Re: King of beers

There's an important distinction, though, in that (mis)labeling Bud as a "pilsner" doesn't prohibit Plzn, or a brewery in Pilsen, (or anyone else brewing that style of beer for that matter) from using the name.

Technically speaking referring to the beer as a budweiser wouldn't require exclusivity of the name either, I guess.

But yeah, they appropriated a good beer name and then made it an exclusive copyright. Er, trademark. Whatever.

Mmm, rice.

What I wonder about is why it took so long for the Czech brewery in question to market Budvar or Czechvar or whatever it is, and why they wanted to "take back" a name that was associated with bland lowest-common-denominator beerwater.

Not all of it, but the one that's sold as "Czechvar" is a Bohemian Pilsener, is it not?

Depends on how anal one wants to be about the term pilsner. If you go with the literal construction - which I don't - anything not from Plzn cannot be called Pilsner. Stylistically, it's pretty similar but perhaps not as bitter as so called "classic" pilsners. One can call it a light Czech lager and be pretty safe.

-Steve

History, legal agreements and a tiny little inconvenience known as Communism.

The Czech brewers of Budweiser and A-B entered into an agreement early in the 20th century specifying where they could sell their identically named beers. The Czech brewers got Europe, A-B got North America, and I don't remember how other territories shook out.

That agreement still stands.

As far as trying to sell it on A-B's turf - for half a century there were very minimal exports from communist countries to North America. During the

1990s, the brewery needed to devote a lot of energy just to operating and surviving in a capitalist environment. It's only in recent years that they've had the wherewithall to attempt exporting to North America.

-Steve

This is a bit of a trick, this terminology. In the Czech Republic, there is only one place where Pilsener beers come from: the city of Pilsen (or Plzen or however you want to spell it). Therefore, only Pilsner Urquell and Gambrinus beers are Pilseners. Czechvar is produced in Ceske Budejovice, so therefore, no beers made at this brewery are Pilseners. However, the German name of this town is Budweis, and both Budvar and Samson come from this town - yep, they're both "Budweisers."

And never mind that common usage over the last one and a half centuries has conspired to make the term "Pilsener" meaningless in terms of geography.

Gee and all this time growing up in St. Louis I thought Bud was a Lager. Did I ever really memorize the banner at the top of the label during all those drinking games???? :-)

Orbitus

Joseph Michael Bay wrote:

Nah, it's a beer.

but...but...but HEY I'll put our American micro brews up against your Euro swill anytime!

Subject: Re: King of beers From: Tabloid snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (William Hillary) Date: 8/2/03 7:49 PM Pacific Daylight Time Message-id:

but...but...but HEY I'll put our American micro brews up against your Euro swill anytime!

Sure, as a last resort, why not. American micro brews taste like screwed up experiments. LOL!

Euro beers generally taste like formaldehyde

Heineken is the king of Euro swill

Euros seem to believe they have some mythical beer making processes and ingredients that Yanks don't know about, WRONG

Re: King of beers Group: alt.beer Date: Mon, Aug 4, 2003, 12:49am (CDT+5) From: snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Sobowtor) Subject: Re: King of beers From: Tabloid snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (William Hillary) Date: 8/2/03 7:49 PM Pacific Daylight Time Message-id: but...but...but HEY I'll put our American micro brews up against your Euro swill anytime! Sure, as a last resort, why not. American micro brews taste like screwed up experiments. LOL!

I would rather say that most every euro (continental that is) beer taste like every other. There are exceptions of course, say the Belgians but German beer? what a bore.

German beer has nearly the variety that Belgian beer has. You need to get out more.

-Steve

I wouldn't have a problem agreeing that *in general* there's a wider range of beer styles and a wider set of parameters for those styles in Belgium versus in Germany.

-- Joel Plutchak Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots

"Resorting to personal harassment is a tactic of desperation."

LOL! Gotta ask ya Steve, have you been drinking? If so, I want some!

Best regards, Bill

PS: Actually, I'm sipping on some Deschutes brews..Obsidian Stout, Mirror Pond Pale, and Pine Mountain Pils, in reverse order.