Beer: alternatives to "Helles" and "Weiss"

Hey - The Kimble Article from the TT homepage might have a solution to a problem I've read a bit of B&M about - the lack of much other than Bavarian beers around. Membership to Let'sBuyit.com is free, and it can't hurt to ask.

On the page, find "produkt vorschlagen" and you can recommend a new product. I've started with Fullers ESB, and plan to go back and beg for some Red Hook IPA (American brand out of Seattle-excellent stuff).

Not that there's anything wrong with the local stuff, so don't give me too much grief, I just like a little more variety than light vs. dark. Or is importing this kind of stuff a violation of the purity laws and I'm wasting our time?

Uh, I am American and to me you are wasting time. Don't get me wrong, some people actually like the horse piss they call beer in the states. Personally, we are in beer heaven. Ok, some of the micros do have taste, but really, for choice Bavaria can not be beat for the real stuff. I will swill the 5+/-% over the 3.2 anyday and belch afterwards in a hearty approval.
There are other things to long for from the states, I just don't see beer as being one of them.

There is a really good beer where I'm from called Abita Beer. They also make all kinds of crazy beers too. I'll find the site real quick. Here it is.

Abita Beer

I'm American also, and to lump in some of the specialty beers -esp. those from CA, OR, & WA- with the rest of the stuff - which I agree is not worth swilling - is unfair.

Mommy - Turbodog rocks! (but I can't take the Purple Haze)

Czech Beer Rocks! German beer comes a close second though...

None of the american Miller light n bud light crap. ok..not all beer is crap there..but still didn't like ales n other stuff. The only beer I really miss is Sam Adams. Hot spicy buffalo wings and Sam Adams!

I have had Red Hook and I wasn't impressed. The micros are getting better, but the American taste is Bud and it is not the king of anything except horse piss.
The true beer afficianado(sp?) would die to be here in Munich! For the Pils, Czech beer is the best. My friends in the states said Pilsner Urquell tasted like dirty socks (good friends, bad taste). As for Sam Adams, man they used to be Gooooood, but since Anheiser bought them out, the taste has gone downhill. Not enough hops. The last really good Sam Adams that I had was a Double Bock at a Dead concert. Beautiful experience.

Agreed, Hausmann, and I really like the local stuff.

If I ever move back to the states, please let it be the west coast--hopefully the NorthWest coast. Little slice of heaven up there.

What I think is absolutely hilarious is that everyone here raves about the great beer in Munich but, according to the member choices, almost noone here even drinks the best stuff - the Weißbier. Augustiner Helles is certainly a great beer, but man it's really only a notch or two above the best microbrews. That Weißbier is what is truly the king of beers.

@eurovol

Man, three-two beer, are you serious? Thank god that pisswater crap doesn't exist in CA.

I got absolutley treed on Weißbier at Uni every week for three years. can't stand the smell or taste of the stuff now, which is a real shame cos it used to taste ok, (as far as i can remember anyway)

@IPJ
Yeah, the Bible Belt and all. Everything with more alcohol had to be sold in package stores. So way back when all beer sold was 3.2. Many of those laws are slowly changing. I got to vote last year to let restaurants finally sell cocktails-seriously. They had to redo the vote because it was so close the first time and some people voted that no longer lived there (like my sister!).

Personally, I like the Erdinger Weißbier or Weihenstephan. For Pils, there is a small brewery near Buttenwiesen (called Lauterbach) that is absolutely as good if not better than any Czech beer, but you can only get it locally-there not here.

However, some people here just love American beers. A colleague of my wife's, and he is German, absolutely loves MGD.

As for the "horsepiss" comments, its a frat boy thing that grew out of the Miller versus Budweiser groups in the 70's. EVERY other beer except what you liked was horsepiss.

If you go just a few Kms outside Munich the beer selection is completely different. Check out Kloster Reutberg and Kloster Ettal. Enough to make you repent and become a monk.

My fav beer is Leffe Dark (Trapist), it's a Belgian beer but its really popular in France. You can buy ít in 750mL corked bottles in Paris. I just love it!! I also like Früh Kolsch, which is popular in the Köln region (especially during Karnival). I really don't like Altbier too much, which is popular in Düsseldorf. The best two beers coming out of Czech republic which I've drank so far are: Staropramen (brewed in Prague) and of course Pilsener Urquell. Another honourable mention is: Karlovacko (Croatian)...Really good stuff. Oh yeah, I love Weißbier...Fransiskaner, and especially the Späten Dunkel Weißen...actually I like all beer.

I am shocked! Shocked that nobody even mentioned "Mike's Hard Lemonade" beer. The only thing that comes a close second is "American Light" beer (at $2.99 for a 24-pack, you can't beat this baby).

If you believed what I just wrote, you are running out of dope.

I am waiting for the cries for Schaff-dogs and Milwaukee's Best
or break out in singing...
I am proud to be a redneck with my white socks and pabst blue ribbon beer...

No way, man. Lucky Lager rules!

Mickey's Big Mouth beers. One chug bottles and no aftertaste. Not that rules!

Yeah, but Mickeys lacks the riddles on the cap. Can't beat that.

They actually tried to make it illegal to sell non Rheinheitsgebot conforming beers here, but the EU said that was unlawful restraint of trade. You can now sell anything, but you cannot label it as being Rheinheitsgebot when it is not (ie. full of chemicals, or brewed from maize, as the mainstream Americans beers are). The exception to this is that American Budweiser cannot be sold under this name in Germany due to a trademark agreement with the Czech brewer.

I doubt if there is any need to repeat the "having sex in a canoe" joke here, but if there is anyone on this forum who still hasn't heard it, let me know and I will repeat it.

My personal opinion of many of these specialty beers and micro-brews in the states is that in trying to differentiate themselves from the watery tasteless mainstream, they have gone too far in the dark sweet malty direction. I also don't trust a small pub which has a menu of 20 different flavoured beers. Disclaimer - I worked hard at it, but didn't manage to taste every microbrewed beer in the states.

My opinion of "cold-filtered" beers - start with a bad chemical beer, freeze and filter out some of the water and you end up with a stronger bad chemical beer.

Weissbier = banana beer. Why is it that no locals have noticed this, but many foreigners have (and I quite like a Weissbier on a hot day).

Question. Why do the bottle caps in Florida have "Florida" written on them? Could this be because some states have lower alcohol content limits than others and they brew a special batch for these states?

Beer trivia: Fosters is a chameleon that is always brewed locally and tastes like the local beers. In the states it is brewed in N. America and tastes similar to American beer. For the Germans, it is brewed in Germany and tastes a bit better. Almost noone drinks it in Australia - seriously, I have almost never seen it drunk.

More personal opinion - Carlton Cold (also from fosters brewing) tastes like soap. After growing up on VB and Melbourne Bitter (total crap - hangover inducing - but I miss the chemical aftertaste), I surprisingly decided on my last trip that my favourite Australian beer was Carlton Draught.

BTW, have any of you done a blind beer tasting of Bavarian beers? We did it once and surprisingly, Augustiner did not do as well as Spaten.

A good cask of Hook Norton Ale beats anything from anywhere in the whole wide world.

honest.

Hook Norton, a great local ale. At least local to where I used to be...
Bishop's Tipple, anyone?

@MommyinDE...Turbo Dog!!! It's been a long time since I've had it.

@Hausmann...I'll support you in any way or form to get some IPA here. Have you ever had Bridgeport IPA? Much stronger, tastier, and hoppier than the Red Hook stuff.

My opinion is that German bier is crap...there's basically 4 styles with a couple of hundred breweries all making the same stuff. Everybody says Augustiner Helles is the best but I think it's worse than Lowenbrau...I am very fond of the bier culture though...

Kit, stop drinking bier and stick with the Beam and Coke in a can you are so fond of.


But seriously, Id like to be able to buy a Newcastle or four, for home sometimes. I cant justify paying 7 bucks for 2 Magners' "to go" since there is nowhere to buy it here except the few (did i say few??) Irish bars who will sell to-go beer.

I do like the German beer, and agree that it better than the supermarket swill they sell in the states. To be fair, if you go outside of bavaria you cannot get Augustiner (unless its the Edelstoff and thats rare and expensive. I think i saw it for 3.50 euro in Berlin when I was there...) But they have their own bier, which may be more like what you are looking for, taste-wise.

And you [kit] did not mention that you like DOMINIKANER IN A CAN as that is the tastiest bier you have found.

I do miss getting a sixer of shiner. I do miss Anchor Steam. I do miss Sierra nevada and Dead Guy Ale... but the beer here is damn good, so that helps me forget the availability of some micro-brews.

Would those same microbrews stand up to the Reinheitsgebot (sp?) that all german biers are supposed to meet? I think not. But that is a whole 'nother topic.

[/c.]

Pils
Altbier
Kölsch
Dunkeles Bier
Helles Bier
Weißbier (in 4 different types)
Kellerbier
Starkbier
Exportbier

that makes 9 nine types of beer off the top of my head and I don't claim to know all types cos I have no idea what the specialties from the nort hand east are.

Reinheitsgebot is no longer a legally binding law (due to the EU and all that crap). It is now used as Quality standard so consumers know that there are no chemicals in the beer. This means you are free to import whatever crap you may wish to from the States ( or from wherever else) but it sounds a bit like taking coals to newcastle to me.

There are four types the world over.
Pilsners, lagers, bocks and ales.
But there are countless varieties of each of those.

eurovol, a weißbier niether a Plisner, nor a lager a Bock nor an Ale. Same goes for Altbier and Kölsch. You mustn't forget the whole Obergierig / Untergierig (sp?) thing that differntiates types of beer.

Hate to correct you Owain (you used ??s yourself) but "obergierig" just made me laugh. Is that the way you feel about beer
(fink you mean obergärig)

Man, I do likes me some Jim Bean and Coke in a can...and I wish I could buy Dominikaner by the case.

Yeah, my comment on four types of available biers was somewhat ill-stated. However, most times the only selection is either pils, weissbier, helles, or dunkles.

The Oktoberfest biers and the -ator biers aren't bad but I would like some variety. In most countries I've been to in the last 8 months I can get bier from all over Europe, but in Germany there is little choice.

Again, I have nothing but rave reviews for the bier culture here...I absolutely love it.

I had some beer brewing expert try to explain it to me once. It has to do with the process and those are the four "recognized" by beer experts or something. Like wine gets its name from the grapes used, beer gets its moniker from top of the barrel, bottom of the barrel, blah, blah...The guy rambled on and I had a few more beers and just nodded.
I think Weißbeer is unfiltered lager, altbeir would be a bock and I am not sure what the other one is.

Checking a few beer sites, there are actually only two!
Top fermenting yeast and bottom fermenting yeastie beasties.
Top-Ales
Bottom-Lagers and Pils is a Czech lager and Bocks are strong lagers.

Damn so few beers to choose from now.

"getting beer from all over Europe" really plays into the hands of the BIG breweries and is really shitty for the environment. I must admit I have the ocassional Beck's Gold as "one for the road" if I don't fancy a last get-it-down-your-neck Edelstoff in my local but at the end of the day, why drink Becks in Munich and Augustiner in Bremen?

Even when I drink "real ale" in the UK, it's better to go for a small local name depending where you are than to get Bass in the south or London Pride in the West Country or whatever.

Think global, drink local!

@IPJ -
Wow - just the mention of Lucky Lager brought back an instant 13 year hang over flashback. Used to get it for something ridiculous like $2 for a case (HOT), 20 minutes in the freezer and we we're partying down. They only had it in stock for about a month; haven't seen it since...

Another one was Drummond Brothers (not sure on spelling), it might have been even cheaper per case...

If anyone could point me in the direction of some Gordons Highland Scotch Ale I would be extremely grateful.

Hey Kit, if you don't like the beer here, maybe you should just leave and go live somewhere else.

However, I agree with you, the beer here does taste like piss and am trying to move somewhere else.

Hiya
I remember that Sparka (where *is* he actually?) was looking for Tannenzäpfle. You can get this in Karstadt's food department at Münchner Freiheit (at the bottom of the stand). It is pretty good. Tegenseer is also worth a go, they do a great cloudy Helles and some of the smaller local Getränkemärkte do sell such brews, Rück Zuck in Neuhausen has quite a large selection for example.
As for Pils this one is fantastic, has a beautiful clean taste, dry but not bitter. I'm not keen on Beck's to tell the truth, Augustiner's Pils isn't bad though.
Grindstone calls,
Katrina