Landing the Whale: Beer thread

[Root]

I'm travelling to Germany next week for work.. Anybody have any recommendations for beers to try? Who are our resident Germans around here?

@mettkeks has wrong strong opinions about German beer.

I did read that thread. Was looking for more than a Billy Madison style argument about what country's beer is better.

Specific beers. Local specialties. Etc. I'll be in Lossburg, a couple hours south of Frankfurt.

[omaniphil]

I'm travelling to Germany next week for work.. Anybody have any recommendations for beers to try? Who are our resident Germans around here?

@mettkeks has wrong strong opinions about German beer.

I did read that thread. Was looking for more than a Billy Madison style argument about what country's beer is better.

Specific beers. Local specialties. Etc. I'll be in Lossburg, a couple hours south of Frankfurt.

I'll briefly be in Germany (Munich) on vacation next week myself, and then will spend longer in Prague. @VikingCellist had a nice recommendation of a bar in Munich to check out with a lot of local offerings. Munich is a far way from Frankfurt, but he might have some recommendations.

[mettkeks]

I'm travelling to Germany next week for work.. Anybody have any recommendations for beers to try? Who are our resident Germans around here?

@mettkeks has superior opinions about superior German beer.

Thanks, I'll try my best.

I'm travelling to Germany next week for work.. Anybody have any recommendations for beers to try? Who are our resident Germans around here?

Grüß Gott,

You might not know it, but I m a German!

I did read that thread. Was looking for more than a Billy Madison style argument about what country's beer is better.

Specific beers. Local specialties. Etc. I'll be in Lossburg, a couple hours south of Frankfurt.

Since were out of shitposting, here are some facts and thoughts:

I assume you mean Lossburg in the black forest (Schwarzwald). 50% of germany is a couple of hours south of frankfurt (am Main), swiss, austria, liechtenstein and italy are still within "a couple of hours" south of frankfurt. (especially when you can legaly do 200km in little over an hour )
Germany has 1500 breweries spread over an area little bigger than half the size of texas. We do not have big chains selling beverages. Beer is mostly sold regional. There's a handfull of big companies that distribute nationally, but they are mostly dull. There's nothing special about them. The only exception to that is Paulaner Weissbier.

My favourite is Kölsch, It's brewed exclusively in cologne, a hybrid between an ale and a lager, very malty. Zunft, Reissdorf, Früh, Sion.

Not a fan of pilseners but Krombacher is a local brewery that sells and markets nationally. Their pils is drinkable, though you probably don't miss anything.

Since we have the Reinheitsgebot, beer that contains anything but the 4 main ingredients can not be called beer. Beer with lemonade is called "Radler" (with alcohol, or "Alkoholfrei"). This is where Krombacher gets relevant. Their hoppy pils mixes great with lemonade and makes great Radler that still tastes like beer and is not overly sweet. Then theres "Fassbrause". It's Lemonade with beer (hops and malt, but without alcohol), it's very sweet but has a nice hoppy undertone and is not "just sweet" like lemonade. Just as an aside.

The other beer I'd recommend is Weizenbier or "Weissbier", namely Paulaner, Weihenstephan and Erdinger. Wheat lagers are great with dinner. Light undertone of banana. Great as a "Bananenweizen" where it's mixed with a little bit of bananajuice. Great stuff, but you can't get it everywhere, mostly a bar/restaurant thing.

I know nothing about the Beer culture of Baden-Württemberg so ask the locals. Beer from northern- or east germany are dismissable. The northerners like it bitter (and I mean BITTER) and the easterners (Ossi's) just copy the rest of germany, soviet-union and stuff.

As for food, "Spießbraten" is a must! "Mettbrötchen mit Zwiebeln, Salz und Pfeffer" is a great breakfast , Currywurst mit Pommes Mayo and Döner are our favourite fast foods. But google and the locals will provide more details.

Grüße,
euer Mettkeks

PS: Heil Hasselhoff

[Cellist]

@Root Like @mettkeks said, go local if you can. According to google, nearby is town with a Monastery and family-owned brewery, Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu. I’d look for that.

Also, if someone warns you to be careful of the alchohol content, they aren’t being disrespectful. I remember how my nephew’s soccer coach missed a game after having a couple beers the night before.

[Allentown]

We do not have big chains selling beverages.

Weird.

Are you going near Kelheim, @Root?

[mettkeks]

We do not have big chains selling beverages.

Weird.

Are you going near Kelheim, Root?

Roughly 4hrs apart.

No, our grocerie discounters sell water and softdrinks, specialized beverage vendors are mostly local businesses with mostly regional products, Rewe Getränke is the only chain present nationwide, but offers mostly the more prominent brands.

Even discounters sell beer. In plastic bottles. It's bad. And I have never seen someone actually buy it.

[DCM]

@Root If you see any Kellebier, that's also worth a try, it's one of my favourite kinds of German beer. Mettkeks has already recommended good wheat beers - I'd only add that dark wheat beer (ask for "Dunkles Hefe" when you're ordering at the bar) is also delicious imo.

[Allentown]

Bought 4 German doppelbocks yesterday. Celebrator, Optimator, Salavator? and... I can't even remember the last one. Weihenstephaner?
Also picked up a black oat barleywine aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels, and an imperial stout aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels. The barleywine is supposedly very good, the stout apparently a little thin.

[DCM]

Bought 4 German doppelbocks yesterday. Celebrator, Optimator, Salavator? and... I can't even remember the last one. Weihenstephaner?
Also picked up a black oat barleywine aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels, and an imperial stout aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels. The barleywine is supposedly very good, the stout apparently a little thin.

I hope they survived their journey across the Atlantic okay (never even thought about product deterioration until the discussion in the Rip thread). I've had Celebrator before, seem to remember enjoying it.

[Allentown]

I hope they survived their journey across the Atlantic okay (never even thought about product deterioration until the discussion in the Rip thread). I've had Celebrator before, seem to remember enjoying it.

Everything besides the hop oils in a beer are pretty darn shelf-stable, as long as you get a consistent, moderate temperature. Aromatic hop additions start to fade sooner, bittering lasts longer. Something like a Bells' Hopslam (double IPA with honey) shouldn't go more than a few months, and wouldn't work to ship that far. Doppelbocks are low-hop beers, so I'd wager they are going to taste very similar to fresh for at a minimum a few months. I probably wouldn't age them like a low hop sour or a stout (1-5 years), but assuming they put, like, a little effort into keeping them stable... And if the brewery is even halfway decent, or cares at all about their beer being any good, they would send someone over and actually try the beer after it gets here to make sure it is up to their standards.

[Cellist]

Bought 4 German doppelbocks yesterday. Celebrator, Optimator, Salavator? and... I can't even remember the last one. Weihenstephaner?
Also picked up a black oat barleywine aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels, and an imperial stout aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels. The barleywine is supposedly very good, the stout apparently a little thin.

I got myself some Animator (local). Fastenzeit ends on April 18th so those -ator need to be drunk soon. Then it's time to start drinking a good Maibock. Mai is the month of may and pronounced like my. A Bock is a billy goat, but "bock haben" is to feel like or want, ie. "ich hab kein bock aufs trainieren" means "I don't feel like working out."

[omaniphil]

I hope they survived their journey across the Atlantic okay (never even thought about product deterioration until the discussion in the Rip thread). I've had Celebrator before, seem to remember enjoying it.

Everything besides the hop oils in a beer are pretty darn shelf-stable, as long as you get a consistent, moderate temperature. Aromatic hop additions start to fade sooner, bittering lasts longer. Something like a Bells' Hopslam (double IPA with honey) shouldn't go more than a few months, and wouldn't work to ship that far. Doppelbocks are low-hop beers, so I'd wager they are going to taste very similar to fresh for at a minimum a few months.

There may be nuance in your post that I'm not getting, but I thought that IPAs were developed, or at least popularized by the need for a hoppy beer that could withstand long voyages. http://allaboutbeer.com/beer_style/india-pale-ale/ Is that just urban legend?

[Allentown]

There may be nuance in your post that I'm not getting, but I thought that IPAs were developed, or at least popularized by the need for a hoppy beer that could withstand long voyages. http://allaboutbeer.com/beer_style/india-pale-ale/ Is that just urban legend?

Nuance. I believe that's not really true about the "beer must survive trip to India," but we are talking about ideal tasting conditions. Hops are anti-microbial (or bacterial? anti-something), but everything else is so sterile now that they are used as a flavoring agent and not a sterilization method. Hop flavors & aromatics come from oils extracted from the cone, which can and do degrade from their "ideal" pretty quickly. I'm not super familiar with the chemistry, but the way I understand it is that the longer the cone is in the boil, the more stable and bitter parts of the hop get extracted while less stable oils evaporate or something. But basically the later you add the hops, the more they will contribute to the aroma of the beer and the less they will contribute to the bitterness and mouthfeel. But those later hops also (since they are oils) will degrade faster, and the warmer the beer the faster that happens.
My suggestion is to try it for yourself- buy a single of Founders All Day IPA and leave it in your basement or fridge. Buy another one in, say, October, and do a blind tasting. I bet the newer one will taste noticeably more floral/grassy/citrusy.

Or it might not! I felt like Hopslam went downhill really quickly this year- by mid February it seemed like it tasted noticeably less hoppy, and the last one I had left in March I ended up dumping because it just didn't taste good enough to bother finishing the glass. Meanwhile, my sour beer cellaring experiment has mostly turned out very well, with a few beers showing a slight improvement, a few (the hoppier ones, no surprise) being worse, and most being similar enough that I can't say better or worse since it had been 2+ years and I couldn't remember many specifics.

[Allentown]

Recent pours:
Paulaner Salvator
Spaten Optimator
Ayinger Celebrator (clear standout, makes sense this is the top rated beer in Germany)

Today went to this:

and tried everything on the tap list.
My preference, in order:
Guardian of the Durians
Call it Everything
Tamarindo Fever
Pugs!Pugs!Pugs!
Farmhand Fruit Cup
This is Mania!
Rage the Dulcimer
Console Candy

Note: all of these beers are deemed too dangerous for German consumption. Honestly, you couldn't really even taste the crickets. You could totally taste the atomic fireball, and I strongly dislike atomic fireballs.

[omaniphil]

Turns out Czech Budweiser is just as crappy as US Budweiser. Also crappy, Pilsener Urquell, Kozel, and Radegast. I had a Staropramen lager that was pretty crappy too, but did manage to find a decent unfiltered Staropramen on tap in a basement dive. Prague and its environs are beautiful. But don't come here for the beer.

Also making it hard to sample a lot of different styles, is that every restaurant I went to had at tops, 3 beers to choose from, mostly from the same brewery. Makes it hard to sample. I was hampered by a toddler and a baby, so didn't really make it out to many bars at all while I was here and mostly did my beer sampling while at lunch, dinner, and a can here and there sampled at home.

[Allentown]

All I want is some warm weather so I can sit outside in the field of clover that is my front yard and drink a beer while yelling at the kid to stay away from the street.
Instead we have this cold rain crap.
I did finish off my last non-special-event dark beer, I just need to get some people together for a few tastings to help me clear out my fridge.

[Allentown]

If anyone is interested in sour beers, do whatever you can to find anything by Speciation. They've started doing more festivals and stuff.
Or if you really want, I can figure out a way to ship some things. I promise it is worth it.

[Hanley]

Speciation

Will try to hunt it down.

[Allentown]

Will try to hunt it down.

I would totally send you something, if you want. I haven't gone to the trouble to get any of their "beer nerds getting in fights in the parking lot" releases, but every time I get something from them I am more and more impressed. Last night I opened an Oct 2018 "The Great Filter," a sour golden ale with honey. Just very, very good.

[Hanley]

Will try to hunt it down.

I would totally send you something, if you want. I haven't gone to the trouble to get any of their "beer nerds getting in fights in the parking lot" releases, but every time I get something from them I am more and more impressed. Last night I opened an Oct 2018 "The Great Filter," a sour golden ale with honey. Just very, very good.

I remember lamenting the lack of solid domestic sour beers ~5 years ago...seems that has changed. I was completely blown away by a local brewery's gueuze: https://untappd.com/b/bozeman-brewing-c ... -2/3029224