Replies

I occasionally drink Rolling Rock. It has more character than Bud or any of the Busch beers. I hope Busch doesn't screw it up.
After living in Germany for 4 years, I don't drink Miller, Bud or the crappy wholesale American beer. Microbrews can be good, but I now drink Spaten which is a Munich beer similar to Spatenbrau sold in Germany.

I know that Busch has tried to buy the Czech beer company that makes Budvar. I have been to Czechoslovakia and had fresh Budvar, it is 100 times better than Budweiser:

Budweis (noun)

Pronunciation: ['bud-vIs]

Definition: The German name of the Czech city of Ceske Budejovice.

Usage: The city of Cesky Budejovice is called "Budweis" in German so that Budweiser Beer means "beer from Budweis" in that language. The American brewery Anheuser-Busch began using the name in 1876. The problem is that the Czechs have been brewing beer—which they called the Beer of Kings—in their town since thirsty King Premysl II Otakar (son of good King Wenceslas I) founded the city in 1245. Unfortunately for the Czechs, they only began calling their beer Budweiser Budvar in 1895 and ever since that time the two breweries have been locked in a legal battle for rights to use the name.

Suggested Usage: The new problem brewing for the US brewer now is that, according to the laws of the new European Union (EU), of which the Czech Republic became a member this past week, manufacturers may use the name of a location only if their plant is situated in that location. So far, however, after a century of legal squabbles, both sides are still brewing beer under the name "Budweiser."

Etymology: By the way, another Czech town, "Plzen," or "Pilsen" in German, has given its name to a type of beer widely called "Pils." The next beer battle in the EU? (Roberto Carosiello of Turin, Italy wondered if linguistics had anything to say about these disputes. Linguistically, all we have to do is keep these words capitalized and we are both grammatical and legal.)

–Dr. Language, YourDictionary.com

That's funny that you mentioned Leinenkugel's.

Back in the early 80's (when I was in high school), we used to drive across the border into Wisconsin to buy beer. More often that not, we'd buy Leinie's.

The beer was either the most hideous tasting swill you'd ever drank - or it was the most heavenly-tasting beer you'd ever drank. There was no uniformity of taste whatsoever.

When Miller bought them, they evened out the taste to a pretty uniform. I guess that's no surprise when a big company buys out a smaller one.

Did you ever experience the ups and down of Lienie's like I did?