Lest anyone though from my last post that I was loosing the run of myself and becoming a celebrator rather than a complainer, fear not. I have a bee in my bonnet and I want to let it out.
My gripe is with huge industrial breweries who, not content with a massive market share, seem to want to control all the beer in the world without consideration for anyone who may suffer in the process. In this instance, I'm talking about the Dutch Giant Heineken and their drive to sell Paulaner in Ireland.
Anyone who knows me will know that, when out, I like nothing more than a nice cold Weissbier. I have written about such things. The first Weissbier commonly available in Ireland was Erdinger. A small company called Noreast Beers started importing it and distributing it about 10 or 12 years ago. Erdinger was the first Weissbier that may Irish people tasted. Over the years, through dogged persistence, Noreast Beers fostered a taste for and created a market for Weissbier in Ireland. It is no mean feat for a small company to successfully introduce a new beer style into a competitive market. And while I personally find Erdinger rather bland, I admire what Noreast have done with it in the Irish market and will, if stuck, willingly drink it. I am, on the other hand, very partial to their Dunkel (a dark weissbier).
It seems Heineken weren't happy with their massive share in the Irish beer market. Big breweries buy littler breweries - that's what they do. Heineken own scores of brands across the world. In Ireland they have: Heieken, Amstel, Coors Lite, and Murphy's and , not to be out done in the specialist markets they now push Heineken owned brands Affligem (Belgian Abbey style beer), Zyweic (popular Polish lager), Sol (tasteless Corona type lager) and Moretti (Italian Lager) in Ireland too.
Now they've gone after Erdinger in the Irish market with their Munich weissbier Paulaner. Now, Erdinger is no small little company but they seem to have put very little effort into the Irish market, leaving all the hard work and marketing to its importers and distributors - Noreast Beers. Heineken seem intent on capitalising on the decade or so of grooming that has been done by Noreast and blowing Erdinger out of the water with deep pockets. They are throwing everything at getting Paulaner to stick in the Irish market: promotions giving away free pints, sponsoring bars at events and making publicans offers they can't refuse to take out Erdinger. Heineken can afford this and, no doubt, will persist at this until Erdinger is squashed out and Noreast Beers are out of business.
My first encounter with Paulaner was about a year ago in The Oval Bar in Cork. A promotions person offered me a free pint of draught Paulaner. Who was I to refuse? It was awful. Like soggy bread. Didn't even finish it. I've since had bottled Paulaner and while hardly a classic of the style, it is very drinkable. I've tasted the draught on two other occasions and one was awful, the other fine. There seems to be a serious consistency issue with the draught product.
More recently I, like many other people, became a victim of their attempted world dominance while visiting The Spigieltent during The Cork Midsummer Festival. There was a Paulaner bar. Available were: draught Paulaner, bottled Paulaner, Sol, Murphy's and wine. Heineken are so serious about Paulaner that they didn't even sell Heineken in their own bar! Faced with that choice, I drank Paulaner. I felt terrible the next day!
Some days later, finding myself in The Spigieltent again, in the interest of research, I drank Paulaner again. Oh no, not again! Yes. Again! Awful headache the next day. Now, good beer does not do that to me. I can drink a moderate amount of Weihenstephaner, Schneiderweiss, Erdinger or any good beer like Galway Hooker and not suffer the next day but not so with Paulaner. I met friends who were with me in The Spigieltent who declared that they "would never drink Paulaner again" for the same reasons. This is not a good thing. I can't say why Paulaner has this effect on me and others but the outcome is that I will not drink it again and cannot recommend it to anyone else.
There is a delicious irony here. Left to my own devices, I probably would have drunk one or two bottles of Paulaner on the odd occasion and been quite indifferent to it. However, due to their expensive push on the product, I got to taste how bad the draught can be and only because of lack of choice due to their exclusive bar arrangement, I discovered the adverse effect of drinking more than two of them has. If they hadn't forced on me I wouldn't have formulated the opinion of how bad it is.
So, what weissbiers would I recommend? I really like Weihenstephaner (especially their rather light coloured dunkel) and Schneiderweiss. Franziskaner is a good beer and Erdinger is not a bad beer at all (some of us are just rather tired of it). And do try, and ask for - because they are available - the dunkel versions of these beers.
The Beer Revolution wants diversity not dominance.
My last drink was; Whihenstephaner Heffeweissbier Dunkel, 50cl, 5.3%abv
Showing posts with label weihenstephaner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weihenstephaner. Show all posts
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Friday, 27 June 2008
Keeping Up To Date
Today I want to report any updates on previous posts -what's been going on in my beer world, so to speak.
Very recently, I did a post on The Bierhaus which can be read here.
Unfortunately, I forgot to mention their Summer Beer Festival which took place last weekend (20,21,22 June). By all accounts my plugging was unnecessary as they had a full house all weekend, despite - or maybe because of - serving no mainstream draught beer. Dave got in a number of guest draught and bottled beers for the weekend, the stand out one, for me, being the Meantime Pale Ale from England . There was music and Uncle Pete's Pizza (second next door) did Bradwurst. Who said there wasn't a market for quality beer. The Bierhaus had an absolutely hopping weekend while not selling a single pint of Guinness or Heineken. Look out for their Octoberfest!
My post on the standard of bar serving (here) caused quite a stir on this forum - a debate that still rages.
I had made reference to a bar serving Weihenstephaner but their staff didn't seem to have a clue what it was or, in some cases, that they even stocked it. At the time, I didn't name the bar. It was The Crane Lane. I can now happily report that the staff now seem to have gotten to grips with said beer and even know how much to charge for the Vitus (7.5% Weizenbock). The management were a little slow off the mark in getting their staff familiar with this new beer but better late than never. It must be noted that The Crane Lane does sell a fine varied selection of world beers and local microbrews from The Franciscan Well, not just a rash of 'premium' lagers like many bars do when they want to up the beer selection.
Again, a heated debate arose in this forum when I criticised The Pavillion for having such a poor selection of beer - the post can be read here.
I've been in since. Again, I say I do like the understated, modern décor. A look over the counter told me that, yes, they have changed their beer selection. For the better? Yes, sort of. On the down side, they seem to have taken out bottled Hoegaarden. But they have started to stock Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen - add the dunkel to that and we'd be getting somewhere. While I often complain about too many lagers in bars at (the expense of other beers), The Pav have put in one of my favourites - Vedett. The people who make Duvel (come on, guys stock that too!) make this fresh, crisp lager that actually has some flavour, and while clever marketing and packaging doesn't make a bad beer good, I am a sucker for the look of this bottle and all their marketing gimmicks (check out the site). Budweiser 1795 has also made an appearance, which I do prefer to its neighbour Budvar (the story is here)
In the name of fairness, I handed over my hard earned cash to try their coffee again. I'm very sad to say that it was even worse than the last time I tried it. It just didn't taste like coffee at all. There are obviously some serious problems with their coffee procedures or machine - people don't seem to appreciate that it takes a lot of effort and training to make a decent coffee and The Pav don't seem to be bothered in fixing their problems.
On a happier note, they are now serving lunch in The Pavillion. The person responsible for the food is Mary who previously did Janey Mac's in South Court Terrace and her reputation speaks for itself. I'll be having lunch there myself soon but I'll go elsewhere for my coffee.
Update; I've had lunch there and can confirm that my expectations were correct - the food is well made home style soup and sambos, with a bit of flair at reasonable prices (and it's not that easy to find good soup about town).
In this post I heralded the arrival of Weihenstephaner in Ireland.
Well, finally the Dunkel version had come in. For people who like Schneiderweisse Original, Weihenstephaner should very much appeal. It has a similar sort of darkness to it (quite pale for a dunkel) and while very much its own beer, does have similarities. I think it may just be my regular pub drink.
I had written that their Vitus was somewhat of a disappointment to me. Well, after a few in The Bierhaus and The Crane Lane, I have developed somewhat of a fondness for the pale strong weizenbock that is Vitus. Weihenstephaner have a huge catalogue of beers so who knows what other ones will come to our shores in the future.
Although this post was somewhat disjointed (and all the links took me ages), I feel it is necessary to report on how things are changing and if people are responding to my criticism.
My last drink was; Pint of draught Beamish, 4.1%abv (I think)
Very recently, I did a post on The Bierhaus which can be read here.
Unfortunately, I forgot to mention their Summer Beer Festival which took place last weekend (20,21,22 June). By all accounts my plugging was unnecessary as they had a full house all weekend, despite - or maybe because of - serving no mainstream draught beer. Dave got in a number of guest draught and bottled beers for the weekend, the stand out one, for me, being the Meantime Pale Ale from England . There was music and Uncle Pete's Pizza (second next door) did Bradwurst. Who said there wasn't a market for quality beer. The Bierhaus had an absolutely hopping weekend while not selling a single pint of Guinness or Heineken. Look out for their Octoberfest!
My post on the standard of bar serving (here) caused quite a stir on this forum - a debate that still rages.
I had made reference to a bar serving Weihenstephaner but their staff didn't seem to have a clue what it was or, in some cases, that they even stocked it. At the time, I didn't name the bar. It was The Crane Lane. I can now happily report that the staff now seem to have gotten to grips with said beer and even know how much to charge for the Vitus (7.5% Weizenbock). The management were a little slow off the mark in getting their staff familiar with this new beer but better late than never. It must be noted that The Crane Lane does sell a fine varied selection of world beers and local microbrews from The Franciscan Well, not just a rash of 'premium' lagers like many bars do when they want to up the beer selection.
Again, a heated debate arose in this forum when I criticised The Pavillion for having such a poor selection of beer - the post can be read here.
I've been in since. Again, I say I do like the understated, modern décor. A look over the counter told me that, yes, they have changed their beer selection. For the better? Yes, sort of. On the down side, they seem to have taken out bottled Hoegaarden. But they have started to stock Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen - add the dunkel to that and we'd be getting somewhere. While I often complain about too many lagers in bars at (the expense of other beers), The Pav have put in one of my favourites - Vedett. The people who make Duvel (come on, guys stock that too!) make this fresh, crisp lager that actually has some flavour, and while clever marketing and packaging doesn't make a bad beer good, I am a sucker for the look of this bottle and all their marketing gimmicks (check out the site). Budweiser 1795 has also made an appearance, which I do prefer to its neighbour Budvar (the story is here)
In the name of fairness, I handed over my hard earned cash to try their coffee again. I'm very sad to say that it was even worse than the last time I tried it. It just didn't taste like coffee at all. There are obviously some serious problems with their coffee procedures or machine - people don't seem to appreciate that it takes a lot of effort and training to make a decent coffee and The Pav don't seem to be bothered in fixing their problems.
On a happier note, they are now serving lunch in The Pavillion. The person responsible for the food is Mary who previously did Janey Mac's in South Court Terrace and her reputation speaks for itself. I'll be having lunch there myself soon but I'll go elsewhere for my coffee.
Update; I've had lunch there and can confirm that my expectations were correct - the food is well made home style soup and sambos, with a bit of flair at reasonable prices (and it's not that easy to find good soup about town).
In this post I heralded the arrival of Weihenstephaner in Ireland.
Well, finally the Dunkel version had come in. For people who like Schneiderweisse Original, Weihenstephaner should very much appeal. It has a similar sort of darkness to it (quite pale for a dunkel) and while very much its own beer, does have similarities. I think it may just be my regular pub drink.
I had written that their Vitus was somewhat of a disappointment to me. Well, after a few in The Bierhaus and The Crane Lane, I have developed somewhat of a fondness for the pale strong weizenbock that is Vitus. Weihenstephaner have a huge catalogue of beers so who knows what other ones will come to our shores in the future.
Although this post was somewhat disjointed (and all the links took me ages), I feel it is necessary to report on how things are changing and if people are responding to my criticism.
My last drink was; Pint of draught Beamish, 4.1%abv (I think)
Monday, 5 May 2008
Now we're in The Big Hefeweizen League
While being far from an expert on German Beer, I've for many years, been a fan of a Munich Weissbier or Hefeweizen. (Weissbier simply means 'white beer' while Hefe means 'yeast' and weizen means 'wheat')
So a hefeweizen is a yeasty,usually pale beer made with wheat and barley (as opposed to most German beers which are exclusively made with barley).
Weissbiers have been available in Ireland for quite a number of years now but the choice has been sadly limited and the brands have been chosen more for their status than their quality.
Hence Erdinger is widely available here and while I thank Erdinger for opening the minds of a many an Irish pint drinker to the possibilities of weissbier, I find it heavy and a little bland. It is, however, the best selling Weissbier in Europe but mass appeal has never been a sure sign of quality, in my book.
Schneiderweiss has been here for quite a while but this is a rather dark-coloured hefeweizen and while its quality cannot be questioned, it is not to everyone's taste and is not a typical example of the style. Oh, but their Aventinus is something special (very dark and over 8%abv)!
Franziscaner, Schöfferhofer, Pualanner and various other weissbiers have come and gone, relieving the tedium of Erdinger but now a truly great Munich Hefeweizen has arrived on our shores.
What is it?
Weihenstephaner
This beer does, for me, what a truly great weissbier should.
It is aromatic, fruity, full-bodied but at the same time quite light and refreshing.
It has all the classic hefeweizen, bananna, spice and citrus flavours but all in perfect balance.
This is a quaffable beast and at 5.4%abv, it's maybe one to treat with respect as it goes down with the ease of beer lighter in alcohol.
Look here
I've never had alot of meas in Kristal Weissbiers (filtered clear versions of hefeweizen) as, in my opinion, they tend a little towards lager but are not as refreshing. Weinhenstephaner Kristal, on the other hand, does carry alot of the aroma and flavour of its cloudy brother.
I had high hopes for their Weizenbock (a stronger version of the hefeweizen called Vitus) but this beer nerd found it a little harsh and wanted it a bit darker (each to their own).
I'd really like to taste their Dunkel (dark wheat beer) but haven't been able to find it yet.
(Note to the importers!!!!)
There are a couple of non alcoholic versions, one of which is 'isotonic' (a new one on me).
Both are very drinkable but, as with all non alcohol beers, there's a hole in the flavour palette that nothing but alcohol will fill. This is not just the taste of alcohol that's wanting but the alcohol also acts as a carrier for flavour compounds.
If you're tired of Erdinger or just want a change or simpmly want to taste what is arguably the best Hefeweizen in the world, I highly recommend Weinhenstephaner Hefeweizen (in moderation, of course).
If you can't find it, ask for it.
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