Hofbrau Winter Spezial / Delicator

Yeah, the various owners of McSorley's over the years have always been vague to down right deceptive to wrong about the breweries that made their beers. (I ran into their lack of knowledge one of the first times I visited the place in the 1970s. Had a girl friend who was crazy about Ballatine India Pale Ale and she spotted an old P. Ballantine & Sons longneck bottle of their IPA among the clutter - the same bottle and label the brewery used from about the 1940s up to closing.

"How old is that bottle?" she asked.
"Oh, t'is from the 1920s!" came the reply.
"Really," I thought to myself, "it's from the Prohibition era?" )

Anyway, after Repeal, NYC's Fidelio Brewery (later known as the Greater New York Breweries, Inc. after merging with a few other small NYC firms) brewed a few different McSorley-branded beers - Cream Stock Ale, Amber Ale and Lager.

By 1941, though, Liebmann Breweries (Rheingold) "took over production and sale" of the brand according to industry reports. The wording suggests, maybe, it was more of a contract deal that full ownership of the brand name at that time, which remained with the bar business? Especially since the Greater New York company limped along for a few more years after that deal. Liebmann eventually dropped the bottled version but re-introduced it in 1976 at the dawn of the "craft era" (too late to save the company, tho').

When Rheingold folded in 1977, C. Schmidt's & Son of Phila. purchased their brands, selling off a few of the smaller ones like the old Philadelphia Esslinger brand (to The Lion in Wilkes Barre) and McSorley's to their Phila. neighbor Ortlieb. At the time, Schmidt's was a 3.5M bbl brewery, Rheingold the year before it's collapse was around 1.5M bbl while Ortlieb had a yearly barrelage of around 200k. Ortlieb brewmaster Bill Moeller has said McSorley's production was only around 10-15k bbl/yr at the time.

When Ortlieb closed a few years later in 1980, Schmidt's took over the brewing of a number of their brands, including McSorley's.

See Prior and McSorley's ads and other images at my website

Schmidt would close in 1987, at which time Heileman took over most of their brands, including McSorley's - which they ruined - while also extended the brand ("Irish Ale", "Double Dark" "Black & Tan", etc).

One can assume (?) that the draught "light" served at McSorley's Ale House (and other establishments in the metro area - my college pub had it on tap in the early 70s) was brewed by the breweries that were bottling/canning the brand but, as you note, the "dark" was always a mystery. I recall talk in the '70s that it was Stegmaier Porter (don't recall if that was before or after Stegmaier folded and The Lion began brewing the brand).

With Schmidt brewing McSorley's by 1980, it would make sense for Prior Double Dark to be the McSorley's dark beer. The Boston area bar, Jacob Wirth's, was well-known for having house brands and their "Dark" was also said to be Prior.

After Schmidt sold most of their brands to Heileman, Prior Double Dark was not one of them, but was a draught-only brand from F X Matt (possibly the brand was still owned by successors to the original US owner?). IIRC Matt stated that they sold it to McSorley's as well. Think that ended when Stroh bought Heileman?

There was long a rumor that Matt's Saranac Black Forest was the same as their PDD but Matt, in a no longer online interview, claimed it was a similar but not the same beer. (For one, PDD was adjunct-brewed, SBF was all malt). Complicating matters, there supposedly were until relatively recently still bars in upstate NY that sold SBF using old Prior tap handles.

I noticed that McSorley's Ale House has changed their website since I last checked it out. Still some errors, like:

Besides their Brooklyn brewery (closed in '76), Rheingold also brewed McSorley's at their Orange NJ and New Bedford MA breweries.

Well, it was brewed by Heileman between the C. Schmidt and Stroh periods, and Stroh purchased the Heileman Brewing Co. in 1996.

(Some of this info was once online at collections of Modern Brewery Age magazines and Jack Curtain's Liquid Diet website but neither is online currently that I could find. That's one of the reason I still like paper records - they don't just disappear).

 

Resi's Bierstube and The Great Beer Palace is where I heard the term. The Beer Palace was where the bartender argued the translation with me, but the Resi's guys knew better -- they kept a watchful eye on those Optimator drinkers.

Resi's is also the spot I learned the true translation of Maibock: Mindblock.

I always liked the food at Laschet's better than Resi's, but Resi's Biergarten is the best.

Mirabell was okay, but we always liked the proximity of Resi's and Laschet's for a pub crawl -- and the other spot* across from Laschet's to the northeast -- changed owners and became an Irish-themed spot, but that helped mix up the choices.

*Schulien's -- now O'Donovan's.

 

I went to a German restaurant earlier in the year because they had Früh Kölsch on tap... well, at least they did a few days prior to me going there. When I sat down, the waitress asked me what I wanted to drink and I asked to see the beer list. She said they didn't have one because they had so many beers on tap. (Funny logic... but I assume she meant that it would be a pain to maintain a list.) I said, "OK, can I have a Früh Kölsch?" She replied, "We don't have that, what do you want: light, dark, or wheat?" I hesitated for a second with a response, so she said: "I'll bring you something that's like a Kölsch, and if you don't like it I'll take it back." Some time went by, she returned, placed a half liter beer on my table and started to walk away before I could even grab the glass. I called to her, "Excuse me, what beer did you give me?" She responded, "I don't know how to pronounce it," and then she left. It tasted like she gave me their slowest selling (oldest) German version of a craft pale ale. I didn't like it, but I decided to accept fate and drink it.

If I'm in Prague and at a place with only two beers, I really enjoy the simple convention of "What do you want, light or dark?" If I'm at place with 16 taps, those aren't words I want to hear in the absence of a beer list.

@PapaGoose03 I have to say, my story is from this place... but don't discredit it based on my one poor experience.

 

I guess it is true - Opposites do attract.

 

I don't know how to pronounce it.

Could you walk to the bar and look at the taps?

 

Ordinarily, I am most definitely "that guy." This incident was during the pandemic though, and I was in their outside dining area. I felt like asking: "What's the first letter?"

 

Copy the name to a napkin and I'll pronounce it for you.

Your luck it was probably Y.u.e.n.g.l.i.n.g

 

I guess Resi's is considered the St. Benedict's neighborhood, not Old Irving Park. It was old, it was on Irving Park. >shrug<

 

I’ve passed by those places, but never went when I lived a few block away because I wasn’t a big beer drinker then (whiskey/bourbon). The Beer Palace is gone.

Finley Dunne’s was my Norm bar (their owner Joe Kenney sold it a few years ago after owning since the open in 1997), Long Bar on Irving near Ashland, Ginger’s Ale House for soccer (new owners now) and Tai’s Til Five (now Til 4) the other usual joints.

These days, I only hit up my three favorite breweries that way (Spiteful, Half Acre and Dovetail) and Hopleaf (Fountainhead as well, though they closed last month). Hope they survive through the current situation, Hopleaf the most at risk.

 

Oh yeah, long time gone, sadly.

I haven't been to many of those old spots in a long time, though I promised to. Then pandemic struck.

Maybe this Summer -- love to see Resi's Biergarten again and sample the Rouladen at Laschets (is the kitchen still open?).

 

So I pickup the HB Winter Spezial 6- pack 9.99 at my near by Binny's,
A very nice beer glad I bought and will visit again it's now with my rotation of Celebration, and Samuel Smith winter welcome for winter beers.

Cheers

 

Their bottled Dunkel landed on the shelves here a few months ago after not being available for about a decade or so. Those bottles have best by dates, so I'm wondering if your Curator is the same?

I have been to Ettal. Went on a guided day-trip from Munich, that included other sites as well. Absolutely beautiful there in the mountains and the monastery is really something. Given that I was with a group, I didn't have time to try and get a peak at the brewery/distillery.

 

Did a day tour to Ettal 33 years ago this month. Beautiful village. Would have loved to stay but was also with a tour group. I did get a glass of their doppelbock. Actually think it was a plastic cup. Sold at a stand right there in town. It might have been a window where you got the bier, anyway it was delicious. I've seen it at Binnys in years past.

 

I’ve been seeing it on the shelves in my area of MD but haven’t bought it (and noticed I’ve never had it/rated it either). Now it’s a must buy...a Sixer will last me a few weeks, mix it in with other beer styles from day to day give one or 2 away to friends etc.

 

Well after three stores, I swear one had this beer a few weeks ago, I guess I was wrong...nothing...nada...zilch. Maybe next year.

 

I didn't see any until January last year. I think that the beer manager uses stuff like this to take over a spot where a Christmas beer sells out and it makes no sense ordering more.

 

I remember the first year that the "Delicator" version came out it never showed in my area -- I had to travel a county over to find it.

 

I still can’t get over how smooth and easy drinking this beer is. I’m almost on my third six pack so far. We actually got the mini kegs this year too. Definitely make an effort to find it.

 

I fondly recall dark Heinie being a “special beer”, but I haven't seen it in at least 10, maybe even 20, years. Is it still imported into the US?