Paulaner Pilsner cans are coming!

I'm not a pils guy most of the time (I prefer helles or Stiegl and such), but I'm game for this if it's fresh. At the very least I know a pils from Munich won't be bone dry and Paulaner's QA/QC is strong.

 

It’s the stupid shrink wrap sleeves these importers feel the need to put on the package. The average American consumer hates that

 

Why? Never bothered me once I figured out how to find the dates.

 

Somewhat surprisingly these have moved pretty well in the grocery I use. Also surprisingly my purely non scientific observation is that the Hefe is outselling the Helles.

 

Hefe has a long tradition of pulling cross over drinkers. I grew up around lots of old folks who drank liquor and cheap beer but would have the rand hefeweizen every now and again. Im not surprised that a German brand would be a popular grocery store beer

 

No empirical data. But I’ve never seen an American brewery do it so it’s safe to say the American beer drinker hasn’t been conditioned to buy products that look like that. I sell beers like this and have observed more success when I remove the shrink wrap

 

A Gosser Spezial on the road to Yugoslavia many years ago saved my life. We were hitchhiking south out of Munich. Everyone had small cars full of family headed to the Adriatic. We walked. We finally limped into a place, ordered sausages and kraut, and a big stein of Gosser. It was a revelation and gave us new purpose to head towards Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, all in the then current Yugoslavia. It was strange, all of it, but that Austrian lager pushed us on our way. Great people everywhere. We were finally deported to Greece and that is an amazing story.

 

I'm only going by my own experience, of course, but if I'm buying beer the packaging only sways my purchase if I can't read a date code or green bottles aren't covered. Just not sure how shrink wrap scares people off.

Have you queried any of your customers? I'm seeing a lot more imports being packaged this way, be weird to have some subliminal effect on customers.

 

Already available in Colorado, just picked up a 4 pack at Total Wines, $6 and change, brewed 9/07

 

Gösser "Gut, besser, ein echtes Gösser!"

 

You sure that's not the canning date?

The can (above) calls it the "Production date" - it's unlikely that they could brew, ferment, lager, package and transport it across the Atlantic and then ship it to Colorado all in less than two months.

 

It’s the date that’s always included on Paulaner products. I’m assuming that most dates on beers are the day the put it in the bottle or can. I just always call it the brew date, although I guess that’s not entirely accurate. But still very fresh .

 

No, I haven’t. Just observed. Life is too busy for surveys these days

 

C'mon, you gotta talk to your customers, don'cha?

Seriously, I saw a couple shelves full of shrink-wrapped import cans today -- six and 12-packs. Seems like a going trend.

 

Oh it’s a trend, more euro brands realizing their odd euro formats don’t sell in the US. They are moving to 4pk tall boys.

 

Sorry, must'a been sleepy -- not 12-packs, 6 & 4-packs -- those "tallboys."

Although, I have seen 2 covered 12-packs shrink-wrapped together -- not sure if that's just for shipping or pre-planning for locations that can only sell by the case.

I carry a pocket knife, so I just slice 'em apart.

 

So I had been periodically checking Paulaner's Beer Finder, the pils finally showed up in South Jersey!!!

Grabbed a cold four pack today canned 1/12 for the grand total of 8$. Looking forward to finally giving this one a try. Just wanted to share the good news

 

I have yet to find the Paulaner Pils cans (or Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen cans) in my area.

I would be curious to read what you think of these Paulaner beers.

Cheers!

 

I too am curious about it, NBW it is but may cheat and have it early...

I wonder if these beers will make it to your market eventually. Hopefully within the same canning window as I’ve been finding. It’s been a nice surprise lately.

 

This may sound cynical but I would not be surprised if the same batch you just purchased makes it on my local beer retailers' shelves 6 months from now. Just so many old German beers on local shelves these days.

Cheers!