Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2003 10:25 pm
Hi Gang,
I spent a few days in Zurich, Switzerland last week, just thought I would post a little info for the curious.
From a beer perspective, I wasn't particularly interested in Switzerland as from whatever I was reading on the 'net, the Swiss weren't particularly interested in beer there (as opposed to chocolate, cheese or army knives...)
Well it was pretty much as I expected. I did try a variety of locally-brewed beers, but they were entirely unmemorable.
The most commonly found beer (in the Zurich area anyway) was http://www.feldschloesschen.com/ - this translates to "Small Castle beside the Field" or something like that... Anyhow, their main product - a lager beer was a pretty typical, bland offering. It was so sad that when I'd go into a bar or restaurant and realize that they had nothing interesting, I'd just order a 'beer', not even worth the effort of trying to communicate with the mostly non-english speaking staff in an attempt to see if they had something more interesting available.
At the airport lounge on the return flight, I had a few 'Swiss Mountain' beers, once again, pretty much the same thing -
http://www.appenzellerbier.ch/eng/detail/detail15.htm
The night before, I popped into the Grocery Store, and found they had Leffe, the Brown, Blonde and one other (can't remember the name now), they were only 2.40 each (Swiss Francs are almost at par with Canadian $). I was amazed at despite how expensize the area was in general ($4 for a coffee!), beer was relatively inexpensive. At the same store as I bought the Leffe, you could get a 6 pack of 500ml cans of some German lager for $4.50!! They also packaged the local swiss bottled beers in plastic 'milk crate' type containers, I guess returnable for a deposit, that was kind of neat...
Anyhow, sorry for the rather drab commentary, but hey, it was a rather drab experience (from a beer lover's perspective anyhow...)
It was great to get home and enjoy pale ales again
I spent a few days in Zurich, Switzerland last week, just thought I would post a little info for the curious.
From a beer perspective, I wasn't particularly interested in Switzerland as from whatever I was reading on the 'net, the Swiss weren't particularly interested in beer there (as opposed to chocolate, cheese or army knives...)
Well it was pretty much as I expected. I did try a variety of locally-brewed beers, but they were entirely unmemorable.
The most commonly found beer (in the Zurich area anyway) was http://www.feldschloesschen.com/ - this translates to "Small Castle beside the Field" or something like that... Anyhow, their main product - a lager beer was a pretty typical, bland offering. It was so sad that when I'd go into a bar or restaurant and realize that they had nothing interesting, I'd just order a 'beer', not even worth the effort of trying to communicate with the mostly non-english speaking staff in an attempt to see if they had something more interesting available.
At the airport lounge on the return flight, I had a few 'Swiss Mountain' beers, once again, pretty much the same thing -
http://www.appenzellerbier.ch/eng/detail/detail15.htm
The night before, I popped into the Grocery Store, and found they had Leffe, the Brown, Blonde and one other (can't remember the name now), they were only 2.40 each (Swiss Francs are almost at par with Canadian $). I was amazed at despite how expensize the area was in general ($4 for a coffee!), beer was relatively inexpensive. At the same store as I bought the Leffe, you could get a 6 pack of 500ml cans of some German lager for $4.50!! They also packaged the local swiss bottled beers in plastic 'milk crate' type containers, I guess returnable for a deposit, that was kind of neat...
Anyhow, sorry for the rather drab commentary, but hey, it was a rather drab experience (from a beer lover's perspective anyhow...)
It was great to get home and enjoy pale ales again