Endangered Species List

No lack of Scottish Ales around here since Angry Scotsman Rusty Kiltpin is one of their year-round beers. KC Bier Co does a solid Munich Dunkel, Top 2 for the style for me right behind UCBC Dorfbier, and it's KCBC's flagship beer. For Belgian Dubbels, if you don't have any local brews, you always have the option of grabbing a Unibroue Maudite, St. Bernardus Pater 6 or Prior 8, or a Rochefort 6.

 

I have if it matters.

https://www.oldemeckbrew.com/beer

Not imported but damn close.

Since their specialty is German bier.

 

Seems bizarre to me. I guess because I’m 5 min from PA and they are known to brew a ton of German styles

 

Domestic but I’ve been finding a lot of Von Trapp variety 12 packs in the Philadelphia area and jersey.

 

I can't recall the last time I saw a non-fruited gose or berlinerweisse here in NorCal.

 

I am a fan of Von Trapp Dunkel and my local stores have them as well (six-packs of cans).

@FBarber commented upon imported Dunkels. I am a fan of Hofbrauhaus Freising Dunkel just like he is but I have not seen fresh Hofbrauhaus Freising Dunkel in over a year. It would seem that this beer did not sell well upon it's initial introduction in the fall of 2018 and the local retailers chose to not reorder this beer. In contrast Von Trapp Dunkel does sell well in that I can obtain fresh cans of this beer at my local beer retailers.

Cheers!

 

Yeah. The only one that I'm likely to see again is the Alaskan one and maybe the newish one from Deschutes.

My favourite of all time:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/11056/100355/

 

Here, I’d say fresh beer. Retailers are sitting on stock they bought two plus months ago, they won’t order more until what they have is depleted. For hoppy beer guys it’s a bit depressing. I just can’t right now.

 

Which Deschutes one??!

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/63/365579/

 

Weird smokey ones: rauchbier, lichtenhainer, grodziskie.

Others such as dark saisons, Belgian-style stouts, schwarzbier, and weizenbock seem to not be represented as much as they should from domestic breweries.

 

Locally, Zwei, makes an incredible weizenbock.. I’m honestly not sure how true to style it is, but I’m certain it is delicious

 

I'm not sure about their accessibility since I know that Allagash has downgraded its distribution recently, and I am sure that it is also out of season too, but Allagash makes a very delicious Belgian Stout that is worth a try.

And although it isn't a stout in the most precise sense, there is also New Belgium's 1554, which is ostensibly based on a historical Belgian style of dark beer.

 

Have you had Schneider Aventinus? It is perhaps the best example of the style, and also commonly available in the United States!


Freshness of course may vary, but this beer is also good for aging anyway.

 

I’m fairly certain I’ve seen this before, and will certainly give it a try next time I see it!

 

Vitus is available locally but Aventinus, I haven't seen in ages.

 

I used to work next to a German import store and went through a phase of getting a few Aventinus and Weihenstephaner Korbinian. There, and a beer store down the street from me had multiple vintages at one point, all the way back to 2006. they’re definitely out there, probably not in any places people may expect though.

 

Although I find quite a few examples available and produced.
I won't drink any except for very few.

With rare exceptions American made Hefeweizens are complete crap.

Of the 4 that I would drink (Live Oak, Altstadt, Troegs, and Rahr) I know that the first 3 have open fermenters for the beer.

Bock beers are quite common in Texas both of the faux bock style like Shiner and more full bodied ones more accurate to the style.

But Maibocks over the past few years disappeared from the shelves. This year I'm seeing some popping up on brewery taplists but I'm not going around to drink them.

 

Ironically, I think the best Hefe in the US is Joseph Brau, Trader Joe's proprietary brand.

I've been curious about the unexpected interest in Bock (both real and "American") versions, which are more like Vienna Lagers or Americanized Dunkels, in the American South. One would think that they would be more popular elsewhere in "Deutsch-Amerika," like Pennsylvania or especially the Upper-Midwest.

 

I could see Joseph Brau having a decent hefe. I like their Heller Bock.

I can't say much for other states but Texas actually had a very large German immigration.

A lot of German immigrants came in through Corpus Christi.

Both sides of my family came from Germany in the mid 1800's. There's a big German population near the coast where my grandfather didn't learn how to speak English until he went to elementary school.
German or Czech culture is all throughout Texas leading to such towns like Fredericksburg, Gruene (we pronounce it as Green), Muenster, among many others.
The Spoetzle brewery made beer for the big German population living in Shiner from the turn of the 20th century.

I even hear polka music in many Mexican musical styles and Mexican beer was brought there by Austrian brewers.

 

Seems like texas has the lock on the hefe's, I have heard great things about the live oak, just wish we could find it over here in NC

 

Only beer geeks of a decade ago will remember the days of India Dark Ales becoming trendy.

 

I'm looking forward to trying Slugger myself. Will this be a NBS review for you?

 

I don't seem to come across Von Trapp often but would love to start trying their stuff. Where have you seen it at? Their variety pack looks interesting.

 

Joe canals in delran NJ. Total wine in Cherry Hill NJ. Other places as well but can’t remember at the moment.

Edit: also at this beer store by sesame place in Langhorne I believe not sure if this helps. It doubles as a sandwich spot as well as a beer store. Phillys Craft Beer o think it’s called

 

It will now.

Cheers to you!

 

My purchasing of Von Trapp beers was Kunda Beverage in King of Prussia.

A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with the Beer/Wine Manager (buyer) of Wegman's KoP:

Me: Do you sell Von Trapp beers?
Manager: No, but those beers are really good!

I was going to follow up with: why the heck do you not sell them then. But....

Cheers!

 

Although the historical styles are losing status ground, the beer evolution continues. Conservation of beermentum, no loss of forward progress.
That said seems the classic (WC?)IPA and "table" stout are most under attack now.

 

English ales and even American pale ales aside from SNPA are hard to come by here. I think American craft breweries in general do a poor job brewing ales assuming you're not in the mood for something hoppy. There are many fine craft lagers being brewed in the USA in my opinion, which are just as good if not better than imports. However when it comes to ale, American brewer's struggle with styles that don't derive the majority of their flavors from hops.

 

Several breweries in the NW have them regularly available. Wander Global Mutt is the one I drink most, but I also love Bend Brewing's Lovely.

 

You would love the mixed half case I just got from VanTrapp.

 

May/Pale Heller Bocks
I live in Edison and Ramstein has been around here for ten years. May Bocks are hard to find. I was told in Westfield that Trader Joe's discontinued their Heller Bock and the Prost wasn't shipped to NJ. The lines are too long to just go in and check when I'm nearby.

 

I have had a hard time finding English style barleywines. Heck Barleywines in general.
Not that I am sitting here drinking big beers all the time but I would really like one and have found none. Also Wee Heavy and scotch ales.

 

I find that while APA's aren't rare, they are mostly worse versions of SNPA.

 

A straight-up English Porter, no adjuncts or barrel.

 

I am surprised to hear of American Pale Ales being in short supply anywhere in the contiguous 48 stares, it's one of the most accessible Ale styles around here.

I disagree about American brewers struggling with Ale styles that are not hop forward, I think that too many brewers just plain over-hop a lot of styles. It is difficult to find malt forward styles (besides Porters/Stouts) in this region, and when I do, they're often heavy on the hops.

My concern with APAs from this region is the in-creep of murky Pale Ales. Lets have a New England Style Pale Ale category added so these Beers can have a home.
I don't expect all APAs to be moderately hazy but when I encounter one that looks like it just came out of a blender and has large white chunks floating around I get disappointed.
An APA should not have to be decanted.

End of rant, Cheers.

 

It may be a conservation of beermentum for the quantity of beers but in my experience it's been a decrease in variety.
Sure we have more beers but while we've gotten new styles in Pastry Stout, Fruited sours, and Hazy IPAs we've lost much more.
Ambers, ESB, Brown Ales, Maibocks, Dunkels, regular stouts, and much more are all getting harder and harder to find while over the past year or two there have been more and more breweries with their taplists filled up with nothing more than the hyped new styles I mentioned.

 

Maybe endangered might not be the right word, but besides Old Stock Ale and Curmudgeon, I'm pretty hard pressed to find any regularly available Old Ales.

 

We've voted with our wallets - Breweries brew what sells, distributors stock what sells.

 

I don't have any real desire for craft brewers to start brewing styles that are getting harder to come by these days... I just want certain existing beers to stick around my area. Things like Sierra Nevada Bigfoot.