Drinking German Beer in Cabo San Lucas

This past week, the Missus and I spent a week in Cabo San Lucas, at the southernmost tip of Baja California, Mexico. As I always do, a trip to a grocery store to load up on provisions saves us quite a bit of money as opposed to eating in 5-star resort restaurants. (We were staying at a  Hilton resort outside Cabo San Lucas.

The larger Mexican groceries, like Kresko, have German imports available, and they are all good. On this trip, I was able to buy several bottles of Paulaner Helles, Flensburger Gold,  Muenchner Loewenbrau, and Krombacher, both Pils and dark.

Since I have written before about all of the above beers except Loewenbrau and Krombacher, let me focus on these two. The Loewenbrau came in a small bottle and was fine.  Krombacher Pils and (dunkles) dark both came in large bottles and were quite good. The alcohol content was just under 5% (4.8% and 4.7% respectively). If you are an American used to drinking beer very cold, I suggest you stay with that with German imports.

Krombacher is one of the better-known breweries in Germany. Krombach is a small town located in the Aschaffenberg district of Franconia in Bavaria.

How to Make a Can of Bud Light Taste Good.

 Here is how you can make a can of Bud Light actually taste pretty good.

Step one: Buy yourself a can of Bud Light, preferably one with Dylan Mulvaney's face on it. The smaller the size, the better.

Step two: Purchase a barrel of any German beer. Preferably the largest size possible.

Step three: Open the barrel of German beer at the top.

Step four: Pour the can of Bud Light into the barrel of German beer.

Step five: Stir thoroughly for about 30-40 minutes.

Step six: Pour and enjoy.

(You may detect a slight watery aftertaste. If so, next time use only 1/2 can of Bud Light.)

Hoppebrau: A German Craft Beer Available in the US.

 

After all these decades of drinking German beer-in Germany and outside- I have finally tested a German craft beer, which I understand is a growing trend in Germany. In recent years, I have heard many German friends bemoaning the fact that many of the larger breweries have been buying up many of the smaller village breweries in surrounding areas. They use the cute term, "industrial beer", which makes me think of Budweiser, Miller, and other American brands. Perhaps, that is the reason for the growing popularity of craft beers-as here in the US.

Currently, on my forays to Total Wines and More, I have noticed two beers on the shelf with very plain-looking labels. This is Hoppebrau, both in Weisse and Helles. This week, I bought the Helles, which costs about 4 dollars a bottle. I must say, it was quite good, on a par with the brand name German beers I have been buying. Unlike many craft beers in the US, this doesn't feature any particular aftertaste, just crisp and clean. 

The Hoppe brand is part of a family-run brewery restaurant and biergarten located in Waakirchen, Bavaria near the Austrian border. It is advertised as a craft beer. As you can see on their website, they produce many varieties according to your taste.

Weihenstepaner Festbier

 The Bavarian brewery, Weihenstephaner, is the world's oldest brewery (1040). I have been trying several varieties of this brew and having good success. Weihenstephaner is one of the more common German breweries found in the US market. Many German restaurants offer it on tap or in bottles. You can also find it in dark, Helles, pils, hefeweizen, or Vitus (wheat). To be more exact, the brewery's name is Bayerishes Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan (Freising) near Munich.

Weihenstephan Hill (Freising)

The Festbier version is 5.8% alcohol. It is clean, crisp, and has no aftertaste. To my taste, it is just darn good. I have just tried the bottled version (,5 litter),  which cost me less than 3 dollars per bottle. It also comes in .5 liter cans in a 4-pack.

More on the Eibauer Brewery

 

Recently, I posted an article about a new brew I found in Total Wines and More, a beer called Berliner Geschichte (Berlin History) from a brewery in Eibau, Germany on the border with Poland. It's called Eibauer Privatbrauerei, and the above store has been carrying three varieties. The other two are Das Bock and hefeweizen. I am not a hefeweizen drinker, but I subsequently picked up a bottle of Das Bock and found it even more to my taste than the Berliner Geschichte.

The alcohol content is 6.7%, which is stretching the limits for my taste, but even though I haven't had much experience with bock beer, I liked it.

But whatever your taste may be, if you come across any products from this brewery, you should give it a try. They have many varieties of beer, so you should find something to your taste.

Berliner Geschichte by Eibauer Privatbrauerei

 I found something new this week at my local Total Wines and More store in Orange County. It was a .5 liter bottle of a beer called Berliner Geschichte, an odd name for a beer (It literally means "History of Berlin". The brewery is Privatbrauerei Eibauer. The location is this brewery is the town of Eibau in Saxony, a town of about 5,000 close to the Polish border.

Actually, the Privatbrauerei Eibauer puts out several varieties of beer; bock, pils, dunkles, hefeweizen etc, and Berliner Geschichte is just one of them. Aside from this variety, the store also had .5 liter bottles of bock and Hefeweizen.

All I can say is that it was good. I plan to buy more. (It's about $3.50 for a .5 liter bottle.)

Hacker-Pschorrbrau Oktoberfest Beer

Recently, I wrote about how I was pleasantly surprised by my purchase of a 6-pack of Hacker-Pschorrbrau (bottles).

Well now, I am even happier with my purchase of 12-pack box (bottles) of their Oktoberfest Maerzen. At 5.8% alcohol, it has an amber color and a rich, smooth taste-with no aftertaste. Nothing fancy-just good taste.

As I always note, German imported beer has historically suffered in comparison to that drunk in Germany, but that situation has improved considerably. Again, I have been away since 2013, and that may affect what I consider authentic, but I am very happy with the improvements in German beer imports. That includes Hacker-Pschorrbrau.