German / Imported Märzens

@officerbill It is possible and it happens from time to time that a distributor sends an old expired case to a store, hopefully by accident. I wouldn't doubt that's what happened in this case. It is possible for retailers to keep and restock old product though that they could at least try to get credit for from the wholesaler, and it's usually the wholesale rep's job to get old product off the shelf and replace it because they don't want old beer to be sold from the breweries that they distribute as they want to keep the reputation good so they can sell more. It could also be the fact that German date codes aren't always easy to decipher like the US dates usually are. Another problem there you mentioned, Wegmans. These giant corporate places like Total Wine, Wegmans, even Whole Foods, Costco etc that stock beer everywhere, think about how much product they are taking, and then they get better deals too because they take so much, and then are able to sell it for cheaper stealing customers. I wouldn't doubt that by the time the Wegmans there stocked up on Ayinger there wasn't enough left for anybody else locally. All these things could happen.

 

Huh, I find that more than a bit ironic. Perhaps it’s not what the general population will buy? Personally I prefer the Pale Fest myself.

 

Yup, and the sweetness aspect was on the hairy cusp of being 'too much' for my palate.

But we all have our own unique palates and our own unique preferences for what we seek/enjoy in a given beer (style).

Chris (@zid), that second sentence above is for you!

Cheers!

 

It has been quite a number of years since I have had this beer; too many for me to comment on the sensory attributes of this brand.

Cheers!

 

It really comes down to how ‘honest’ a given Wholesale Distributor is. Below is an extract from a post that the manager of Retail Beer Distributor that is local to me posted in a past thread discussing this topic (with emphasis is bold by me):

“Certain wholesale distributors in this area are notorious for sending old beer to us...as @JackHorzempa mentioned we check everyone of those shipments at the dock and send back any out of code beers and any beers we feel we can't move before it is out of code...FYI we send back at least six cases a week...the drivers for these wholesalers who are super cool and patient with us while we check codes say few if any other stores do this...just to let you know in one instance I received the same out of code case of beer four times over the span of nine months...how do I know? I marked it after the second time.”

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...beer-and-etiquette.383281/page-3#post-4538042

Cheers!

@officerbill @jzainasheff

 

Did you really find last year's Paulaner Amber Marzen different from the previous year? I ask because I really didn't.

Of course, I also don't find them hoppy either -- the Paulaner & H-P have a dry yeast character that is different from Spaten's cleaner malt to my palate, but not at all hoppy.

That said, I am finding Spaten Premium more hoppy than I ever have.

 

I find that Marzens crosses the line of sweet that I enjoy. I can get DB here very fresh, but I find it’s too sweet for my palate, the rich malt just comes off as heavy and brooding. I prefer lighter more zesty beers for lack of a better definition.

 

From that specific sentence there it sounds like you might enjoy the Pale Oktoberfest beers that have become more available over the past few years. For example have you ever tasted Weihenstephaner Festbier?

Cheers!

 

Oh I know it happens I've witnessed it before and store managers have told me about getting out of code beer delivered, that's why I said it does happen, but I wanted to fall short of saying that it happens intentionally, at least by everyone. I wonder if the problem is the wholesaler can't get a credit from the importer or brewery and that's why instead of getting new product they have to try to get rid of the leftover? I always wondered how the credit refund would work, as we know, nothing is really free, everything comes at a cost.

 

For me, Ayinger is an annual staple.

 

I too have wondered with the additional component of how well & how often it works. Just too many variables here (some breweries may be helpful while others not, are the wholesalers willing to make the necessary effort to get their credit, etc.).

Unfortunately the 'path of least resistance' is to just foist old product on some unsuspecting retailer. I know this specifically happens at my local Total Wine & More since they insist that the Wholesale Distributor provide the labor of stocking the shelves.

Cheers!

 

What are the odds we both (and many others) found it to be more off the last few years?

@TongoRad said last year's was better, I honestly don't remember and would have to check back at my notes.

I felt this way about both draft and bottled Ayinger Oktoberfest. Of course a keg can sit in a hot warehouse somewhere as well. But I also make an effort to have Oktoberfests as soon as I see them hit the shelves/taps. So they're not doing much sitting at a store or bar in that regard.

 

Well, if you hear the wholesale distributors tell it, in most cases* they're responsible for the cost of pulling, destroying and replacing old stock.

.https://www.brewbound.com/news/brewbound-voices-distributors-dealing-sku-mageddon-part-ii

How to Reduce Out of Code Beer

* Boston Beer Co. has had "Buy back" programs where they pay for or split the cost of pulling old stock and older AB contracts with distributors once stated:

 

I haven’t seen that here, I wasn’t hot on their Collab with SN, that probably doesn’t count. I’ll always but 1 Ayinger, but from there on it’s all pale fest.

 

Hey, if you guys are starting to get more of the Pale Wies'n Oktoberfest beers over there, can you send your excess Märzen Oktoberfests back this direction?

 

We've been getting Wiesn Fests for many years, but that doesn't mean our Amber Marzen are "excess," they get snapped up too!

FWIW -- if you get down to Munich you might find the Amber away from the fest. I know I have in the past.

 

I believe some variation of your quote is what happened.
I doubt the distributor would get a refund on unsold beer from the importer.
The distributor likely made some sort of arrangement with the store in order to avoid taking back the old beer and the store sold a couple of 4 packs to people who didn't check the date

 

I was late to the party I guess . Paulaner isn't one that I tend to get every year, and I only grabbed it last year because I thought that Spaten had slipped (a bit hoppier, I guess, but mostly the malt seemed washed out).

 

Or they weren't able to get the product fresh, and they figured it was better to have it available and old than not have it at all since customers were asking for it. Some retailers just don't understand or care as much about the dates because they paid for the product and they want to make their money back so they can continue business. It would probably sell quicker though if customers knew it was fresh.

 

That would only be the case for an extremely negligent business. In the beer industry (Brewery, Wholesale Distributor, Retailer) keg beer has always been continuously stored cold. As regards bottle/can beer the industry as a whole has never had the same requirement to continually store beer cold (the vast majority of the beer at my retailers is stored at room (or hot in the case of the summer) temperature.

Cheers!