Anybody in Düsseldorf for the Third Tuesday in October (i.e. Oct 21)? If so, let's meet up and have a Sticke or six...
Unfortunately no but I will be there in spirit! I will try to remember to buy some dusty, six-month old Sticke to celebrate with you.
A wine/craft beer store just opened in my area. They were open less than a month when I stopped in and saw 4-ish month old Sticke. I bought some and enjoyed it thoroughly. Went back a few weeks later, they still had the same Uerige, this time 5-ish months old. It had definitely fallen off a little. It was sad to me that they didn't appear to sell very many, and those same bottles will no doubt be hanging on their shelves many months from now (like the 14 month old Sticke I had the misfortune of purchasing from another spot). I might have bought 20 of them all at once if they weren't $4.70 per 330 ml bottle, but what can you do...
November 20 (thursday) is Latzenbiertag at Schumacher (both at the Stammhaus and at Zum Goldenen Kessel). Latzen is to me at least as good if not better than Sticke. And I just happen to arrive in Düsseldorf that day ....
You won't get an argument from me -- though it's been a few years since I've had Latzenbier. But I don't have an unbroken streak going back to 1998 as I do with Uerige (Plus late November travel has issues in the US)
You are more than welcome (as are any here) but be aware in leap years we do the trip in December to go to the Kerstbierfestival in Essen (Belgium). Uerge saves a keg or two of Sticke for us and we have our own "Sticke day."
I did not realize that you did that during Leap Years. I guess I lucked out in 2012. (The Kerstbierfestival is every year.)
I make the Kerstbierfest about 3 years out of 4 but we do the group things so others get a chance. And we don't wear out our welcome with Uerige saving Sticke for us. The first year they actually put the barrel on our table but the other patrons wondered why they couldn't have their own barrel, so after that it went at the bar with the other.
