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SteelbackGuy wrote:This may not be all that exciting news to a lot of us, but I am all for some of the Euro lagers that we currently get. If there are one or two half decent ones that will be available on top of what we already have, I'm game.
Besides, we can imagine that these lagers will somehow help us get in the pants of some very hot eastern european women.
Maybe not, but can imagine it eh? Woah. Milla Jovovich, dude! So hot for a chick with barely any boobs. Right on. Slivutavychykiavych beer!!!!
For all the complaints we have about this province, it must be rough being a craft drinker in one of these ethnic countries.
Why we're buying this stuff, I'll never fully understand.
"We" as in bar towelers, or as in lovers of craft beer aren't buying this, nor are we the target market.
The LCBO likes to have a representation of a wide varieties of countries to appeal to our multi-cultural society. You'd be shocked if I told you how much of the Euro Lagers we sell at my store. Literally by the case, and we sell ouy of most of them by the end of most weekends.
If you`re reading this, there`s a 15% chance you`ve got a significant drinking problem. Get it fixed, get recovered!
I tried the Yanjing in China. You would really have to be loyal to the PRC to go out of your way for one of those. The tapwater is not considered safe but is generally a tastier bet than the Yanjing
It's also not too common to find a cold beer there. Lukewarm or on ice it still tastes almost as bad as a Coors Light.
Yanjing makes me think of Tiger, and Tiger makes me think of stupid nights in Singapore with the accompaniment of really bad, but only just affordable beer.
Magni wrote:Yanjing makes me think of Tiger, and Tiger makes me think of stupid nights in Singapore with the accompaniment of really bad, but only just affordable beer.
Tiger is light years ahead of Yanjing, and at least you can also get good beer in Singapore if you don't like the Tiger!
To be fair, I had a couple good homebrews sold from street corner carts in China. I don't know how badly I might of poisoned myself, but they were tasty and probably safer than the factory beers. I happily risk street food in interesting places, so street beer was a real treat.
I wonder if we could ever get somethihg like that approved in Toronto...not bloody likely
In thinking of which of the new range to try first, I thought Cisk and Mahou might offer some interest. I've had Mahou in Spain and it was a good, well-hopped commercial lager. I haven't seen it on the shelves yet, however.
Cisk is from Malta. Its British associations led to Simonds Farsons being established there which brewed in an English way. Its Hop Leaf was mentioned favourably in Jackson's earliest books, a milk stout too.
Today those are still made but lager is of course a big seller and Cisk Export is I would think the flagship of the brewery for that style.
It is an excellent beer and despite being exported in cans and (presumably) pasteurised, it retains a fresh, malty character. The hops are the flowery type that said to me anyway "Southern England". The beer is a kind of hybrid I think of English beer and Continental lager, not in the sense of using top-fermentation (I don't get an aleish/estery taste from it), but in the hop character which seems generally of an English type. The result is very nice and if I read the date codes right, it is only a couple of months old or so and will drink well for some time.
Look, I appreciate the LCBO bringing in product from the far corners of the globe, really I do, but 6 beers that collectively have scored between 3 and 13 on Ratebeer? I just wonder what the point is, particularly if they're considering adding these as regular offerings?
Greg, you didn't want us to bash the LCBO in this thread, and I'm not, I'm just wondering what this accomplishes.
I don't always piss in a bottle but when I do...I prefer to call it Dos Equis.
Jon Walker wrote:Look, I appreciate the LCBO bringing in product from the far corners of the globe, really I do, but 6 beers that collectively have scored between 3 and 13 on Ratebeer? I just wonder what the point is, particularly if they're considering adding these as regular offerings?
Greg, you didn't want us to bash the LCBO in this thread, and I'm not, I'm just wondering what this accomplishes.
Well, there's certainly a market, as Steelback was saying. While I was waiting for the kindly old man at Orleans to find my Rogue Dead Guy (unsuccessful, I couldn't convince him that they were bottled six packs rather than cans, AFTER he checked the computer, and he simply refused to check for bottles in the back) there was an Eastern European fella going over the Euro lagers as though he was looking at a wonderful display of the best french wines, it was truly bizarre. They all taste the same!!! We take alot of flak as Canadians for believing "our" brands are the best, but it's nothing compared to the pride the former Soviet citizens take in their shite.
Well, I get what your saying but it still makes little sense in the broader scale. Look at it this way...
You bring in a beer that is both bad AND niche to a small ethnic group. Why? Exactly how many Maltese beer drinkers are there in Ontario? Enough to justify the addition of that beer? Will an inferior Maltese beer really catch on with Joe Sixpack who won't even trade his Blue for a Stonehammer? At least the inclusion of a beer like ST IPA, while arguably also serving a niche market (beer geeks) raises the bar in terms of quality of offering. As has been seen with some of the Belgian beers available through the LCBO, eventually some of the quality ones build a new market share because quality eventually gets noticed.
Can that be said for ANY of these ethnic beers? It's both a money loser and a waste of valuable shelf space IMHO.
I don't always piss in a bottle but when I do...I prefer to call it Dos Equis.
I see what you're saying, they do get too much shelf space generally, but ask Len, or any LCBO employee, and they'll tell you that the 'ethnic' stuff tends to sell. Ontario of course has a lot of immigrants from all over the World, and they tend to be loyal to their country's beer representative(s). Here in KW, there's a lot of people who came from Bosnia and the region, and you know what sells out all the time now? Nektar Pivo. A friend of mine came from Poland when she was 2, and you know what her parents stock their fridges with? Okocim, as well as all the other Polish brands.
I also don't think it's entirely fair to say that the quality of these beers is questionable. Some, not all, but some are actually really good, and well made. Saying they must be bad because they have low ratings on RB is also not fair. I've had plenty of low rated beers that were great. Keep in mind RB is not the universal authority on what is actually good and what isn't.
