Never seen the 1516 packaged here in the U.S. Then again, I've never seen the 19.2 ounce cans in my area, but @grantcty has posted info on that format previously and it's the same label as the 16.9 oz. can -- which I see often.
Send me one of each and I'll help you out. And cans aren't impervious. I have been drinking cans of a local Festbier over the last 10 months and can taste a progression of "age." Though not necessarily a bad aging, but still noticeable.
Yes. It could just be due to a single defective can or fill-and-cap process. Or a misfill when they were changing from one beer to another. In the 80s I bought a sixpack of Lord Chesterfield that has a darker tinge -- probably an inadvertent mix of ale and porter that occurred during a changeover.
In addition to the age, transportation/storage conditions matter. One beer was brewed in July, the other in December. Sitting in a shipping container during the winter isn’t a big deal. But during the sweltering summer…..
I'm in the camp that agrees that it's unreasonable that the brewery would brew different beers for different can sizes. However, @ThePostmaster, since you've had them side by side I can't doubt that you're experiencing a difference. Many variables have been mentioned above about beer ages, storage conditions, etc. but no one has mentioned batch differences since the canned-on dates are different. I would expect that Paulaner has a QC department that eliminates this possibility. However I wonder if they have two different brewing lines with different brewing equipment, one that is connected to the canning line for the smaller can and another line that brews for the larger can (and maybe at different locations too). So that's another variable that needs to be considered.
Two word answer: German brewing. Not to mention a centuries old German brewery -- pretty sure they've got the equipment dialed in.
It was more direct to write QC Department rather than "German brewing," but we're saying the same thing. But canning is new to them, and maybe they installed a new brewing line to go along with the new canning equipment. It's just a shot in the dark.
From memory, Paulaner and Hacker-Pshorr brew beers for each other at different locations in town. Maybe they have different canning/bottling lines at each for different sizes?
Different locations? I thought they merged to one a few years ago.* And have you ever tried H-P and Paulaner Helles side-by-side? They aren't terribly different. *It's funny that if you look up H-P online, Google Maps shows you the old Paulaner Brewery near the Salvator Keller.
They're the same company with the same ownership, but I believe they retained multiple brewery locations. I might be thinking of another setup (Lowenbrau/Spaten/Franziskaner?) but I feel like I've seen 2 different breweries for those two as well.
It's first the difference in age, and secondly a possible variation in handling and storage conditions. I don't know why this discussion still has oxygen at this point.
Spaten-Franziskaner/Löwenbräu are in the same building (complex?) now (though separate brew houses, IIRC). Paulaner built a big brewery in Western Munich a few years ago and I thought H-P moved in with them, but I'm not positive.
The B-to-B section of the H-P website mentions "Our brewery in Langwied..." a borough of Munich where the new Paulaner brewery is also located -- FWIW. Also, from the Oxford Companion: "Hacker-Pschorr, however, is now a brand without a brewery, because its brewery was closed in 1998, and all of its labels are now brewed by Paulaner."
Okay, that surprises me. I thought the German beer market demand was for bottles-only, but I didn't consider what might have been canned for some in-country use (at the beach ) as well as export.
To a greater extent, this is true. I was honestly surprised when I saw cans at stores... and in vending machines.
Nobody has the answer. Nobody. I will add: the difference you perceive in taste (sml can vs lrg can) is potentially a combination of factors the main one being that we don't know how that beer was being handled until you got it in your hands. It was probably stored & handled poorly until it got to the retailer where you bought it and even then the retailer could have put it thru an extremely stressful last gasp b4 selling it. Lots of variables. Cheers!!
The large industrial breweries in Munich, yes. The smaller family breweries in Franconia, those are not consistent. Even some of the bigger ones in Bamberg can have variationy old breweries from visit to visit. These can be very old breweries, but sometimes that doesn't guarantee excellent beer.
