Bits and pieces

[pecunium]

Some interesting links. Bishop Womack, Prophetic Physician

Most doctors spend time trying to suppress symptoms instead of treating root causes of problems. At the Chapel of Miracles my approach is just the opposite...

Majikthise points to a restaurant review which describes one hell of a menu.

Lawyers, Guns and Money is discussing what beer is the best for breakfast (I'm a Guiness man in that regard, though if I want a less filling/more cooling [though more intoxicating] morning bevande, Pilsner Urquell, or Anchor Steam are the way to go).

For a different take on beer, Daniel at Crooked Timber is holds forth; with the assertion that not only does he like Budweiser (his right) but that it's, in an objective sense, "good beer." Where he loses me is here, The Anheuser-Busch company began selling it in 1876. This was a full 20 years before the Budvar brewery in Ceske Budejowice was even built, a subject I will come back to. The recipe has not changed since then, apart from a period during Prohibition when the alcohol content was reduced to 0.5% in order to comply with the law. It is an authentic, traditional product just like the ones CAMRA promotes.

Budweiser is not “full of chemicals”. It does not comply with the German “Purity Law”, but this is because it has a non-barley grain in it (rice).

That rice is a change in the recipe. It's also become a more prominent note in the "flavor" of Bud.

He also compares apples to oranges when he tries to defend rice in beer by pointing out sake is made from rice. They aren't the same drink.

It's not that I'm a Reinheitgebot fanatic (e.g. I love lambics, which don't meet the requirements). Rolling Rock Lager is a beer I used to like. It was sweeter than other light-flavored lagers. Not from an excess of barley malt (which gives a very distinctive, heavy, feel to the sweetness. For an example look at Gordon Beirsch's märzen), but because they used some corn in the mash.

That gave it some of the lighter, sweeter, notes which show up in sour mash whiskeys.

Busch bought them out in the late '80s, as I recall. The corn started to be replaced with rice. The beer started to taste like watered piss.

That's my problem with Bud. It's not that they are upstarts (they aren't, certainly not in the states). It's not that they make the beer in swimming pool sized lots and then age them with 4x4s in giant tanks (because other breweries, and wineries I like, do much the same).

No, it's that I think the beer they make lacks flavor, and goes thin and sour as soon as it gets the least bit warm. The only times I have been able to finish a can of it, was in a couple of long draughts, straight off the ice, when shovelling manure in the blazing sun.

Comments

[clownburner.livejournal.com]

Amen to that! Rice has its place (I love good sake) but its place is NOT in beer.

[antiquated-tory.livejournal.com]

They've been brewing beer in Ceske Budejovice since 1265 according to the Budvar site (http://www.budvar.cz/en/web/Znacka-Budvar/Pivovarnictvi-v-Cesku-a-CB.html), so even if the current Budvar brewery is younger than A-B, the identity "Budweiser bier" or "Budejovicky pivo" would have been around for quite a while, which is I believe what the arbitraters concluded.
phonemonkey had some Buds when we were in the States last time and thought there was something wrong with it, perhaps that they had accidentally put water in the can, until we told her otherwise. Except for that and some Miller Lite, we didn't have any bad beer in the States, although we found one IPA to be unpleasantly overhopped, far too floral.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

There's more to it.

Most of Europe decided that, like Champagne, or Bordeaux, it was a regional issue. So they can call it "Bud" but not Budweiser. On the flip side they own not only Budweiser in the states, but all sorts of variants. Budvar can't go by that in the States, because Anheiser-Busch claims all the various ways in which 'bud' might be part of the name (this is related to the way the Gallo Brothers sued their brother for having the gall to use the family name on the cheese he made).

So in the states, Budvar is Czechvar.

TK

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

As it happens, I consider (and might argue) that Bud/(American) Budweiser, served properly chilled, is a pleasantly refreshing beverage. The Problem arises when it's called "beer" and there's a pretense that it can reasonably be compared with _real_ beers and ales. Mind you, it was my (mildly-alcoholic) beverage of choice for several decades, but that was in an era when Bud was often the best available (&/or affordable). [Delete Rant about this Younger Generation not knowing how good they have it.] There really was a time when, for most Americans, the handful of popular brands had, in effect, a monopoly on the market.

Hooray, beer!

[waterlilly.livejournal.com]

::sigh:: I remember when Bud was drinkable. It was back in the 80's, when I was theoretically too young to drink it. I'm glad I'm not imagining that it tasted better then.

Now, my personal beer of choice is Shiner Bock. I hear it's hard to get outside of Texas, which is a shame. It's pretty good. And for better or special occasions, Guinness. Although I picked up a bottle of Paulaner Octoberfest (amber) for this weekend because I wanted something else I like that's a little different, and my parents might come over this weekend and I wanted to impress my Dad with more than one kind of good beer in the fridge. :)