Starkbierzeit 2022

Found out today what might be the reason that I can't find Hofbrau's Maibock in my area. It's the timing of when our region's Master Distributor gets stuff from Hofbrau. And its the size of the order.

Hofbrau requires the region's Master Distributor to buy a container of their beers at a time. No special orders. Hofbrau (or some warehouse) fills the container with a mix of what they have on hand.

The last container purchased did not contain any Maibock. The MD speculated that it might be some time before the next container is ordered. Most likely not until after "Maibock Season".

 

In what area do you live?

 

Hofbrau Maibock has arrived in my area.

From an e-mail I recently received from a local beer retailer:

“12oz 6pk Bottles
Hofbrau Maibock”

Cheers!

 

I am in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

 

Woo-hoo!

Whereabouts is that retailer? From what I gather you are east of me. In Chester County?

 

Montgomery County.

The beer retailer that has Hofbrau Maibock is Capone's:

http://thebottleshop.biz/directions.htm

Prost!

 

On a different note, I noticed that folks don't post repeats of beers that they have had in this thread. Is that the norm?

 

Thanks. Your situation shouldn't affect me and finding that beer.

 

I was asking out of concern mostly for you. My beer is probably in the same shipping container as yours, and our boat is probably fighting the ice in the Mackinac Straights.

 

Thank you!

 

How long would you say that St. Nick Holds up??

 

It can make it till the next Christmas or Thanksgiving, if need be. Though it might be best to enjoy it before then. St Nick isn't one to cellar. I make it a point to not let any bottle of St Nick get (much) older than 1 year.

The ones that I had in March and April were fine. They were 3-4 months old.

@crazyspicychef, do you have any input?

 

Had these two Bocks a few days ago. Enjoyed each from my Hofbrau Maibock Krug (which I really like - @thebeers ) but put a little in a glass to show color.

The top one is "Das Bock" from Eibauer. Beers from this brewery have recently been showing up in my area with tacky packaging. The Eibauer website has a "Heller Bock" and a "Dunkler Bock." BeerAdvocate lists a "Berliner Geschichte Bock" and a "Berliner Geschichte Dunkler Bock." All of these beers are 6.7% ABV. I am going to hesitantly assume that this import is the same beer as their Heller Bock... and that both are the same as the Berliner Geschichte Bock on BA.

So, back to that tacky packaging - Despite their intentions being the opposite, it's not assuring to see "from an elite brewery" stated more dominantly on a label than the brewer's name. Then it's got a "top 12 breweries" claim with an asterisk... so I expected to see a source of the claim somewhere on the can but didn't find one.

I expected the worst, but was pleasantly surprised. This was a straightforward and solid Heller Bock - something I really like.

Then I shifted to the highly acclaimed Industrial Arts Spring Landscape Helles Bock... and was left wanting. Industrial Arts makes good lagers... and I know from experience that they tend to do things their way... and that often means an incredibly hoppy product. This was no exception. Although it was a nice beer... following the tackily packaged German beer did it no favors. I wanted something more like the German beer, and this New York beer was not interested in that. The rich, honey like character of the German beer actually resulted in higher drinkability than the clean but overwhelmingly hoppy NY one.

A note on the names: "Helles Bock" (as seen on the Industrial Arts can) is a pet peeve of mine. It should be Heller Bock. This might be unfair of me, but the Industrial Arts term is a bad look in my eyes. The experience of drinking the beer backs up the Americanized Helles Bock term... so I guess it's authentically inauthentic and actually makes sense in a weird way. Then we have the Eibauer Das Bock. Am I missing something? It should be "Der Bock" as far as I know. I don't get it. What's going on here? Importers? I suppose that like the Industrial Arts beer, this spelling actually fits the tacky import label.

 

Helles vs. Heller?

Chris, you might be comforted to know that for the Eibauer beer they sell in Germany they do label as “Heller Bock”:



But for the Landbier they use “Helles Landbier”:



Is this an ‘issue’ of noun gender?

Edit: after some web searching it appears that "Bock" is feminine while "Landbier" is neuter.

Prost!