Here’s a trip down memory lane: Oldenberg Premium Verum. Back in the early nineties I first visited the Oldenberg Brewing Company in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, just across the border from Cincinnati.  We stayed at the hotel adjacent to the brewery, and I can still remember to this day finding a token for a free beer at the brewery bar on the nightstand next to my bed.

Also fondly recalled are a tour of the brewery, watching the steam rise of the brew kettle as the wort was brought up to temperature, the “Great Hall” of breweriana, and a night spent sipping beers at the bar. A few years later I would return to Oldenberg for Beer Camp.

I loved the beers here, brought cases home, and wished we could get them in Rhode Island. Then one day my wish came true, and cases of Oldenberg beers showed up at the liquor store where I worked.

Oldenberg Premium Verum was a staple beer in my beer fridge in the nineties. OPV as it was known was delightful German pilsner with a firm, rich golden maltiness and a balancing hop finish. Sadly, the beer declined as the years went by. Here are some of my thought on the beer over the years, as well as the brewery:

April 9th, 1996: I have always been a fan of this brewery's products. They produce good
clean German-style lagers, as well as a few decent ales. My only complaint is that their beers are occasionally phenolic, displaying a medicinal off flavor. Fortunately, this is not a frequent occurrence.

March 24th, 1998: About five years ago, I took a trip out to visit the Oldenberg Brewery just over the Cincinnati line in Kentucky, I was impressed with their malty, well balanced lagers, the OPV and Blonde being my favorites at the time. Two
years ago, I visited the brewery while attending Beercamp, and it seemed that the beers had been toned down just a little. I still found them very
enjoyable, however.

Last month, I ordered a case of Oldenberg beer through their website. I was surprised to see how much the beer had been lightened in body. It was almost to the point of being akin to a mainstream lager.

This got me thinking. Oldenberg doesn't do a lot of advertising, and they don't have scores of marketing people telling people that what they really
like to drink is light bodied beer. Rather, they started out trying to sell bold, flavorful beer, and found that what most people actually prefer is the
light bodied, very drinkable stuff. The implications here are not good (though I'm aware this situation may be influenced by their locale).

March 25th, 1998:

Was that Ken Schierberg (SP?)? I met him at Beercamp and talked with him at length, he was very knowledgeable and happy to talk with everyone who wanted to do so. He is the head brewer at Oldenberg, or at least was last time I checked. It was probably about 1991 or 1992 that I first visited Oldenberg, and the beer was of excellent quality back then, not world-shattering, but consistent, malty lagers with good German character. Shortly after I visited, the beers became available in RI, I ordered them for the store and we sold a lot of them. Some of my more discriminating beer customers made Oldenberg a staple. The Bock and Winter Ale were decent as well.

October 2nd, 1998: