Franconian Beer Message Board
Oktoberfest bier |
| Posted by DonS on 2010-11-18 15:09:26 |
| The Munich beers don't get much of the love here, made all the worse by the fact that four of the Big Munich Six are foreign-owned; Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr are Brau Holding brands, which is nearly half-owned by Heineken. This is also the bunch that eviscerated the Thurn & Taxis brewery in Regensburg, reducing it to a Paulaner-brewed brand and a brewpub near the spiffy T&T palace complex in Regensburg. So Paulaner (and Hacker-Pschorr) tend to get treated as "Einheitsbier." In truth, they're pretty competent at what they do, and with the kind of money they have behind them, they can market fairly well, and do a pretty good export business. So you probably wound up with a pretty drinkable Märzen-style beer, pale copper color and malt-accented flavor, probably decoction-mashed too. Paulaner has done some unfortunate things with other products over the years; there used to be a splendid pale bock, but that's long gone, and the Salvator Doppelbock was significantly changed many years ago, not necessarily for the better. Considering that breweries like Beck's and Warsteiner have also marketed "Oktoberfest" beers of dubious quality, you could do a lot worse, especially given the limited range on offer in all too much of Ireland. |