May the Schwarzbier be with you!

December 2, 2006 7:38 PM

German beer in Berkeley: help me find a beer called Kostriker Schwarzbier (or another similar beer) in the East Bay.

I had this beer at an excellent German restaurant in San Francisco, and I'm trying to find bottles of it for a party tomorrow at 2 pm.

I tried Beverages and More, as well as few smaller liquor stores. None of them had ever heard of this beer, nor could they point me to a store with a good German selection.
I've found this company which will sell it to me, but definitely not by tomorrow.

I'd really like to find a store which sells this beer that is somewhere in the East SF Bay Area.
Alternatively, I'd like to know of similar beers, hopefully ones I might find in time. (Actually I'd like to know of similar beers anyways).

posted by nat to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

I quaffed a couple of those not two weeks ago at Walzwerk! If you're willing to trek over to SF (Noe Valley), you might try calling Lehr's to see if they carry it.

By the way, it's actually Köstritzer Schwarzbier -- the "tz" combines in the script to look very much like a "k." I only mention to possibly ease your search, not to be a pain. Good luck!
posted by donpedro at 8:47 PM on December 2, 2006

Also, I'd try Trader Josef's.
posted by donpedro at 8:51 PM on December 2, 2006

if you can find a whole foods, they often have a really quite good selection of hard-to-find beers, actually. worth tryin'!
posted by sergeant sandwich at 10:03 PM on December 2, 2006

You'll find that Köstritzer Schwarzbier as a spelling gives you more results when searching. (Yes, Fraktur can be really hard to read if you don’t have experience with it.)
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 2:31 AM on December 3, 2006

there is a place in los angeles called galco's soda pop stop. I remember walking through there and marvelling at not only all the hundreds, if not thousands, of kinds of soda but also the magnificient import beer selection they had. they do ship.
posted by krautland at 2:38 AM on December 3, 2006

I originally wanted to point out the spelling too, but this Walzwerk place really amazes me. an "east german restaurant"? And that works, people are really going there? because here in Berlin, i wouldn't go near a place with that description...

If you really wan't to surprise your guests with an exotic German beer, try Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier. "a smoky beer made from malt that is roasted and smoked over Bavarian beechwood", but I have no Idea if you can find that in Berkeley, or anywhere in the US for that matter.
posted by kolophon at 6:04 AM on December 3, 2006

you should try berkeley bowl, they have quite a few german imports that most places don't have. it's been years since i drank the stuff, but i used to get people to buy me doppelbock from there.
posted by kendrak at 8:54 AM on December 3, 2006

kolophon, I've had the Schlenkerla Rauchbier at Quinn's Lighthouse and Restaurant (51 Embarcadero Cove, Oakland CA, near Jack London). They have a great beer selection, but I didn't like this beer.
posted by pmbuko at 10:24 AM on December 3, 2006

pmbuko: well, no one likes it. at first. you have to drink more than two until you can start enjoying the taste.

but i guess that is true with all alcoholic drinks.
posted by kolophon at 2:03 PM on December 3, 2006

Best answer: The Junket in El Cerrito has lots of German goodies, including (IIRC) a decent selection of beer, and the people working there are very friendly, so if they don't carry what you want, they may know of a different source of it.
posted by bsdfish at 2:34 PM on December 3, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks, bsdfish, and the many who corrected my spelling. Kostritzer Schwarzbier, not a mile from my house.
posted by nat at 1:09 PM on December 5, 2006