Lowenbrau in Texas

[zauber1]

Is there a sure fire quick way to distinguish between imported Lowenbrau and domestically produced Lowenbrau in the US? Miller Brewery in Ft Worth, TX produced a licensed Lowenbrau lager for a while(still do) and made it a bit confusing when choosing at the refrigerated case in the store. At first I thought the answer would be on the label or by the size of the bottle because the Ft Worth version is not in brown 1/2 liter bottles, but now Lowenbrau exports their lager in the smaller US style longnecks.

Boy, I fell like a NOOB asking this question.

Does anyone want to hold forth on a taste test issue? Have you compared both in a side by side blind tasting?

[steveh]

Is there a sure fire quick way to distinguish between imported Lowenbrau and domestically produced Lowenbrau in the US?

Miller hasn't brewed Lowenbrau in many years. Lowenbrau took the rights away, sold it to LaBatt's, then sold the whole brewery to Spaten and Spaten started export the Munich-brewed beer. Anything you see labeled Lowenbrau by a Miller brewery is probably (very) old stock.

OTOH -- there are many breweries in Germany and Switzerland that carry the Lowenbrau name, some of them could still export.

S.

[zauber1]

I think that there are some unscrupulous dealers here in my area (Dallas, TX) because I have seen the Ft Worth version of Lowenbrau in their refrigerator cases.

[jesskidden]

I think that there are some unscrupulous dealers here in my area (Dallas, TX) because I have seen the Ft Worth version of Lowenbrau in their refrigerator cases.

Steve and I were just discussing the confused history of Lowenbrau's in the US ("confused" because I got the involvement of InBev wrong ;) ) on another beer site and, as he noted above, it's been awhile since Miller lost the contract- 8+ years in fact- according to this Modern Brewery Age (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3469/is_n35_v48/ai_20014628) article.

A TTB search https://www.ttbonline.gov/colasonline/publicSearchColasBasic.do shows that Miller's last label approval was in 1997, as well.

The existence of Miller brewed-Lowenbrau and German-brewed Lowenbrau at the same time in the US was only for a few years in mid-late 1970's as Miller ramped up production and distribution. (There was a problem in the early days of Miller "Lowenbrau" with identification but eventually, the US authorities tightened up the labeling requirements and the small print "Brewed in the US" on the labels that was the only difference was changed to fuller disclosure.)

If there is really Miller-brewed Lowenbrau on the shelves after 10+ years, that not just "unscrupulous" dealers but totally incompetent distributors, as well, since they should have pulled them years ago. I'd call the local Anheuser Busch distributor (since 2007 A-B imports most InBev brands and their distributors handle them in most cases depending on state laws) and complain about old stock and ask about where new stock is distributed. All the labels I've seen say "Imported" and have a red box proclaiming "Brewed in Munich Germany" on the label and packaging but, due to Texas' beer laws (where Lowenbrau is labeled "Malt Liquor") your labels might differ.

I see they now have a US website - Lowenbrau (http://www.lowenbraubeer.com/) with a state by state list of draught availability and a "Contact" link (also a "Timeline" which notes that German brewed Lowenbrau returned to the US in 2002 after a few years of being brewed by Labatt in Canada).

[steveh]

I was hoping Jess would chime in here -- he's definitely got his head around the history of beer!

Zauber, if you're seeing Lowenbrau labels with Miller Brewing still on the shelves, I'd call those retailers to task -- 'cause I'm betting there are date codes being outrageously ignored!

S.

[zauber1]

I'm going to the store today!