back to article Czechs toast Bud-beating beer win

Beer drinkers in the Czech Republic, and that's most of country, will be raising a glass today to celebrate a local victory against Anheuser-Busch, the maker of US "beer" Budweiser. The problem was that one of the Czech Republic's most famous beers, and biggest exports after Škodas and Semtex, is called Budweiser Budvar. The …

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  1. Code Monkey

    A victory for common sense and decent lager

    Congratulations to Proper Bud*! In celebration I might try the 3 Budvar thing tonight.

    * As opposed to scarily yellow American piss

  2. Philip J.F. Quinlan
    Happy

    title

    I assume claiming that stuff was beer was the reason for the refusal

  3. Chris Miller
    Coat

    Oh dear

    I suppose the guys from Anheuser-Busch will just have to search for another European-sounding name for their beer-style product. I understand Gnatspisz, a venerable Hungarian product, is available and sounds quite appropriate.

    1. Gordon Shumway

      Gnatswhat?

      Even teh Google doesn't know this string of letters.

  4. SuperTim
    Pint

    Good.

    I know which i prefer, and where "Budweiss" is (unlike your average septic).

    Besides, Czech beer has a history of being the yardstick by which many are measured. Take Pilsen as well. Still like Staropramen the best though......

    No i am really thirsty.....Damn you El Reg!

    Beer.....Natch....

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: Good.

      Staropramen? You're weird.

      I'll stick with the Pilsner Urquell, or the Budvar, or the Krusovice (especially the dark stuff), or, well, just about anything Czech except Staropramen really.

      About the only thing it's got going for it is that it's cheap*. It's also quite likely to give you the trots (and I do not mean that drinking it risks the return of a communist government).

      *Except groundside at Ruzyne airport, where it's the most expensive beer in CZ by a wide margin.

      1. Tomothy Toemouse
        Pint

        What I would prefer right now

        would be Starobrno or Dalesice.

        Should have drunk more of it when I was there last week.

        1. Intractable Potsherd
          Thumb Up

          Czech beer

          I'll have Kozel, thanks!

  5. Rob Crawford

    A sensible decision for once

    now is there any way they can have the US version classified as something other than beer?

    There are decent American beers but Budweiser isn't one of them.

    1. F111F
      Pint

      Amen, Brother

      After spending many years living in Europe and drinking local brews, I cannot stand the recycled water that many of my fellow countrymen here in the U.S.A. call "beer". That goes for Miller, Coors, Bud, etc. Give me a good lager, ale, or stout any day.

      BTW, I believe it's now 5 O'Clock somewhere...

  6. Gaz Jay

    New name for US Budweiser?

    Does this mean that the US Budweiser will have to be called something different in the EU now?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      No...

      ...it already has existed for sometime.

      It was a simple case US Bud tried to buy / force out EU Bud name.

      EU bud name no longer has to worry about trademark infringements / being bullied by larger US rival.

      So basically they can both exist side by side.

    2. Alan Esworthy
      Pint

      New nickname...

      ...is Beach Sex

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        ITYM

        .... Love in a Canoe :-)

    3. stizzleswick
      Boffin

      Re: new name

      Anheuser-Busch's American Feline Excrement has been sold for a few years in Europe as "Anheuser Busch B" to avoid a trademark battle until this issue was legally settled.

  7. Justin Stringfellow
    FAIL

    rice beer

    The american budweiser is made with rice, FFS. How is that even a beer?

  8. Roger Kynaston
    Pint

    Real Beer, real victory

    Can't raise a glass of Budvar tonight as I am driving but I will make a point of sampling both Czech and _good_ US beer at the GBBF next week.

  9. SmallYellowFuzzyDuck, how pweety!
    Thumb Up

    Title goes here

    I have always suspected that the difference in taste between the Czech beer and the American beer is that the American beer appears to have gone through one additional filtration system prior to bottling, most likely a human being.

    Yeah, go go Czech beer, I love ya!

  10. Alan 6
    Coat

    Obligatory Monty Python reference

    What have making love in a canoe and American beer got in common

    They're both fucking close to water...

    1. Code Monkey

      Another

      "It's not a bottle for drinking, it's one for laying down and avoiding"

    2. Rippy
      Headmaster

      Monty Python? I doubt it.

      I think Monty Python is unlikely to be the origin of the "love in a canoe" simile since I'm sure that I heard it in Western Canada sometime in the late '50s or early '60s.

      Not that I would disparage that fine group -- I couldn't possibly, not after Mr. Cleese announced "Michael, you're no longer the funniest Palin".

      G.

  11. Gene Cash Silver badge
    Pint

    Semtex?

    So after blowing something up, you can have a nice cold one?

    Seriously though, I'm here in America, and even I can't stand that pisswater.

    Discovery Channel mentioned that Prohibition killed all the American beers, since they had to switch to non-alcoholic drinks and apparently lost their recipe/skill in the meantime. So even though they've "been around since 1852" that doesn't mean anything... the real American Budweiser is long dead, killed by the "can't stand anyone having fun" christians.

    1. Hud Dunlap
      Coat

      @gene cash

      Another reason for prohibition was to get back at the German-Americans who supported Germany in WW I. The beer brewing industry so heavily controlled by the German-Americans the meetings were held using German instead of english.

      Even after prohibition many state had laws reducing the strength of the beers. Hence the bottled water. Before the microbrewery craze the only beer using German style brewing methods was Micholobe.

      Mines the one with the botte of Sam Adams.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    "...the maker of US "beer" Budweiser."

    LOL.

  13. pete23
    Pint

    Pub anyone?

    I really have a fierce thirst now. And not for the merkin piss at that...

  14. Sam Tait
    Pint

    Fair play to the Czechs, but

    Most of the guys I know around Prague wouldn't consider drinking either Staropramen or Budvar, which seem to be held in the same contempt as Australians show for Fosters and XXXX.

    Now, Gambrinus on the other hand ...

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    @Rob Crawford

    Decent American beers? It's an interesting concept!

    Glad to see common sense prevailed for once, and that the proper, decent, drinkable Budweiser has won the day! They'll have their revenge of course, we'll have to start calling those glass things in walls "wall openings" or some such malarkey, when BG decides to enforce his trademarks!

    1. Matt Piechota

      Yes, decent American beer

      "Decent American beers? It's an interesting concept!"

      While in England some years ago, the only American beers I saw were Bud and Rolling Rock. Upon commenting on that, a local imparted this wisdom: countries only export the beer they don't want to drink themselves. That's why 90% of the time English beer in the US is Bass or Newcastle Brown (although I don't mind the Newcastle).

      There are a couple mid-size US brewers that make decent beer, and tons of small brewers. Sam Adams (although I'm not a huge fan), Magic Hat, or Victory (which I have the luck to live within 20 miles (32 km) of. :) ). And those are just East Coast.

      1. Alan Newbury
        Pint

        "countries only export the beer they don't want to drink"

        Which is why you seldom see Fosters here in Oz

        (Typed while drinking a bottle of Cascade,,,)

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Na zdraví, indeed!

    I will drink to this (although I only have some Swedish Three Towns beer in my fridge at the moment.)

    *burp*

  17. envmod

    bud?

    i fear it will simply be called "Bud" which will annoy me.

    1. Dazed and Confused
      Pint

      In France

      > i fear it will simply be called "Bud" which will annoy me.

      Hasn't it been simply called Bub in France for the last 10->15 years already for this very reason. I thought the French had decided against the US giant on this years ago and banned them using the name. At least I'm sure that is what the French barman I used to know told me.

  18. AshC
    Thumb Up

    US "beer"...

    ...superb...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Ignorance

      Ignorance is bliss isn't it?

      When you talk of US beer what you mean is beer brewed by large corporations. We have exactly the same problem in europe. If you're old enough you'll remember the fizzy keg piss that was commonly sold in the UK a few decades back. This stuff was cheap to brew and had a long shelf life so the big brewers like it even though drinkers don't. As a direct result of this stuff becoming almost ubiquitous CAMRA was formed. The breweries appeared to give in and start brewing proper beer, but they didn't really. They brewed the stuff, but it was still hard to come by and the guest beer was always "off" in most tied houses. They switched their cheap brewing allegience to nasty fake Pilsners such as Hoffmeister and convinced everybody they should be drinking them. Pressure to brew "real beer" continued and such crap as "smooth" beers and "premium lagers" appeared, these are still cheap to brew and tastless. Clever advertising has convinced a lot of people that "smooth" beers are real beer and that premium lagers are somehow more real than the fake Pilsner piss we had pushed at us for years. Guess what? They're not. Smooth stuff is just a new way of having cheap beer with a long shelf life. Premium lagers are the same old piss brewed stronger, still tasteless and still not real beer.

      Yup big British breweries have been doing the same things to beer and beer drinkers as the likes of AB for decades, but maybe the brit breweries did not have quitew such agressive business practices as AB.

      There are plenty of independent breweries in the US brewing absolutely beautiful beers. Just like the UK most of them are regional and you have to drink or shop in the right places to get them, but they are there.

      And you all seem to have missed the point that Bud is no longer a US beer as such anyway. Since AB were absorbed into the InBev giant it's become a world beer. But if there is any significance in the fact that AB Inbev are headquartered in Europe then it's a Eurpopean beer.

      1. Richard Laval

        Follow that bear

        I liked Hoffmeister. It didn't pretend to be anything it wasn't and you didn't have to sit in a dull, brown, old mans pub listening to a bunch of anal retards banging on about how warm, cloudy, chewy water was the next best thing to nirvana.

  19. Marky W
    Unhappy

    I feel sad

    The triumph of marketing over quality that [the American] buttwiper represents makes me fear for the future of humanity. Ok, that might be a smidge melodramatic, but I can't honestly think of a beer more undeserving of selling in such volumes.

    As an old friend of mine once said: "I'd rather drink my own warm piss".

  20. disgruntled yank

    "another European-sounding name"

    What, you don't like the Malay ring of Anheuser or the Chinese look of Busch?

    A hell of a lot of the old line American beers have or had European sounding names (Hamm, Pabst, Coors, Busch, Heileman's, Schmidt's, Heurich etc. etc.) because the eponymous founding brewers were immigrants from, well, Europe.

    It is true that many too many of them fell off badly from their origins, alas. I applaud the Czech triumph.

  21. censored
    Thumb Up

    I've never understood the Yanks' claim...

    "We had the name first so it's ours"

    "OK. So where did you get the name from,, as it sounds awfully similar to the town our beer is made?"

    "....."

    1. stizzleswick
      Boffin

      IIRC,

      the Anheuser-Busch brewery bought a license to use the name from the original brewerysomewhen in the early 1900s, for use in North America only.

  22. Ron Eve
    Pint

    Thank goodness...

    ...that reason prevailed.

    That anyone should think US Budweiser is a beer in anything but name should be taken outside and pelted with their own shite. They should be hauled up under the Trades Description Act then flogged.

    Major Road-Works (Retd)

    Tunbridge Wells

  23. D@v3
    Pint

    3 Budvar?

    From my experience, one of the best things about 'real' beer such as Bedweiser Budvar, is that you can drink just about as many of them as you want, as they are of a less polluted nature.

    unlike your 'sex in a canoe' beers like carling/fosters/carlsberg etc...

  24. Hi Wreck

    Bud

    Not only can they not make beer, they can't spell either: ie "Bud Lite".

    $diety only knows how one could make Bud in a "lite" version to begin with.

  25. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    Stop

    @ Rob Crawford

    Agreed Rob. There are many interesting micro-breweries in the US making many interesting beers. Budweiser, on the other hand (a) is neither "beer", nor "pilsner" by it's technical yardstick, and (b) is complete pisswater.

  26. davefb
    Pint

    to be fair to the 'merkins

    when stuck in san diego due to work commitments ( GET THE PROJECT FINISH FOR GODS SAKE).. I was terrified that I might be stuck with the choice of Bud or Bud Light.

    But , not only was there a bar where one could get Pilsner Urqel ( amongst 400 different beers, 100 on draft!!!!). There was also an amazing choice of 'locally' and not so local American beers. I'd especially recommend the Karl Strauss selection for one ( or err more ;) ).....

  27. Kar98
    IT Angle

    American beer

    There are plenty of American brewski that are top notch and very tasty. But you won't get them for eight bucks a twelve pack. "B" isn't even the most foul of the major brands. That honor goes to Miller Light, which has all the flavor of a pus-encrusted band-aid (or "plaster" for you Brits) and none of its visual appeal.

    IT angle? It's about BEER! There's your IT angle right there.

  28. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    There is no beer like Belgian beer

    And you have not tasted beer until you've had a Brigand, or a Grimbergen Triple, or an Orval, and I could on and on for a lot longer than the size limit allows.

    I bless the fact that I live not far from the Belgian border, so as to be able to easily sample any number of simply astounding beers whenever I fancy.

    The Brigand, the Duvel, the Mort Subite, the Kwak with its hourglass-shaped glass that is the foundation of so many laughs (and spills !) . . .

    No. Nobody can make beer like the Belgians.

    Not the Aussies, not the Germans, not the Czechs and most certainly not Americans.

    1. Billl
      Grenade

      Belgian beer

      While I agree that Belgian beer is some of the best in the world, I cannot help but think that Europe in general is stuck in a beer rut. The only real taste advances in beer is happening in America. It's about the taste -- not the tradition. Get over it already and start enjoying the many varieties of 'beer' from every country (even Italy -- yeah, yeah, I know).

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Why Anheuser-Busch called it "Budweiser"

    Because no one would buy "Horse Piss in a Can".

  30. blah 5
    Pint

    MMMMmmmmMMMMmmmm beeeerr....

    American microbreweries and smaller brewing companies have been going through a quiet transformation combined with incredible growth since the '70s. If you can't get a good local brew anywhere in the U.S. it's because you're not trying. I'm partial to James Page (Wisconsin), Summit (Minnesota), Fat Tire (Colorado), Bigamy (Utah. Motto is "Because one is not enough!"), Anchor Steam (San Francisco), Leinenkugel (Wisconsin again), and a couple from Michigan whose names escape me.

    Mind you, all of the above, except for Anchor Steam, are breweries with many lines, not just a single brand. Summit, for example, puts out a stout that I'll stack up to any other. :-)

    1. disgruntled yank

      Leinenkugel

      I'm pretty sure that one has been around for a long time. But since you seem to know the upper Midwestern beers, is Augsburger still going strong?

  31. Joe User
    Thumb Down

    Local nickname for U.S. Budweiser

    We didn't call it "Butt Wiper" for nothing....

  32. JB
    Thumb Up

    Reason Prevails!

    Could you imagine a Czech company marching into an American company waving writs about saying "that name belongs to us"? It seems to be a one-way street. Glad sense prevailed, though, and the best beer won!

    As for American beer, the big names have done a great job of giving it a bad name. Scratch the surface and there are some fantastic brews about Stateside. The Sierra Nevada beers are great, especially the aptly-named Torpedo (7.2%!). I once tried a Bud, just to give it a chance, but it really was just yellow water - even the dog wouldn't touch it and preferred to drink out of the swimming pool! Still miss my Wadworths 6X and Bishop's Finger, though. :(

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    You can edit your details. Not you? Then log in here.

    Shouldn't the win be against InBev?

  34. kain preacher

    budweiser

    Is what you drink when you are drunk or dying of thirst..

  35. Captain Thyratron

    It's all about standards.

    The trouble with American beer is one of standards. A lot of very good beers here do exist, but you have to go out of your way to find them, and to mention them in the wrong company may earn you the reputation of a snob. If all you've ever encountered have been things like Coors or Budweiser, you might start thinking like an American, by which I mean you might hold the following peculiar and erroneous beliefs:

    * Beer should be drunk while it is cold, because beer is never good at room temperature. More specifically, it should be cold enough that numbness partially obscures the flavor. The exception to this is the case that you are already drunk enough that vile flavors no longer affect you.

    * You aren't supposed to like the taste of beer. Its purpose is inebriation and nothing more, unless you are some kind of snob or something. If you complain about the taste, you are a wuss and probably gay[1].

    * This is normal. Obviously, our beer is good beer, because we are good at everything.

    * What's with Europeans? How can they stand to drink beer that isn't cold? Why, when our beer isn't cold, it tastes like a bladder infection diluted with club soda; as per the previous erroneous belief, surely our beers compare favorably to European beers.

    * It's good enough for me. Why ain't it good enough for you? You think you're better than me or something?

    [1] No discussion of American beer culture (which I realize sounds kind of like "Egyptian snowboarding") is complete without at least a passing mention of homophobia.

    1. Hud Dunlap
      Coat

      beer at room temperature?

      In Texas with out AC that would be close to a hundred in the summer. And when we have one of our heat waves even commercial buildings have trouble getting below eighty. I am not drinking a beer at room temperature.

      Mines the one with the ice chest in it.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rice ?

    is the secret ingredient of Anheuser-Busch Budweiser.

    All this is actually bad news for Budvar lovers since it was the threat of Anheuser-Busch buyout that was keeping the brewery in state ownership. The present Czech government would love to sell it to some multinational - none except Anheuser-Busch wanted it until the trademark dispute was sorted. We all know what happens when these people get hold of a beer. Many years ago Stella used to be drinkable ...

  37. copsewood
    Pint

    nanobrew versus manufactured beer

    I do know an American who brews serious ale, because I sent him my recipe. Not that the sg 1070 (about 8% by volume alcohol) ale I brew in a 25 litre bucket before bottling it is for sale. But at that strength, you need a longer maturation in the bottle than a commercial brewery would afford. Also, top quality beer has to be naturally conditioned, but few people know how to pour it properly nowadays, and beer with yeast at the bottom of the bottle hasn't been available commercially for decades.

    Apart from better beer, the other advantages of nanobrew include no tax and more energy efficient bottle reuse multiple times, as opposed to massively energy-wasteful bottle recycling.

    1. Cpt Blue Bear

      beer with yeast at the bottom of the bottle

      It's a big seller around here, I was drinking it last night. It's called Cooper's Pale Ale. You can find it just about anywhere in Aus and I'm reliably informed that it can be found as far as Oxford (no idea where) and San Diego (somewhere near the navy base, FWIW). Try the Sparkling Ale and the Stout while your at it, but steer clear of anything that isn't an ale - it's just a marketting excercise.

      One of the marvelous things about beer is that you can travel the whole world without drinking the mass produced cat's piss of the major brewers. So many beers, so little liver (or rather, such an enlarged one...)

    2. TeraTelnet
      Pint

      American beer with yeast at bottom?

      A couple of years ago I sampled a bottle of Blue Moon beer (which I think is from the Coors brewing company, oddly) and as I recall there was sediment at the bottom of the bottle - would that have been yeast?

  38. LateNightLarry
    Paris Hilton

    Manufactured beer...

    I generally don't bother with the horse piss product from the major American "brewers"... It's easier where I live to sample a different wine every day... and I can go something like two years without sampling the same wine twice... If I expand my search area to take in the adjoining counties, I have about four years of new wines to sample...

    We do have a couple of microbreweries, and one larger brewery that took over the sake plant a couple of years ago... It's building a reputation for producing a decent brewski...

    Paris, cause I'd enjoy going winery hopping with her for a couple of years... or at least a couple of weeks.

  39. John Burton

    I quite like it

    I quite like US Budweiser. /shrug

  40. Martin H Watson

    Even better thab Budwar is...

    ...unfiltered, unpasteurised Budwar. We found it in a bar in Prague. It was incredible. The landlord even took us down into the cellar to explain it all to us.

  41. mhenriday
    Pint

    Švejk's favourite pub

    served Velkopopovický - good enough for me !...

    Henri

    1. chuckc
      Pint

      this is a reply

      Excellent reference, and I love Velkopopovicky and Kozel.

      Gratulujeme, chlape!

  42. Hans 1
    Boffin

    3 glasses test

    1 Buweiser Budvar

    2 US Budweiser

    3 Light sparkling water

    Drink a sip of 1, then 2, then 1 again and then 3 ... if anybody can taste a diff between 1 -> 2 and 1->3 he gets all the respect, I couldn't ... the second sip always tasted like water!

    My fav is Duvel! But I like Pilsner as well ... ;-) and German Alt is also nice ...

  43. andy gibson

    Decent US Beer

    Aldi recently had a "US Food" theme and were selling Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada ales for a reasonable price.

  44. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    And the old joke is...

    Beer makes you smart...

    ...It made Budweiser. (ching boom, Hoy)

    errmm...

    Can someone pass me the coat with the Kelham Island Pale Rider in the pocket please.

    Ta

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