"We put in just a touch of formaldehyde for flavor."
Posted on 11/24/2014 8:20:22 PM PST by wetphoenix
Milos Zeman, president of the Czech Republic, has branded American beer as “filthy water” during a business summit in Kazakhstan but US brewers needn’t pay too much attention.
During the trip, Kazakhstan’s long-running president, Nursultan Nazarbaev (who has run the country since 1989), asked Zeman (pictured above) which beer he thought was the best in the world.
According to Reuters Zeman replied that, “Czech beer is the best in the world. No American company that offers filthy water instead of beer can compete with us.”
Zeman is used to controversial and often profane statements, the 70-year-old even calling Russian protest band “Pussy Riot”, “c***s” live on Czech radio.
Meanwhile, earlier this month on the 25th anniversary of the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia he was pelted with eggs after claiming the police did not use violence to suppress the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989 (Zeman himself was a member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party from 1968-1970).
His approval ratings have fallen from 58% to 37% in little over a month and last week some 71% of Czechs polled said they thought his public statements were harming the country’s image.
The Czechs are indeed Europe’s biggest beer drinkers with a per capita consumption of 148.6 litres.
The comments may cause some offence to Americans but they also come as other headlines from the US claim that Americans are drinking more craft beer than Budweiser (a US brand that had an extremely long legal wrangle with Czech brand Budweiser Budvar).
The Wall Street Journal reported that even Budweiser’s brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev even admits that around 44% of 21-27-year-olds in the US today have never tasted the brew.
Budweiser’s market dominance has been on the wane since it peaked in 1988 at 50 million barrels. It had declined to 16m last year with Bud Light and Coors Light displacing it to the top two spots in 2001 and 2011 respectively.
However, craft beer has also been on the rise and, all-together, now produces 16.1m barrels and holds a 7% share of the overall market in the US, with volumes growing 18% in the first seven months of this year compared to last and commanding an export market worth US$73m.
I thought I was the only one that liked Pabst!
Coors Light is the most undrinkable liquid ever invented, but there are certainly good American beers.
In Vietnam, if you couldn't get PBR, there was the native brand Ba Mu'o'i Ba (Thirty-Three). It is said that to keep it from going bad in a tropical country with few refrigerators, formaldehyde was used as a preservative. The brew was even celebrated in song: Ba Mu'o'i Ba by Barry Sadler (1966).
Today, this beer is available in the US in some places and it actually tastes pretty good.
My favorite Texan beer is Pedernales, from Fredericksburg.
"We put in just a touch of formaldehyde for flavor."
Bohemia. A great beer from Mexico.
Interesting. Thanks.
When I was there in 1972, the best beer was Stella, an Egyptian beer. The Egyptians were apparently sending beer to the Soviet Union in return for all of the military hardware Moscow was sending.
The Soviet brand Moskovskoye (Muscovite), which was to be found everywhere, was the worst beer I have ever had. It came in glass bottles and was always served warm.
Why the feigned shock?
That American beer is mostly watery horse-p*ss is not exactly a state secret.
Bohemia. A great beer from Mexico.
Yes, it’s a great beer.
Corona is over rated. IMO
Oh man...Singha and San Miguel... *drool*
Sapporo used to (dunno if they still do) make a schwarzbier called called Sapporo Black or something like that. Really nice. Smooth, malty, and a nice toffee-like finish.
POLAR!! Don’t know if it was the beer, the cold beer or the heat and humidity but the best beer I ever had was a Polar from a cooler run by electricity from a generator in a town that only had lights and power between about dark and midnight... most days. It was in Venezuela out in the bush on a island in the Orinoco surrounded by mangrove swamps and miles and miles of empty world. I had spent the day looking for abandoned wells out in the mangroves in a canoe with some hired indian cutters hacking our way through the thickets and that Polar sure tasted good. I don’t even like beer so I had three more. Every day for the next few weeks I had an ice cold Polar. Those were good days. Those were great days. I was free, on my own, accomplishing work that needed to be done. It was so simple.
I’d agree but let’s see what he says after trying Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, or a decently made microbrew. In fact, one wonders does he not know about the American craft brewing industry, the biggest of its kind in the world.
LOL. The formaldehyde rumor is current with the two best selling Thai beers, Chang and Singhai. Neither is particularly good beer.
Don't say that, Chang sponsors my Everton.
LOL. That they do!!
They still make Schlitz? Many years ago, that was my Dad’s beer of choice over non-union Coors “rat” beer... couldn’t have anything else in the ‘fridge... except for the odd can or two of Billy Beer...
Beer snobs. Ugh!
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