budweiser
České Budějovice & Anheuser Busch: The other bohemian
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 | Beer | 2 Comments
Chris touched on a really great topic in his previous post, Good beer is regional. I could not agree more – the best beer is usually local beer. This is not to say that we do not need diversity in our beer selection. I would not be very satisfied if I was limited to drinking only porters and pilsners for the rest of my life. I would miss my warming barely wines and Belgian dubbels. Most craft brewers regularly search for and sample new styles of beer that they can add to their expanding portfolio. For example, many craft brewers in the Pacific Northwest have begun brewing a wide variety of Belgian ales. I do not have to travel far to taste a world class Saison, Driftwood Brewery of Victoria BC brews a great Saison. It is true that a BC Saison may taste different than a Belgian Saison, but it is supposed to taste different. Brewing is a creative art form, and emulation is not very creative.
It is good to be inspired by other brewers, but to outright steal a regions style of beer and claim it as your own is crossing the line. This is how the Anheuser Busch Company created their popular, yet incredibly bland, Budweiser.
The American brewing industry got its start when German immigrants started to brew familiar Bavarian style lagers in their new homeland. Bavarian lager, with its clean taste, soon began to dominate the American beer market, but not for long. As American tastes began to change in preference of lighter food, Bavarian lagers, being malty and flavourful, began to fall out of favor. Anheuser Busch reacted to this change in what appeared to be a positive approach. Adolphus Busch, the then owner of Anheuser Busch, bought the rights to a light tasting bohemian style lager from fellow brewer Carl Conrad. This beer soon became the number one selling beer in America and was dubbed Budweiser, a trademark riddled with controversy to this day.
The Czech Republic (Bohemia) is known world wide for brewing the first Pilsner in a town called Pilsen – no surprise there. Most beer drinkers are familiar with a Pilsner style of beer, but are unaware that there is an equally tasty bohemian style lager brewed to the south of Pilsen in a city called České Budějovice or Budweis. Anheuser Busch’s bohemian lager was inspired by Bohemian budweiser and it is no surprise that this popular American brew was titled Budweiser. Anheuser Busch took things one step too far when they trademarked and defended their right to the Budweiser name, taking a style of beer, or at least a way of promoting that style, away from other brewers. From that point on no brewer other than Anheuser Busch was allowed to label their beer as a budweiser, even if it is a budweiser lager.
I can walk into almost any pub in Canada and ask for a porter, pale ale or hefeweizen and I will not be offered any particular brand of beer, but if I was to ask for a budweiser, a style of beer brewed since the 1400’s, I would be offered a boring old bottle of Bud. Thank you for killing a perfectly good style of beer Anheuser Busch. But not all hope is lost; Budweiser Budvar and Budějovický měšťanský, both located in České Budějovice (Budweis) are both still brewing a budweiser. Budweiser Budvar is available in Canada under the label Czechvar, but it is packaged in green bottles and is often exposed to the harsh lights found in BC liquor stores. As a result, the beer is skunked more often than not. Budějovický měšťanský, better known as Samson, is not easily tracked down in these parts, but I would love to try it. If anyone has a Samson budweiser on hand please let me know where you found it.
It would be great to see home brewers or local craft brewers recreate this lost style and take budweiser back from the grips of Anheuser Busch and put it into the hands of true beer lovers. It will be a good day when I can walk into a pub and order a budweiser only to be asked – which one?
Erik
Canadian vs American beer, whose is best?
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 | Beer | 2 Comments
I have sincerely believed for the bulk of my life that Canadian beer is better than American beer. I have no idea why I thought this even as a child, but this sentiment remains pervasive amongst Canadian youth. Why was I so compelled to consider Canadian beer superior and which nation’s beer really is best?
My first inclination was that I was severely affected by the brilliant Molson “I am Canadian” TV commercials, which had a substantial impact on my generation in our formative years. Molson’s latest series still gets me going, considering I do feel bad putting my seat back on an airplane! What Americans might not understand is just how applicable these ads are to the average Canadian. I have also lit a hockey stick on fire trying to bend it (even though I don’t even play hockey), turned down the company of attractive females for the NHL playoffs, been asked by an American if I lived in an igloo, and also asked if I knew Joe from Toronto. Seriously. Silly as it may be, these nationalistic commercials that have not much to do with actual beer probably helped solidify in my mind the superiority of Canadian beer. When I consider that they used to sponsor Hockey Night in Canada, of which changing the theme song was a national issue, I realize that I likely have Molson to thank for my assumptions.
Researching the subject of Canadian versus American beer online, I stumbled across numerous forums accusing American beer of being watery. The basis for such arguments were generally that American beer contains less alcohol than Canadian beer. Considering that alcohol content is not paramount to quality or taste and that it should vary depending on beer style, I’d say the alcohol content argument is a bit ridiculous. Further investigation yields that Canadians measure alcohol by volume and Americans measure alcohol by weight. Alcohol weighs less than water, which means that, even though the percentages on the packaging read higher in Canada, similar American and Canadian beers contain the same amount of alcohol. However, I will contend that whatever beer I bought the last time I was at Quest Field in Seattle was a horrible, watery, waste of $10USD.
Reading up on the mainstream brewing industry in Canada, it seems that all the big, storied Canadians breweries have recently come under foreign ownership. Molson, founded in 1786 and the oldest beer brand in North America, is now owned by Coors. Labatt, founded in 1847, is now owned by InBev. And Sleeman, founded in 1834, is now owned by Sapporo. This leaves Moosehead as the largest Canadian owned brewer withonly own 5% of the Canadian beer consumption market. What I consider an even bigger tradegy than the foreign ownership of our big breweries, is that the majority of the population drinks the favlorless, uninteresting, substandard beer these guys are putting out there.
When it comes to making a choice, I’d probably go for a Molson Canadian or Labatt Blue over a Coors Light, Budweiser, or Miller Genuine Draft, but the truth of the matter is that I’d rather not drink any of them. I’d prefer to drink a microbrewed beer, Canadian or American, made by people who care, over any of the macobrewed stuff. Microbrewing is thriving in Canada and the USA and their are plenty of great Canadian and American microbrewed beers available that are consistently of higher quality. And when I say quality, I am referring to taste, natural ingredients, and pure brewing processes, not price. Proponents of price as a factor in buying beer have it all wrong. Sure, a 24 pack of Canadian or Bud might be the cheapest way to drink beer, but it’s not all about volume. One beer should fill you up; it’s what it was invented for! Give me a few large bottles of quality microbrewed stuff over a 24 pack anyday. Really, please give them to me.
My honest opinion these days is that neither Canadian nor American beer is better or worse. Both countries produce great, poor, and everything in between beer. I do think that America produces ten times as much bad beer as we do, though they also produce ten times as much good beer, mostly because they have ten times the population. I surely count American breweries among my favorites, including Anchor and Rogue to name two whose products are readily available in these parts. It’s a tragedy that BC is bereft of more of the great stuff coming out of the American Pacific Northwest. Likewise, I feel like Americans are missing out on some of the great stuff we produce up here, Philips is one example. For some info on good American beers, check out this Toronto Star article.
I really believe that the best beer can be found locally, in the USA and in Canada. There is likely somebody in your neighborhood making really good beer that could use your support. The pride I felt watching the “I am Canadian” commercials as a kid I hope I can feel again supporting my local beer community. In my view, it’s the only way back.
Cheers,
Chris
Why we started a blog about loving beer
Thursday, December 11th, 2008 | Beer | No Comments
Chris, Erik and Dads at Swans in Victoria
Earlier this year in September Erik and I took a beer trip to Victoria, BC with our Dads. We visited breweries and brewpubs and drank a lot of good beer. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done, not because of the itinerary, but because I got to bond with my father, father-in-law, and brother-in-law and make some great memories (good stories coming in another post). I love the taste of beer, but what I love most about beer is how it can bring people together. The times that I drink beer, after soccer games with the team, Friday at five with coworkers, and on weekends with friends and family, are generally the most enjoyable times of my life. Such is my passion for beer.
We started this blog because we love beer and we want to learn more about it. I have Erik to thank for kicking my interest in beer up a notch. Erik brews his own beer and is very dedicated to his craft. Spending an entire weekend carefully monitoring a boiling mash and then suffering through the rigorous cleaning of his brewing equipment is his idea of fun. I am already tired thinking about it; I think I need a beer. I on the other hand, being the inquisitive engineering type, love learning about how beer is made, that and drinking it.
I love drinking the beer Erik makes. I once asked him why his beer tastes so much better than the typical liquor store varietals. Turns out he uses high quality ingredients and puts a lot of care into it, which seemed quite obviously like a good way to go about brewing to me. He told me that Anheuser-Busch brews Budweiser using a percentage of rice, which, if you know anything about beer, is blasphemy. Quality beer is supposed to only contain water, barley, hops and yeast. Rice is used because it is cheaper than barley, ferments more quickly, and imparts very little flavor, which basically translates to cheap, flavorless beer. You may not have noticed, but Budweiser has started advertising that it is now brewed with six-row barley, letting it be known that they no longer use rice. The funny thing here is that six-row barley is the less preferred (cheaper, less suited for beer making) kind of barley that craft brewers try to avoid (two-row barley is where it’s at). King of beers my ass. Hearing of this opened my eyes to the disparity that exists in beer and got me much more interested in drinking good beer.
I always knew that I loved drinking beer with my friends, but now I find myself really excited about beer in general, excited enough to start a blog. My goal in starting this blog is to learn more about beer, find better beer to drink, and hopefully help the people who care to read this blog drink better beer too. We plan to blog about:
- beer we drink
- places to drink beer
- making your own beer
- beer events
- beer recipes
- breweries we visit
- anything else beer related that pops up
If anyone has any suggestions for us, we’d love to hear about them. Please comment on any of our posts or email us. Also, don’t drink and drive; it totally sucks. Also, please feel free to send us free beer.
Cheers,
Chris