Introduction to German Beer

Right back at you. AA must be a fairly new business and certainly new to me. Cheers!

 

IPA's probably won't handle the trip to the USA very well, but three that I've had:
- Down, from BRLO (A collaboration with Run the Jewels)
And
- Yeast is King, and Creeping Shadows by FrauGruber
Were all solid versions of the style.

That being said, if you're going to buy an import I highly recommend anything that's more representative of German beer culture. Ayinger, Hacker Pschorr, and Augustiner do great things.

 

Heh -- not trying to push you back, just advocating to move slow.

 

Not to derail this thread but the Helles really isn’t smoky at all. I would say it’s one of the best, straight up, Helles’ there are.
But I do agree that anything from Schlenkerla might be a bit jarring for a newbie.

 

There's enough residual smoke in the Helles that I think it would turn off the uninitiated. I have friends who I got to try it and they stopped speaking to me.

 

It’s going to be very difficult to figure dates as the German Brewers tend to be a bit liberal with their Best BY date. If it’s not clearly understandable I just pass, I’m not walking around with a notebook full of codes and Julian dates. I’ll just buy US made beers, I’ve got no patience at all there.

 

FWIW that is what I do.

I am fortunate that in my area (Philly area) there are many local breweries producing high quality German style beers. I often can buy them with less than a month from packaging.

Cheers!

 

But, when you find something fresh -- like an Ayinger Bavarian Pils or a Weihenstephaner Helles, the experience will be enlightening.

There have been miles of debate over American-brewed German-style beers compared with products from the source, and some Ami breweries manage good renditions, but so many don't.

A well-brewed German-style is sublime, elegant, and satisfyingly delicious all at once. So unless you can get to Bavaria soon, it's worth the work to understand the dating to find fresh beer -- *if* you're serious about getting into the genre.

All that said, there are quite a few German imports that print a very clear best by date. It's up to your interpretation of fresh, of course. But Spaten, Paulaner, and Hacker Pschorr beers are clearly dated and quite good "starter" beers to sample.

 

That’s the thing about best by dates, it’s random, you know the end date but you don’t know when it was canned or bottles. Is it 6 months which I highly doubt, 9 months old like PU, 12 months quite likely, 15 months like Jever? Brewers discretion. It’s still a game of finding out how old I am, am I warm on the shelf or in a cooler? Unlikely here in a cooler, or am I also warm on the top shelf like for say Jever here sucking up UV light 24/7/365? Most here are over 15 months as well, I’m not completely lazy, but seriously I’ve never come across imported beers at 4 months, I don’t bother any more except for Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen, at 6 months old it’s stellar.

 

Just because a beer is fresh is does not make it better. Which I feel like is all too often stated on here when the topic of imports comes up. I’ve had expired (past best by) be the winners in blind tastings. I’ve also had 8 month old beer standout above my favorite fresh local examples.

So yes fresh is important but it is not the end all be all, far from it in my opinion. I don’t want to change topics of this thread I just wanted to state this to keep in mind as you buy imported beers.

 

As I mentioned, this is all very redundant debate and you have to decide just how much you want to get into something.

I have no trouble making judgments on BB dates or brands based on experience, but German styles have been my favorites for a long time, so it's not work for me (though sometimes frustrating).

If the niche doesn't grab you, you're free to move on -- but I'm not going to discourage someone from discovering something very good just because it may take a little study -- spoken as someone who got into this enthusiasm well before the advent of the internet.