Tag Archives: Weihenstephaner

2011 – The year in Beer

Posted on January 2, 2012 | 2 Comments

So, another year is in the books, which means another hour spent on New Year’s Day employing my children to sort and count the bottle caps collected from the previous year. As always, these simply represent every bottle of beer opened in the Nelson household during the previous year, regardless of who consumed them (though the vast, vast majority was me).

Total caps: 490

Breweries Represented: 28

Breweries with more than 10 caps (and % of total):

Schlafly – 17.8%

Firestone Walker/Nectar Ales – 12.4%

Budvar – 9.4%

Stone – 8%

Homebrew – 7.3%

Founder’s – 5.9%

Bell’s (all Two-Hearted) – 4.9%

Weihenstephaner (all Festbier) – 4.9%

Goose Island – 4.9%

Moosehead – 4.5%

Odell – 4%

Capital – 3.2%

Sierra Nevada – 2.2%

As “interesting” as these raw numbers are, I must add a few points for context. First, thanks to the generosity of Portland-bound friends Zac and Kate Duncan, I returned to the privileged class of people with kegerators, when Zac and Kate donated theirs to my cause.  Since that point, I’ve enjoyed the following:

1/4 bbl of Odell St. Lupulin

2 – 1/4 bbls of Odell IPA (2d keg in progress)

1 – 1/6 bbl of Urban Chestnut Zwickel (which lasted all of 7 days during the worst of this hateful summer’s heat)

1 – 1/6 bbl of Founder’s Red’s Rye

1 – 1/6 bbl of homebrew (still in progress)

So, taking the kegs into account,  Odell was far and away the most consumed brewery this year, basically tripling Schlafly. I’m very much in love with Odell’s IPA, and their St. Lupulin and (incredibly boringly named) Red Ale, all of which meld a serious punch of hop aroma and flavor, with a velvety malt load that just works for my palate. Founder’s also would get a significant bump, and Urban Chestnut would jump into the ranking.

Also missing from the above numbers are canned craft beer. I know I went through a couple of 12 packs of Capital Supper Club (thanks, Annie!) , and several (4, 5, 6?) six packs of Ska Brewing‘s Modus Hoperandi. I just did a crap job (read – no attempt at all) to track those this year. Sorry to the fine folks at Capital (who’d be finer if they distributed to St. Louis!) and Ska. Love your beers, but caps are easier to keep than cans.

Finally, I feel a need to explain the Moosehead entry. I grew up in Michigan, and, during college, Canadian beer was cheap.  Really cheap. In fact, when I moved to St. Louis, a case of Moosehead bottles at the store where I worked would set you back all of $12, and it was the most expensive of the Big 3 Canadian brands. When we were too flush with cash for bottom tier stuff like Weidemann’s, Beast or Schaefer (all at about $5 a case), but not spendy enough for craft, we went Canadian.

So, the summer of 2012 went through a rather oppressive phase. This isn’t uncommon (especially for someone from Michigan), but I was desperate for a beer I could chill and swill. I had been reading some mysteries set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula during this period, many of which featured Canadian beer prominently. This triggered a nostalgic craving for some basic Canadian suds. Moosehead being the freshest of those at the Schnuck’s, I went with it. And enjoyed it. I might even do it again.

Previous years are here:

2010

2009

2008

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The Year in Bottled Beer Drinking – 2010

Posted on January 3, 2011 | 1 Comment

As always, my children were put to work on New Year’s Day sorting and counting the bottlecaps I have collected over the previous year.  For those who are new to this game, I collect the caps from every bottle opened for drinking at my house and keep them in a big jar.  This includes bottles opened by guests, at parties, etc. and were not all consumed by me!

2010 was my first full year without a kegerator, which definitely boosted the number of caps (I also kept track of cans in a spreadsheet and these are included in the numbers below).  The total for the year was 756 beers consumed.  The brewery breakdown is as follows for all breweries that had ten or more beers consumed:

Homebrew – 16.1%

Schlafly – 15.3%

Bell’s – 8.2% (over 2/3 was Two-Hearted)

Ska – 7.1%

Budvar – 5.5%

Weihenstephaner – 4.6% (all Festbier)

Sierra Nevada – 4.1%

Founder’s – 3.7% (all Red’s Rye, except for a single Breakfast Stout)

Capital – 3.6%

Big Sky – 3.4%

Lagunitas – 2.5%

Southern Tier – 2.2%

Ayinger – 2.1% (all but two were Oktoberfest)

New Glarus – 2.1%

Odell – 2.1% (all St. Lupulin)

New Belgium – 1.4%

Tallgrass – 1.4%

Pedantic aside:  Jolly Pumpkin likely would have made the list, near the bottom, but their caps are plain.  This year, I’ll be sure to identify them myself.

2010 was definitely the Year of Beer for me.  For whatever reason, my wine consumption was much lower than normal, and whisky was negligible until the last couple of months of the year.  I was pleasantly surprised to see homebrew already taking the quantity crown since I only resumed brewing part way through the year.  I expect its lead to increase in 2011 as I’ve been brewing regularly, and, apparently, drinking my homebrew regularly as well (that hasn’t always been the case).  In 2011, I’ll be shooting for better balance between beer, wine and whisky, and overall lower consumption.

Oh, and hey Capital! You see that you clocked in at #9 overall when you’re not distributed within  250 miles of my house? Please get a distributor in St. Louis.  I’m far from the only one who would buy a lot, as we have a severe craft lager deficit!  My consumption of Budvar would disappear if I could get Capital Pilsner here.  Thanks.

Previous Years are here:

2009

2008

Pedantic aside: My kegerator was up and running during ’08 and ’09, so the bottled numbers are much lower than this year.

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Drinking Domestic for a year – a shameless, but sincere, stunt

Posted on September 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

I love lagers.  A good 30% of my beer consumption is probably in the form of lagers and, as they’re not something I’m capable of producing with my current homebrewing system, I continue to buy them.  Sadly, they’re not something many domestic craft brewers do well.

There are a couple of craft examples available locally that are good (Schlafly Pilsner and Helles, and New Belgium Blue Paddle), but they’re not really in the same league as Budvar, Pilsner Urquell,  and the seasonal Ayinger Oktoberfest and Weihenstephaner Festbier I’ve been enjoying.  That’s not as bad a diss on the domestics as it may seem – we’re talking about being compared to absolute world class beers here.  And, when said top notch lagery goodness is sitting in the cooler beside them and in good shape for at most a buck or two more a six pack, I admit that I choose the imports at a very high rate.

However, two of my favorite domestic lager brewers may be making their offerings available in St. Louis.  Capital Brewery from Madison, Wisconsin is already in the state, having secured a distributor in Kansas City, but hasn’t made it to St. Louis yet.  I’ve been a big fan of theirs for years and, with relatives in Chicago and Wisconsin, I regularly load up and schlep supplies back.  But it is painful knowing that they’re actually in the state, but just not available here.

Now word has come out that Victory Brewing from Downington, Pennsylvania, may put some of their newly-increased capacity to use by bringing their fine line of lagers (and ales . . .) to Missouri as well.  Their outstanding Prima Pils is one of my favorite beers – full stop.  How much do I love Prima?  Well, if you check my list of kegs from the glory days when my kegerator was functional, you’ll notice that I went through a half barrel (that’s 15.5 gallons for those not in the know) of this fine beer.  What doesn’t show from that list is how quickly it disappeared  and how little was consumed by people other than yours truly.  I love this beer.

So, here’s the deal.  WHEN (not going with any “ifs” here) both Capital and Victory show up on the shelves  in St. Louis, I will commit to drinking nothing but domestic craft beer for at least an entire year from that date.  No imported lagers, no Cantillon, Fantôme, or Mikkeller (my other import weaknesses).  Zero.  For at least a year.  Plus, I’ll blog and tweet and write about my experiment throughout the year, giving full credit to the fine folks at Capital and Victory for finally pushing me to full domestic consumption.

So, what say you Capital Brewery and Victory Brewing?  Will you take me up on it?  Any other St. Louis beer lover’s willing to join me?  I’d love to see these two breweries in town, and can’t wait to be drinking their terrific beers.

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Oktoberfest Bier round-up

Posted on September 19, 2008 | 14 Comments

I do generally love (despite what you’ll read below) Oktoberfests.  It’s a great style for the (finally) cool nights of September.  Each year I get around to trying the offerings from quite a few breweries, and this year is no different.  While plenty of Oktoberfests are still on the shelves, I figured a little retrospective was in order.

First, a bit on my ideal Oktoberfest.  I’m not a stickler on color.  It simply doesn’t matter to me – yellow gold, orange, amber, reddish, whatever.  I think of Oktoberfest as being primarily about malt – a bit on the rich and intense side, sure, but not caramelly or sweet.  And, the malt needs to be clean – no rough edges here, please, it’s a long-lagered style.  Don’t have the time/space to do it right?  Don’t do it then.  The big malt requires substantial hops in my mind as well.  There needs to be enough bitterness to balance all that malty goodness, at the very least.  I also like some spicy German-hop nose candy as well.  It matches well with all the malt.  A good Oktoberfest also needs to beg to be drunk in quantity, even if I can’t.  Ideally, I want to stare in disbelief bordering on annoyance at how quickly my glass was emptied.

Weihenstephaner Festbier – This by far and away my favorite example this year.  It’s a lighter color than most Oktoberfests, tending more to a full gold, rather than into the amber range.  It’s got a burst of spicy German hops, tons of clean malt flavor, nothing cloying, and enough bitterness to give it a good snap at the finish.  Glasses of this beer just disappear.

Sam Adams Oktoberfest – This is usually a solid example, and that’s about as high as it reaches this year.  I noticed no real difference between the draft and bottled versions this year.  This one is more of a malt bomb than the Weihenstephaner, and I would prefer more hops.  But, the malt that’s here is quite clean and stays away from the caramelly flavors that can get over-played in this style.

Capital Brewery Oktoberfest – I had high expectations for this one, given how much I generally like Capital’s lager offerings.  As a result, this was probably the most disappointing Oktoberfest I’ve tried this year.  It just sort of lays there.  Not a lot of maltiness, next to no hop.  It’s a little rough on the finish too.  Surprising, and in a “gosh, I think that mole has gotten bigger” way.

Schlafly Oktoberfest – I’ve found Schlafly’s Oktoberfest to vary quite a bit over the years.  For the last couple, the emphasis has been very much on a clean malt presence almost to the exclusion of everything else.  This year’s rendition continues that trend.  It’s very clean, with nothing other than the malt in evidence.  I don’t get hops at all, and there is not much complexity to the malt.   It’s leaps and bounds better than it used to be back in the Briess malt days, but now (like the Pale and Scotch Ales) it suffers from being so clean that it lacks character.

Left Hand Oktoberfest – Another disappointment, given the quality fo the Left Hand beers I’ve had so far.  This one goes for a full-throttle caramel character.  The color is a rich Amber-red, and there’s little mystery how the color got there after a whiff and a sip.  Way too much caramel/crystal malt character for me.  It’s really difficult to even drink a bottle of this at a time, let alone thinking about more than one.

This is obviously not a comprehensive survey of Oktoberfests available to me.  My favorite, year in and year out, has been Ayinger, but I simply have not seen it on the shelves yet this year, and missed out on the first (of two) kegs that Dylan got for 33, so I’ve not had it yet.  Ditto some of the other German faves, though these are more troubling, and need date-checking as many are year-round beers now, yet only make an appearance on shelves during the August to October season.

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