There is a small microbrewery in Knoxville TN called Shulz Brau that probably is close based on other German lagers I have had that they brew. BTW they make THE BEST Pilsner in the US with Pep Talk from Bearded Iris coming a close second but that is a different conversation
I have yet to find a US beer that even comes close to Spaten or Haufbrau. If those are 5 by definition on a 1-5 scale. Most beers I have had are 2 at best. SA no thanks, Goose Island don’t waste your time.
If you know of one I would like to know. Yes it’s June but Sept is right around the corner
Shulz Brau makes great lagers, I agree. Live Oak in Austin has a great lineup of German style beers as well. Their Oaktoberfest is good. My favorite of theirs is Primus, a weizenbock.
Lakefront (Milwaukee) Oktoberfest is always solid every year.
Capital (Madison, WI) Oktoberfest is as well.
Titletown (Green Bay) Bent Tuba is also.
Leinie’s (Miller/Coors) is quite passable every year.
Bell’s (Kalamazoo) was excellent a time or two but I haven’t had it in a while.
Sierra Nevada (Chico) collaborates with a different German brewer every year so it’s always something fun to try and usually pretty darn tasty.
I try about 10 different ones most years and the ones above are consistently among my favorites, and are all about as good as German imports. Admittedly… the Germans still do it best and would almost always rank a notch higher than these.
People have been parroting this for decades, yet somehow I think it’s barely true, and rarely a real problem. These are lagers, i.e., beers meant for storage, after all! I have tasted some canned versions that tasted like metal because their can liner seems inferior to what we are accustomed to, or bottles that have an iron taste IF you drink straight out of the bottle… but beyond that… I’ll take a German-brewed beer any day, and usually will declare it “better” than anything we brew here. Taste is subjective, of course.
I went to Bavaria last summer on a bike ride. We were in different towns every night. I drank a lot of Helles and a few other types of beer. I thought the German beer was good every where I went. It was always fresh, but honestly, I didn’t think it was better, just different.
I’ll let Jeff speak to his experiences with German beers stateside and local since he arguably has the most back and forth comparison, but I’ve had so much “off” German beer around me - bottles that taste stale and oxidized that if that’s what it’s suppose to taste like - no thank you.
I always remember not “getting” Pilsner until I had a chance to taste Trumer Pils at their, then, new Berkeley brewery and going “oh… this is actually fresh and in good shape”.
And it’s not like I live in the middle of nowhere!
I will say my experience with Octoberfest and Marzen is more like Dave’s. I have been fortunate to have had Paulaner, Spaten, and Haufbrau here in the US via keg and bottle at beer fests and “German Bars” as well as in Germany, granted none of them in Munich. At least with my tasting experience I don’t remember tasting one and saying this tastes “different” or oxidized. They all had that same wonderful bready malty flavor granted to a different degree based on the brewer
Pilsner absolutely agree, British ales or any beer you should drink fresh.
That is what seems to be missing in my mind in US counterparts.
I will look for those you recommend. As well as trying to get to Knoxville TN sometime in September
Not all storage is equal. Storing a barrel of lager in cool caves/spaces is different from storing cans/bottles for weeks/months at room temp.
I envy those who live in a region where you can get fresh German imported lagers. Where I live, I have never had a German import that was not ruined by oxidation.
I know a fellow homebrewer who thought that wet-cardboard/sherry flavor was part of the flavor profile of German lagers. I corrected him.
I second the Enegren recommendation. I have not yet found a brewery in my SoCal area that makes German lagers this legit.
