own and enjoy whenever!

 

Weeks?

I think most of mine just hit the stores last weekend.

 

Yup! I looked and my first Oktoberfest of the season was July 27th! So three weeks. Paulaner Wiesn & Marzen, Hofbrau and Fat Head's all hit the same time. Sierra Nevada a few days later. Been going strong since as they continue to trickle in to find my favorite for this season... A few sixers down already and have a nice stock in the fridge.

Still yet to find Hacker or Spaten, though... I think I got all the other important ones.

So far, I have enjoyed:

Hofbrau
Paulaner Wiesn
Paulaner Marzen
Fat Head's G'Suffa
Sierra Nevada
Great Lakes
Sam Adam's
Weihenstephaner
Festbier (Saucy Brewing)
Barktoberfest (Thirsty Dog)
Ayinger