Sunshine Pils goes year round

This is good news. Sunshine is an excellent Pils by any standard. It would have been even better news a few years ago when there were fewer good Pilsners around.

 

This was discussed a bit in another thread. I posted:

"Sunshine Pils (newly added year round)"

Hmm, that is an interesting development. Normally I would just say "Woo-Hoo!" but I am wondering if there is enough demand for this beer year round?

I participate weekly in the New Beer Sunday thread and last summer I had a 'series' I labeled as the "Summer of Pilsner". Recently I did the same with the label of "Winter of Pilsners". There is a surprising amount of new Pilsners (new to me beers) out there. Lots of competition for a beer style which is not particularly popular with the beer geek (BA) crowd.

Just within the context of the local (SEPA) market, Sunshine Pils competes with beers like Stoudts Pils. Victory Prima Pils, Sly Fox Pikeland Pils, Neshaminy Creek Trauger Pils, Double Nickel Pilsner (and I am sure I am forgetting some).

I sure hope that year-round Sunshine Pils is a success since I really like that beer. I used to buy a 12-pack of cans every spring when it first came out.

Cheers!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/troeegs-anthology-summer-sampler.497112/#post-5333214

 

Excited for this as it is such a good Pilsner.

 

I would imagine that we are still the minority. There are plenty of older people who are still getting into beer, and kids turn 21 everyday. What I find interesting is the difference in the number of beers and breweries available; and the variety of styles. I can't imagine that I'd be the same person I am today if everything available now was available to me when I first started.

 

Tom, do you have a link to that thread (or the Boston Beer Company study)?

I have asked Bill Manley a number of times how Sierra Nevada obtains feedback from the non-beer geek crowd but I never hear from him.

Cheers!

 

Stoudts Pils is hard to find lately, so might this fit in? There are lots of pils out there, but how many are really that good?

Prima
Pikeland
Stoudts (if you can find it)
Trauger
Sunshine
Pivo (you can't find that anymore)

 

Keith, all of those beers above are consistently on the shelves of my local Wegmans affiliated beer store (KoP).

The Firestone Walker Pivo Pils is always on the shelves but more often than not they are old (4+ months old). To my utter and pleasant surprise I 'found' one 6-pack that was fresh (bottled 02/01/17) a couple of weeks ago and I bought it (with a smile on my face). Over the past 3+ years I have only 'found' fresh Pivo Pils a handful of times (3?).

Pivo Pils is always on tap at the Boathouse in Conshohocken.

Cheers!

P.S. For the first time ever I saw a 6-pack of Bell's Lager of the Lakes (Bohemian Pilsner) at my Wegmans. That beer was bottled 03/09/17); Woo-Hoo! Those beers are super fresh!! Needless to say but I bought a 6-pack of that beer.

 

Tom, thanks for looking. I have tried several times to locate it but I too was unsuccessful. One aspect that I found intriguing by that study was the classification of the craft beer market into a number of classes: "Beer Geeks" and others. Do you know of any other marketing study where those classes are spelled out/defined?

That very well may be. I know that the beer geek segment (e.g., BAs) are a small minority of the overall craft beer market. There are millions of folks who are buying beers like New Belgium Fat Tire, Yuengling Lager,... that are not what I would classify as the beer geek segment. It seems to me that through their numbers they have a greater impact on the craft beer industry than we beer geeks. For example, I personally do not expect Sierra Nevada Sidecar to be wildly popular with the BA crowd but I could see this beer selling well to other segments of the craft beer market.

Cheers!

 

I guess I am a millennial since that is the primary source I use for making beer choices!

Cheers!

 

Four years old now - so obviously "things have changed":

Craft Business Daily - The Numbers Behind Majority Craft Consumption

 

Pivo Pils is still available in NJ (relatively fresh Pivo? A bit harder to come by) but Pikeland Pils sort of disappeared. Sad, 'cause it'd be my "house" beer if I could find it fresh regularly.

I'd heard that there was some "conflict" between Sly Fox and NJ craft distributor, Hunterdon, over the years and they finally parted ways, with SF signing with 3 NJ Coors/MillerCoors houses - Koehler (north), Warren - Hub City (central) and Kramer (south).

In my region, Hub City hasn't done much (except leave a lot of old stock on the shelves) and now they've been sold to Kramer.

 

I can't seem to find Pivo in the Wegmans I've been going to, I'll have to check at Exton and see if they have any. Plus I used to see sixtels in stock at Exton, but have not seen them in forever. Same goes for Stoudts Pils. I guess we just run in different circles Jack...haha.

Back on topic, I need to try Sunshine again. I know years ago it was not one of my favorites as I thought it didn't have the body and mouthfeel near as good as Pikeland, Prima etc.

 

Keith, FWIW I think that Sunshine Pils improved when they opened their new brewery in Hershey.

I had a discussion with a local Troegs Sales Rep at a beer festival on this topic and he agreed with me; he thought the new German built brewhouse benefited the production of Sunshine Pils.

Cheers!