I’m not at all sure that this beer has been in the US before 2023. This is backed up by the fact that it was only added to the beeradvocate database in August of this year. L1433.

If it has been here prior, then the distribution must have been very limited, but I’m pretty sure it hasn’t. It’s also a good example of why, even these days when I’m infinitely more detached from the beer scene that I ever was, that I still go into just about every beer store that I ever see and can do so in a convenient way. This was found in a random store in TN, close to somewhere I stopped for lunch in the middle of a long roadtrip. Furthermore this was a lone bottle, in a weird place on the end of shelf that I thought was possibly simply a sample given to the retailer. I took it to the register half expecting to be told that the beer wasn’t for sale. It rang up at $3.99, and under the SKU of a different Andechs beer which did not surprise me.

16.9 oz bottle. Pour is as expected for a Festbier (beers with this moniker as opposed to Märzen or Oktoberfest) with a crystal clear, very pale straw affair. Head wispy but good. Created decent lace with some better than expected retention.

Grainy nose, but the beer drinks in a very balanced manner with neither sweet or aspirin Pils/Noble cutting in too much. There’s a touch of caramel in there and as the beer drinks down the 500 mL it gets increasingly sweet. At the end, it feel really rather sweet indeed. A very late, very brief, bitter bite in the far back end. Lively in the mouth, well-carbonated and keeps the interest going from that point of view. Sweetness is what I’m left thinking about as I finish the bottle with alarming speed. Drinkability is exceptional. Delicious, and a quintessential example.

I was delighted to accidentally come across this, and if I’m honest this is the kind of thing (in terms of both the beer itself and the random, unexpected find) that keeps me in the beer-hunting scene, hanging on by my fingernails. There are tens of thousands of highly sought after beers in 2023 that I have less than zero interest in, but a beer like this (and finding it) still raises the pulse a little. Keeps me going.