Einbecker Pils

 

I had always heard of the Einbecker brewery but had never actually tasted an Einbecker. Years ago, an American friend who had studied at the University of Goettingen told me that Einbecker was a really good beer. The town of Einbeck is located about 40 km away from Goettingen in Lower Saxony

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Einbeck

While shopping at Total Wines and More this week, I found that they were stocking 4-can sets of Einbecker Brauherren Pils for about $14.00, so I picked up a 4-pack. The results are good because this beer has the nice smooth taste and creamy head that we expect from a German beer. The alcohol content is 4.9%, and the cans come in one-pint size. Highly recommended.

Of course, Einbecker has several varieties of beer to choose from, and you can browse them at their website here. The brewery has been in existence since 1378 and is currently the only brewery in Einbeck.

A Word About Imported Czech Beers

I know this goes against the grain of this blog, which is supposed to be about German beer. Recently, however, I have run into a bit of a snag in finding my preferred German brands at Total Wines and More. Of all the German beers I have written about on this site, my favorites have been the Hoppebrau microbrewery of Bavaria and the products produced by the Eibau brewery by the Polish border especially the bock (Das Bock) beer. Most of the rest of what Total Wines and More offer are the well-known Bavarian brands in 6 packs.

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give the Czech brands a try, particularly the ones that come in single .5 liter bottles. In past years, I found that the Czech imports had been disappointing, especially since my visit to Prague in the 1980s, when I came to the conclusion, that after German beer, Czech beer was the best. Now it seems that the Czech beers have caught on and improved their exports as the Germans have done. I must say that I am very pleased with what I have tried thus far.

Here they are:

Samson dark lager ($3.99 a bottle) They also have an original lager and a Czech lager, which I assume are light in color. (I have only seen the dark lager at my store.)

 Lobkowicz Golden Lager -$2.99 a bottle

 Rychtar Lager

Platan Lager $2.99 a bottle.

The bottles are all .5 liter sizes and range from 4.5% to 5.2% alcohol content.

I should also mention that the store also carries some of the larger Czech brands like Pilsner Urquell, Czechvar, Staropramen, and Praga in 6 packs or cans, which I think I will also try.

*Update: Rather than post a new article on Czech beer (This is a German beer site), I will just update this one to advise that I have picked up some Pilsner Urquell, Praga, and Czechvar in order to compare them with the above beers. While I found them to be OK, I still prefer the above,  lesser-known brands in the .5 liter bottles. As always, that's just my personal taste.

Kloster Andechs Double Bock Dark Beer

If you are into stronger beers, you might want to try Andechs double bock dark from the Andechs Kloster brewery about 40 km SW of Munich. Andechs is marketed in the US, I am guessing primarily in places like Total Wines and More (where I got mine). It comes in single .5 liter bottles, costs about $5.00 per bottle, and is 7.1% in alcohol content. That's stretching the limits for me, but as long as I am having only one, I don't mind.

As the name suggests, Andechs is brewed in a monastery, and the brewery dates back to 1455.

As far as the taste is concerned, I will leave it to the ad linked above to describe it. Not being an expert, let's just say that this beer has a distinct buzzy aftertaste. (Please drink responsibly, LOL.)

Zittauer Buergerbrau by Eibauer (Hefeweizen)

 I have recently posted articles here about the Eibauer Brewery in the town of Eibau near the Polish border. They make a variety of beers that are marketed in the US. 

This week, I happened to be at the Old World Village in Huntington Beach and while shopping in their market I came across a can of what was labeled, Zittauer Buergerbrau Blond produced by the Eibauer Brewery.  Out of curiosity, I bought a can for over 5 dollars. 

While I had it cooling in the fridge, I did some research on the Eibauer website. What I found was a Zittauer Buergerbrau in a bottle with a green label as opposed to the pale yellow can I had purchased.

 As it turned out, what I had purchased was a hefeweizen (5.2%) even though the label did not mention hefeweizen. I am not a fan of Hefeweizens, so I was a bit disappointed.  But if you like hefeweizen, you might also like this one.

Ayinger (Cont)

 Back in February of 2022, I posted an article on Ayinger pils, a popular Bavarian brewery that imports to the US. Most recently, I picked up a 4-pack of Ayinger Oktoberfest-Maerzen (5.8%). I liked it or I wouldn't be posting this, would I?

Arcobraue Mooser Liesl

 

Moos, Bavaria

Today, I was at the Old World Village in Hiuntington Beach. While shopping in the grocery, I came across a beer I was unfamilair with. It is Arcobraue, Mooser Liesl from the Bavarian municipality of Moos (see map above). I picked up a bottle and just finahed it. It is a lager at 5.3%. The taste was smooth and in line with what I have come to expect from German imports. The cost was about $4.00 for a single bottle. That's why I didn't get a six-pack.

The Arco Brewery produces several varieties of beer, too long to list here, but you can check them out at their website.

Helen, Georgia: A German-Themed Village

 

Oktoberfest in Helen

We recently returned home from a two-week trip to the South, Nashville, Myrtle Beach, Helen, Georgia, and Greenville SC. I want to focus here on the two days we spent in Helen, Georgia a small village in the Appalachian mountains of northern Georgia close to the North Carolina state line. Helen, a former logging town, reinvented itself beginning in 1969 when it became a Bavarian-themed town. Virtually every building in the town is of German design.

There are several  German restaurants in Helen, the Bodensee, Old Bavaria Inn, Hofbrauhaus, and Old Heidelberg are the biggest. We dined at the Bodensee and Old Bavaria Inn. The Bodensee, which also features a nice little bar, is owned by a lady from Konstanz, Germany. While we did not eat at the Hofbrauhaus, we did visit their bar, The GI Germany Bar.

If I recall correctly, the main beers served in Helen were Paulaner pils and lager, Muenchner Hofbrau, Warsteiner, Erdinger (weissen), Schoefferhofer grapefruit.

Our stay was from  September 4-6, and the next day, Helen began its 5-week Oktoberfest. It runs from the 1st weekend in September (every weekend) and every day throughout October.