[Rhodes22-list] Beer!

[John Lock]

At 12:57 PM 10/3/2008 -0400, Andrew Collins wrote:
>You have made me sad, another illusion dashed. I bow to your obviously
>better info.  I do not drink any regular American beers at all, but if
>memory serves, even Japanese swill is better than the name brand domestic
>beers.

Like the U.S. market, the Japanese are seeing a resurgence of finely 
crafted ales from small breweries.  But they don't make it to the 
U.S.  If I'm at a Japanese restaurant, I order Kirin Ichiban, which I 
think is the best of the current exports.

>What we do drink is
>Stella Artois
>Erdinger Hefeweizen
>Spaten - all types
>Heineken because the 1st mate likes it
>Dorada - a tasty Spanish lager while in Tenerife, not available anywhere
>else

Brace yourself, you're not gonna like this either - Stella Artois and 
Heineken are pretty poor examples of what used to be stellar 
beers.  Most of Europe is going the way of the huge multi-national 
brewery, which is all about profit.  The cheaper they can make a 
product that people will still drink the better.  And those damn 
green bottles don't help shelf-life any... ugh.  I understand the 
locally brewed version is much better.

The German brewing law still applies to local products, so you can 
usually get good beer in Germany.  But the big boys (Becks, 
Warsteiner, others) found that they could make a different recipe for 
export and skip the expensive ingredients.  But it's not all bad news...

Erdinger and Spaten are still excellent examples of the brewer's 
craft.  You will like the Paulaner brands as well.  Also look for 
Weihenstephaner Hefe from the world's oldest brewery, operating 
continuously since 1040 a.d. (although local monks were brewing 
"unofficially" as early as 725)  It's easily found in the U.S.

Cheers!

John Lock
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s/v Pandion - '79 Rhodes 22
Lake Sinclair, GA
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