Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

It never stood out to me as being readily available to me in WI. That's not to say that it wasn't. I just don't recall seeing it for sale at the places I shopped and I was a keen buyer of German beers. It definitely wasn't available in MN when I moved there, which was in the mid-2000's.

A couple of years ago, it had a very brief run of being available on draft in certain states. I saw a tap handle for it at LAX but was unable to sneak away for a glass. I believe you also said you saw it available then?

 

When you mentioned seeing the draft being it rang a bell -- and I do remember seeing it at the local good beer bar... I just can't remember if I tried it? I believe I did and it was just so-so to me.

What also comes to mind is that I only saw it for a little while before HB tap handles* became more prevalent around here (and still is). Have to wonder if one pushed the other out. Or maybe AB-InBev just gave up?

*Brings up a return question to @Domingo -- how about Weizen in Munich? That was also everywhere in town (and Bavaria) the various times I visited, is it still as popular?

 

*available...

Editing on a smart phone is clumsy.

 

Definitely. I don't think there's a beer-serving establishment in Munich that doesn't have a weiss. I'm exaggerating a little, but that might actually be true. It's as popular as ever.
Basically every establishment has a helles and a weiss. More recently a lot of places have added NA bottles, too. Other styles like dunkel, export, pils, etc. are sporadically available, but there are no guarantees. In the last decade I've noticed more brand mixing. Lots of Lowenbrau + Franziskaner outlets. Paulaner + HP, too. Another one is places that serve Augustiner lager, but another weissbier. Not sure if it's because that weiss isn't on draft (I've never seen it on tap) or if it just isn't popular. Either way, Franziskaner or even a non-city brand like K. Ludwig are usually served instead.

 

My recollection is that over the past few years you have seen more beers labeled as Kellerbier in Munich. Is this 'trend' still going?

Prost!

 

Agreed. And, thankfully, the traditional Munich weisswurst breakfast with a weissbier is as popular as ever.

 

It was as of this past summer. Hofbrau's sommerbier and the Ayinger kellerbier have been around a while and they're still around. Joining them are the Paulaner Zwickl, H-P Kellerbier, Franziskaner kellerbier, and Weihenstephaner 1516. No clue if they're selling well, but they're definitely still on the market. In particular there are lots of adverts for the Franziskaner kellerbier. Unlike most of the others, it's a darker one with nutty flavors similar to the ones further north. Most of the others are pale and heavy on the hops. Paulaner's is the oddball. It has a lot of unusual herbal notes that remind me of British beers.

 

Yeah, that's the thing with imported beer in the US - brands came and then disappeared, apparently often imported by multiple, locally-based companies with no connections out of state, which implied it was on a one-time or occasional basis. Maybe even purchased from a middleman, and not the brewery itself. Especially true pre-Pro, but it continued after Repeal for decades (well, WWII in the late '30's and the '40's interrupted exports to the US, obviously, and post-War grain shortages and rationing meant a lot of European imports didn't arrive again until the 1950s).

And the market for imports was tiny (less than 1% into the "craft era" of 1970s) - the Feds and industry measured it in gallons, not barrels - and mostly concentrated in affluent/urban areas or ethnic "beer-centric" regions. 25% of all imports in that period, for instance, was sold in the NYC-NJ market. Lots of the US saw very little imported beer.

But Spaten had been exported to the US in the pre-Prohibition period and as Repeal became a reality, it was often mentioned as one of the likely German imports (notably by the famous "Wet", H. L. Mencken); it was one of the beers used as a example during the debates on whether the original Repeal 3.2% beer was "real" beer.

(Note that one ad below - bottom,center - dated Sept. '33, shows what, by law, must have been 3.2w Spaten.)


Above left, note that Gabriel Sedlmayr's name is larger than "Spaten" itself. Wasn't just that retailer, either, in Montreal Spaten ads were similar.

 

Great to hear I am not the only fan of Dinkelacker here in Illinois. Love everything they make, even though it's in part for nostalgic reasons. Big fan of Swabia and Stuttgart in particular, went to the university in Stuttgart, my wife is also from there, and I go there a lot for work and to see family.
Dinkelacker, Schwabenbräu, Stuttgarter Hofbräu - I love them all.

 

Sorry to give the wrong impression, but I'm not a big fan of the current Dinkelacker import. The DA I'm talking about above was brewed, bottled, and exported for DA by Spaten back in the late 90s - early 2000s.

When InBev took over Spaten they broke the collaboration with DA. DA was off the U.S. market for quite some time before setting up with SH Brands (no connection, unfortunately). The beers bottled and exported direct from Stuttgart just aren't that great to me -- again, sorry.

That said, I have enjoyed DA beers in Stuttgart proper and thought it was pretty good -- just don't know why the export loses something in translation.

 

I never was quite a fan of Warsteiner. To me, it was too abrasively bitter, but I think I disliked their Dunkel even more as it is too roasty.

I don't entirely mind German Pilsners being bitter, and I can sometimes appreciate a Jever. However, like the spirit of this thread, I prefer my Pils (or, well, I suppose more popularly in those parts), Helles and Dunkel to be Bavarian.