Franconian Beer Message Board

Coals to Newcastle, as it were...

Posted by Fred Waltman on 2007-04-04 11:06:14

Just before I left for Bamberg last month I purchased a bottle of Schlenkerla Märzen (at the Stuffed Sandwich in San Gabriel -- an LA suburb) and took it with me. Matthias Trum (current proprietor), Frank Wetzel and I then did a side by side tasting with one that had been bottled that week. The results surprised me. First off, even though there are not bottling or best buy dates on the US bottles, it turns out they do notch the label and so Matthias was able to determine that the bottle was from May 2006 -- about 10 months old. I had done something similar many years ago with bottles purchased from another retailer and those bottles had a very strong "dirty ashtray" character. The May 2006 (LA) bottle was (to me) surprisingly drinkable. There was no doubt which was which -- you could smell the oxidation in LA bottle and as it warmed up the oxidation got more pronounced. But there was none of the "dirty ashtray" or "stale bacon" character that I had noticed previous tests. Matthias says the importer has been making an effort to get the beer to stores faster and I guess it is working. In the fall we'll repeat the experiment with a bottle of the Ur-bock. Stay tuned :)

Coals to Newcastle, as it were... by Uncle Jimbo on 2007-04-04 12:24:10

Coals to Newcastle, as it were... by Nick B. on 2007-04-04 23:29:33

Coals to Newcastle, as it were... by Uncle Jimbo on 2007-04-05 06:13:48