A Hop Queen and Bavarian Cowboy Walk Into a Bar

And that bar happened to be Victory Brewing Company on Saturday, April 25, as Nicole Frankl, the reigning Hallertau Hop Queen traveled from her native Germany along with representatives from the Association of German Hop-Growers to celebrate the release of five new Victory drafts brewed with all German hops. Queen Nicole was on hand, talking hops and as the center of countless photo opportunities with Victory guests that afternoon.

Not to be overlooked, Eric “The Bavarian Cowboy” Toft was part of the Hallertau Hop Queen’s entourage. Eric has been a great friend of Ron and Bill’s since he and Ron met at as students at the Technical University of Munich at Weihenstephan in 1990 where he had traveled for brewing education from his native Wyoming. Eric never returned to the states and now is brewmaster at the outstanding Bavarian brewery of Privatbrauerei Schönram.

Eric had a hand in the 5 new beers that were released that afternoon. Commissioned for the Association of German Hop-Growers to showcase the fine quality of their products at the national Craft Brewers Conference in Boston April 21 – 25, these were very limited production and may not be found outside of our brewery and the aforementioned Conference. The beers included Braumeister Hallertauer Pils, Braumeister Saphir Pils, Braumeister Tradition Pils, CBC Herkules IPA and CBC Saphir Weiss. We hope that our very limited draft supply wild hold out here in Downingtown for maybe two weeks.