[Leica] Was St. Pauli Girl is beer quality

[douglas.sharp at gmx.de (Douglas Sharp)]

Yes Doug, you're right,
as the independent breweries are taken over by the likes of InBev and 
Interbrew the quality and taste is becoming worse.
A real refreshingly bitter Budvice (Budweiser Original from the Czech 
Republik) or an icy cold Tuborg Lager are not what they used to be, 
Tuborg now turns up in plastic bottles at discount supermarkets (Aldi, 
Lidl) in Germany , along with hundreds of other insipid no name beers. 
The once classic brews are no longer coaxed into being by master 
brewers, fermentation times, maturing times and other aspects which only 
the expert could control by sight, taste and smell are all now computer 
controlled in clinical environments.
The trend in Germany seems to be 1) make it taste like Beck's Export 2) 
make it weak 3) make it cheap. In Hannover alone three traditional 
breweries have been taken over and closed down, their products have been 
replaced by standard brews without a trace of character.
One of the last breweries that lets their beers mature before bottling 
is fighting for its existence too.
Belgian and British multi-brewers are taking over whatever they can grab 
- they have already succeeded in making beer into a young, dynamic disco 
and party drink where the only attributes it has are cold, light and 
pale, bottled Mexican beers were all the rage a couple of years ago.
We can only hope that there may be a beer revolution in continental 
Europe similar in effect to what CAMRA (nearly on topic), the British 
Campaign for Real Ale, managed to bring about in the UK. Pub chains with 
mass produced excuses for beer were more or less boycotted out of the 
market and forced to get back to traditional brewing methods, this shake 
up lasted for many years and saw the rise (and unfortunately, fall) of 
some fantastic brews from small independents, some became so successful 
that they themselves turned into gigantic concerns which again lost 
their edge (Theakstons of Masham), but, the revolution continues and I 
estimate that there must now be around a thousand or more small 
breweries producing excellent beers all over the UK. These range in size 
from backyard breweries supplying only 1 pub to medium scale concerns on 
a regional scale, outside these regions their beers are often sold as so 
called "Guest Beers", usually just a couple of barrels per pub - my 
local in Whitby (North Yorkshire) the "Tap and Spile" , where we spend 
our summer vacation(in Whitby , not the pub), reached their 723rd guest 
beer while we were there.All of these are hand pumped out of the barrel 
without the help of CO2
bottles - of course you can still by "piss beers" but , in a decent pub 
they don't make up for much of the profits. The second revolution was 
the reduction of the number of "Tied Houses" which were forced to sell 
the products of only one brewery, "Free Houses" are now more or less the 
rule.The third revolution went hand in hand with the improvements in 
beer quality, no decent pub is now without passable to excellent 
lunchtime and evening food.
BTW, I hope too that a similar revolution may be seen here as is 
happening on the chocolate front, milk chocolate is OUT, 45%, 60%, 70% 
and even 90% dark chocolate is IN, dark and bitter and 3 times the 
price. Chocolate has become a cult since a couple of years ago - and 
it's still growing.
cheers
Douglas



dnygr wrote:

>I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel many German beers have lost 
>their distinctive taste. Danish beers as well. Is it just me or has their 
>been a drift in the taste of European beers?
>
>I do know that I have been disappointed by the taste of Pilsner Urquell on 
>tap of late and I began to wonder if the brew had been changed.
>
>I did a google search and found the company had been bought by the same 
>folks who picked up Miller in this country. 
>
>Further research showed that some English chaps have been noting a change 
>in brewing traditions on the continent. They noted that some breweries in 
>the Czech Republic have gone from 60 days to 40 days of fermentation. They 
>said the result was a beer that while not offensive was not memorable. This 
>fit how I experienced Pilsner Urquell of late. That beer used to have a 
>distintive taste to my pallete. 
>
>It may just be that my taste buds have changed and the English chaps are 
>making it all up. It would be interesting to hear if anyone else has noted 
>the change. 
>
>Prosit--Doug
>
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