Posted on 07/15/2008 8:04:04 PM PDT by Kaslin
"It would be a shame if Bud is foreign-owned," Barack Obama said last week, when asked about the prospect of InBev taking over Anheuser-Busch. Many Americans no doubt share these sentiments.
Believers in free markets naturally disagree, and they are probably joined by legions of beer connoisseurs. They are also joined by a motley group of World War I aficionados.
InBev is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, home of one of Europe's oldest and most prestigious universities. On Aug. 25 and 26, 1914, the town was sacked by German troops. ("The Oxford of Belgium" was then better known by its French name, Louvain.)
Soldiers were ordered to set fire to the collegiate church and the famous University Library, among other buildings. About 1,000 irreplaceable manuscripts and 800 incunabula were destroyed, along with some 230,000 volumes.
Two hundred forty-eight civilians were killed during the rampage, many in a series of ad hoc executions near the train station. The Army claimed that soldiers had been attacked by residents, but it never provided any convincing evidence.
The destruction of Leuven was the most notorious episode in an exceptionally brutal invasion that took the lives of nearly 6,000 Belgian civilians in three weeks, the equivalent of about 230,000 Americans today.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
The most intersting thing about this is the news that Budwesier made beer. I am only familiar with their beer-flavoured soft drink.
Wouldnt bother me if Bud, Miller and Coors dropped off the face of the planet.
Indeed. I’ll stick to my favourites.
the others strongly support the lib party.
Neat story.
Yeah but they make crappy beer
sadly, in my neck of the woods domestics all anyone can afford.
They want 28 bucks for a 30 of bud!
Jesus Christ...
I agree with Obama on something.
*hangs head in shame*
What does Sen. Barack Obama care about Budweiser? Muslims don’t drink beer.
When my daughter attended Auburn University between 1990-1992, she was a Bud girl.
But I prefer Sam Adams, thank you.
soda bear haha
How about Samuel Adams (many good ones), Killian’s, Genese Cream Ale, Pasbt Red, White & Blue (back in the 70’s it was good - local when lived in GA), Rolling Rock (local when growing up in PA in 60’s & 70’s), and good old American Root Beer.
Many of my favourites are domestic. Shiner and Sam Adams come to mind.
Don’t forget they are now making lime flavored Bud. Mmmmmmmmm.......(barf)
And what, exactly, does Jesus have to do with beer? ;-)
I do enjoy a good Sammy. Shiner is also a favourite. Then, there are the foreign offerings that I enjoy...
Did Franklin say something like beer is a sign from God that he wants man to be happy?
Lime flavoured dreck to cover the swill-like taste. Too much German blood in this boy to tolerate lime in beer, even if it is crap beer.
Yes. And also a sign He loves us.
Shiner and Sam Adams are known as “entry level” beers to serious beer geeks.
Try anything by Victory Brewing (of Downingtown, PA) or Stone (of San Diego) or Dogfish Head (Delaware) or Bells (Michigan). These are all 1st tier microbreweries.
(Both Shiner and Sams are “contract” beers, meaning they are made by larger breweries by contract for those companies. I think Mack brewing of Utica makes Sams on the East Coast. “Saranac” is the same quality of beer—good, but not great...)
The (original) Budweiser (called Budweiser Budvar in Europe...from Budweiss, Czech R.) is a good beer, and called Czechvar here—drink it to see what a Pilsner is supposed to be.
A really superb Pilsner is one called “Golden Pheasant” from Slovakia....mmmmmmmmm.
The original “bock” beer is an eastern German brand called “Einbecker,” Mai-Ur-Bock, really superb, and supposedly Martin Luther’s favorite beer....
So we need to permit undocumented Mexican immigrants to work below minimum wage, and we need to learn French for travelling abroad, and we need to have more empathy for those on other continents but when Joe Six-Pack is upset about Budweiser having foreign ownership, well NOW this means war. < /s > Obama is a phony patriot.
While I consider Miller the same low grade swill as Bud, I give them credit for saying the truth.
It’s man law. Don’t fruit the beer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dixNKEZpXI4
The Czech beers aren’t supposed to have preservatives.
Go to Prague and drink it on tap. You won’t touch the bottled stuff when you’ve had it as intended. You can buy it bottled there but it just isn’t the same as the draft without preservatives.
And I preferred Pilsner Urquel (dark or 50-50) draft to Budvar. There was another Czech beer I liked, but I don’t recalll the name. Most bars only carried one brand, in 2 varieties (dark and light, that is light, not LITE).
Besides, Sam and Shiner are my favoured “everyday” beers (i.e. something for when having BBQ or steak with friends).
And of course Ben was a theologian, not.
In my long years around this ol’ earth I have found several profound truisms’.
1. If you are willing to use the name of Jesus in print in a blasphemous way (curse word), you think of him as some sort of myth
2. If you use this expression in daily life … see number 1
Just my humble opinion.
Never started a thought, comment or idea with the words “Jesus Christ”, unless it was to praise Him.
Just me.
On a dise note, a friend of mine is in the local homebrew club and he has made some rather good batches. One was a Scottish ale that was smashing.
A slice of lime does make bad beer more potable.
Sorry, I missed the qualifier in your post (i.e. the word “bad”). I guess that it can cover for a nasty beer.
I’ve been to Prague, 3 times. You’re right, good beer there doesn’t have preservatives....and I tell people they’ve never had real Czech or German beer if they’ve only had it here...as it is soooooooooooooo much better there.
I recommend Golden Pheasant though, as one of the best European pilsners one can drink here. When fresh it is tremendous. And for all practical purposes it is Czech, as of course Slovakia used to be the same country.
Another Czech brand called Herald is nice, better than Pilsner Urquel or Budvar, but, again, almost always pretty stale here...oh well. It has the distinction of being owned by Americans, (a guy I went to High School with) who bought it when Czech was privatizing in the 1990s.
Since pilsner spoils quickly the best pilsners available here are typically done by microbreweries—so they are fresh. Victory’s Braumeister is amazing (but only available seasonally), and I think Gordon Beirsch’s pils is pretty good as well.
Shiner rocks. Was easier to find in Seattle(!) than in either NY or NJ.
Seattle?! I had no idea it could be found that far away. I remember when it was still a regional beer and wasn’t easy to find outside central Texas.
SO that would mean 3000 Americans killed, oh, say, in 2001, is only how many Belgians?
Because of the praises that you sing for it, I’ll have to check our local package stores for Golden Pheasant. The package stores here are fairly well stocked with international brews, so I’ll have to give it a shot.
Except Budweiser is not originally from Belgium or Germany. Its from České Budějovice, formely Budweis Chekoslovakia.
A great little bit of trivia for a barroom bet. Vancelov, A friend of mine, was from that town and never let me forget it's claim to fame.
“The (original) Budweiser (called Budweiser Budvar in Europe...from Budweiss, Czech R.) is a good beer, and called Czechvar here—drink it to see what a Pilsner is supposed to be.”
If you find it, try and get a six pack out of the case. It’s bottled in green glass, and hops react to light, and spoil quickly in green glass—so find a sixer that’s been in the dark.
Personally, I like Tiger. What did you think of Sai Gon brand beer? As for 333, I am not a big fan.
If you were in Vietnam, you probably had some very spoiled, unrefrigerated, stale Budvar. As stated above the best beers in Czech and Germany are unpasturized and spoil quickly, hence we never really drink what is on tap there, as our versions of their beer is many weeks (or even months) old—at an age when they would pour it down the drain too.
Certified beer judges (don’t laugh, there are such animals—who only get that way after a lot of training) generally rate FRESH Budvar as one of the best pilsners in the world.
American Budweiser—along with all mass produced beers—is made with a substantial amount of rice, which has very little taste. The malt/hop flavor would be the equivelent flavor of about a 2 1/2% alcohol Czech or German pilsner, even though Bud (depending on where you live) is 4 1/2 to 5% alcohol. The rest of that alcohol is made by the tasteless rice.
Personally, I can’t drink a bud without getting a headache. I’ll drink an all malt beer or nothing, thanks.
Go to Prague. If you like the beer there, you’ll never even want to drink Budweiser again.
“If you were in Vietnam, you probably had some very spoiled, unrefrigerated, stale Budvar.”
You’re probably right - the Budvar most in all likelihood was not refrigerated - in fact, I’d bet it wasn’t.
I will probably be in Eastern Europe in 2009 or 2010 and I’ll make it a point to try the local Budvar.
Prost!
I can’t say I am up to your standards, since from time to time I can get into almost any beer. But one of the greater pleasures of life is to sip a good beer with a plate of ceviche (which has lime juice in it.) The alternating combination has captured me for an afternoon, until I finally managed to run out of the beer and the ceviche at the same time. By that time I was ready for a nice nap on the beach (Puerto limon, Costa Rico)
Another trivia question. What is the word’s oldest brewery? Answer: Weihenstephan in Germany. In 1040 the Benedictine monastery of Weihenstephan was given permission from the town of Freising to make beer and also sell it.
Beer in the Czech Republic is supposedly rated in “quality” based on how much it tastes like bread.
When you drink it (15 cents a half liter), it really becomes aparent. The dark beers are sweet and the light beers are bitter. Some will order it 50-50. So with 2 taps, many bars (and there are many bars, like dozens in a few blocks) offer 3 flavors and between the competition, you can find the bar with your “brand” of beer and politics.
Makes sense to only carry one brand of beer when there are no preservatives. If one is “less popular”, it just sits there. Spoiling.
That is probably true. I saw it available in Brooklyn where there is a large Polish community.
Rolling Rock was bought by LaBlats years ago. LaBlats was then bought by InBev. Three years ago, InBev sold the Rolling Rock brand and label to Anheuser Busch (not the Latrobe brewery). Rolling Rock is now brewed in a massive A-B beer factrory in Hoboken, New Jersey, not in the Glass Lined Tanks of Old Latrobe as the bottle says. And now Rolling Rock is again part of the InBev empire.
It's all business and frankly I don't care where the corporate headquarters are. I want to know how it tastes. ;~))
And as the brewery moves and as the techniques are changed, they are no longer the same product.
Marketing has consumers addicted to brand loyalty even when those corporations held no loyalty to their own production standards.
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