This was true until a couple of years ago. It's an indication of how fashionable Helles currently is in Germany that breweries such as Schneider who were famous for brewing Weizen and only Weizen, are now rushing to brew Helles. (About fifty years ago, when Weizen was very unfashionable, they brewed Helles too to keep the lights on). Erdinger now has a Helles too. Each has chosen to use very different branding for their lagers and wheat beers, almost as if they were separate breweries that happen to share a name. The "Erdinger Weissbräu" website doesn't even link to the "Erdinger Brauhaus" site. Separate websites for "Schneider Weisse" and "Schneider's Landbrauerei" too.
I don't have anything bad to say about the brand. I'd actually say it's my favorite corporate restaurant chain because each location has at least 100 decent beers on draft and the food is good if you know what to order. I liked most of the people I worked with there and made decent money... But it's corporate... Very corporate... So don't expect all or even some of the staff at any given location to be beer nerds or enthusiasts or you'll be disappointed
This is pretty much what I expected you were alluding too, but I thought there might have been good stories about leading drinkers astray. "I'm looking for something similar to a Maibock." "Well, maybe you'd like to try this Brown Ale." I actually witnessed that interaction at a local brew-pub.
Ah, good to know. A unique website for just one product (unless I'm missing something). https://schneiders-landbrauerei.de/en/ I've also heard that companies in the north that previously wouldn't think of going outside of Pilsener (in the pale lager category) are now brewing Helles due to its popularity.
LOL! Yeah, that's pretty consistent with my experience in Honolulu. I told the bartender I was hoping to try a new to me ipa that was good... and so did he have any recommendations. I quickly realized my mistake in asking his advice. As I recall, his response went something like this: "Oh well, we have three IPA's on tap right now... no wait, we have 4... oh wait, there's 5." He was just reading from the menu, apparently assuming I was incapable of reading it myself. He was a nice enough guy and was just trying to be helpful, but it became clear pretty quickly that he knew nothing about the beer list or craft beer in general. On the other hand, his food recommendations were much more helpful.
Sure, now that you mention it, I worked there in 2012. Whenever someone would try to order their second Blue Moon, I would say "Hey, why don't you try something different? It's the same style of beer as Blue Moon but by a different brewery: Lost Coast Great White" (YH had some sort of direct connection to them then and probably still do). 100% of the time they order it and 100% of the time liked it better. And I would go on to let them know that Blue Moon is actually a Coors brand. It was near a college too and so it was a lot of fun introducing college kids to Lindemans Framboise. Along with World of Beer, YH is one of the best beer-focused corporate concepts out there
Except they don't train their employees about their product? I've only been to the local(ish) YH a couple times and don't remember the bartender's input -- probably because I didn't need it.
Yes, YH clearly puts less emphasis on training employees about the nuances of the styles of beer they carry vs World of Beer. They care more about the employees knowing the food. I had to train and study the food menu for two weeks (paid) before taking my first table. It's actually quite impressive how they not only would give you a manual that breaks down all menu items by ingredient, but you can also at any given time access the nutritional facts of each dish via the POS system. We were of course tested at the end of the two weeks and had to get a certain score to be hired. Pretty wild but yeah, only a few of the questions on the test were about the beers and they were super basic. Definitely way lower of a priority for them, though there were a few beer geeks like myself on staff that all the other servers would turn to when they had questions, haha. I think obviously the bartenders were more heavily trained on the beer side of things
Absolutely not. Typically (as much as anything can be typical in Franconia), you would see Pils, perhaps Märzen (not what homebrew style guides think of as Märzen) or a hoppy amber to brown lager called variously Vollbier or just Lager.
Kellerbier, Lagerbier, Braunbier too. Dark Blocks, Maibocks, Heller Blocks, and some Doppelbocks too. Now Helles everywhere.
“A lady you say? Hmm…Sounds interesting, but not really in my wheelhouse. Do you have any brewed by a man?”
I recently got a pour of Utopias for the first time and my take away is that every beer lover should try it at least once. Once was enough for me, so I wouldn't do the pour unless it was super cheap. But, for someone who hasn't had it before, my recommendation would be that a price around $25 for a pour is worth it.
