Last chapter we were enjoying the pleasure of Weihenstephaner, my favorite brewery. Today I was planning on doing the same with one of my other favorite breweries (hey, there are dozens!), Ayinger!
Today’s story takes us to another place and another time. I originally was going to show you the big beautiful 1L Maßkrug of Ayinger Oktoberfest-Marzen. These baby bottles in question were actually purchased by me at a bottle shop I hadn’t been to in over 10 years. They were on a shelf and had dust on them – Mistake #1. I was talking beer with the guy at the counter and not paying attention to what I should have been doing, which is evaluating the storage condition of these beers, Mistake #2. The guy at the counter then ran off and retrieved me a can of IPA he liked and thought he’d give me one for a freebie. I didn’t realized it was probably his guilty conscious, I was buying TOO OLD beer that had been there pre-Covid, I’m sure. Maybe pre-Desert Storm, who knows? Mistake #3!!!!
Se here he’s assuaging his guilt by giving me a free can of IPA. Gee thanks, should I check the date on that one too? I get these to the Beermeister32 evaluation labs and whoa! OLD BEER, tastes terrible, warm storage, turned brown, light-struck, who the heck knows. Luckily I had another recent 500 ml bottle in the beer storage cold locker, so my day isn’t completely ruined. Ayinger needs no introduction, but this just goes to show these can be somewhat perishable and like fine wines, they need the proper storage. Not sitting warm for 5 dusty years on some guys’ shelf under the fluorescent lights while he’s peeling off the Calendar pages, year by year!
The new stuff is good. Watch me dump $9 – that’s nine bucks worth of braun alt babyflaschen bier right down the drain! Prost…