Let's Talk About Weihenstephaner

THIS! They already did it with Vitus, I can only hope that with Korbinian it comes to fruition.

 

Yeah, man, Korbinian needs some more love on this thread. One of my favorite doppelbocks.

 

Some might say they are the "same old, same old", but they have perfected that "Same old, same old" over the last 976 years and I hope they never change whatever it is they are doing, cause it tastes damn good.

 

To all the good lagers that get no respect.

 

Dang it, now I'm gonna have to make a stop on the way home to get some! It's a thankless job, but someone...well, you know the rest

 

Get some for me too, that may have been the last time I saw it with any regularity around here.

 

Gah, that's terrible! I always assumed you Midwesterners had a steady supply of the German stuff. Time to send a disgruntled email to your distributor!

 

See my first post in this thread...

Closer to Milwaukee yields better finds, but that's a hike outta the way for my route home.

 

Picked up a six of Original today, bottle dated mid October, ie as fresh as it gets in Ohio. Drinking fantastic, by the way.

 

I love weihenstephaner and franziskaner as my go-to German beers but unfortunately they are always collected with dust/dated old.

If I could get it fresher I would buy it more frequently.

 

Inspired by this thread, I stopped at a local that gets my attention now and again. They usually have a good selection of craft beers and imports -- and they had Weihenstephaner Festbier in-season, so I thought I'd have a look.

Only 2 six-packs of Original and, frankly, I was a little stunned by the price: $12. I've found the .5 liters of Weihen at comparable prices to other German imports in the past, so this was rather surprising.

So what is everyone else paying for a six-pack or Weihenstephan?

Better news is that this place actually had the HB Winter Spezial -- one of only 2 spots in my area that I saw with it. $9 a six-pack. May have to go back for the other 3.

 

A month or so ago my 70-year-old uncle gave me a couple of Weihenstephaner mugs -- that big one with the lid and a much smaller one with no lid (300 ml? or 330 ml? it's tiny). He picked them up in the 1980s while working in Germany. 1986, I think.

 

I have an HB 250 ml clay Krug I like to use all the time -- wish I could remember where I got it and how old the thing is.

 

Usually $11 a 6 in Ohio for Original, Hefe, and Pilsner. $10 a 6 in Kentucky for those I believe. Vitus is $12 a 6 in Ohio.

 

Makes me wish I could remember how much I paid for the Festbier last Fall -- but anything into double-digits usually stands out (and repels ).

 

A place around here keeps them in the cooler so they are always good. They also have decent turnover.

 

I've seen $10-12/six for the Hefeweizen here in Cambridge, MA. Beer tends to be more expensive here than in other places though, but it looks like everyone is saying close to the same thing price-wise though.

 

I just polished off a bottle of Kristalweissbier. It was really good!!

 

Fair enough. Stoudts never seemed to be on that level to me, and I still haven't run across that Victory brew. But Sly Fox is one I have really enjoyed and would take over the Original, so there are a few out there.

I did think I was making a broader point at the time, but now it doesn't read that way; take Weihenstephaner out of the equation and substitute the top versions of their styles, and that's where the difference really shows. I mean Weihenstephaner Original is a nice beer, but it doesn't land a glove on Augustiner or even Hofbrau.

 

Just wondering is Weihenstephaner beers held in such high regard in Germany like here in the US, or are there some tiny micro distro German breweries that people flock to that feel are much better? I know people from UK say that they think its weird that us Yanks think Sam Smith beers are great and they don't care for them much in the UK.